Bullying. What a great buzzword. Everyone hates a bully. The “fight against bullying” plays into our “be scared of everything” national psyche. Schoolyard bullying. Cyber-bullying. And lets all run out and pass new laws… because that’s how the land of the free deals with its problems. The academic circle jerk mangina crowd loves the concept. It lets them whine into their cheerios, warm over their research gathered at the last international association of crybabies conference, and somehow get a few publications out of the deal.
Fuck that. Casey Heynes shows us how you deal with a bully.
I got a lesson in bullying when I was a kid. I was afraid of breaking the rules, and the rules prohibited fighting. I didn’t like getting my ass kicked either, but I was less afraid of an ass kicking in school than an ass kicking at home. So, I didn’t break the rules and fight. I just got my ass kicked. One day, I went to my grandparents’ house after school, with a fresh black eye from an ass kicking I got from a much bigger kid who picked on me a lot.
My grandfather asked me “did you start it?”
My answer “no, the other kid did.”
My grandfather said “You go to that school tomorrow. As soon as you see that kid, you run up to him and punch him as hard as you can.”
I was really confused. “But Papa, I’ll get in trouble, AND he’ll beat me up again.”
Papa shouted “if you DON’T do it, you’ll be in trouble with me.”
That was the only time my grandfather ever said anything that scared me.
So the next day, I did what he said. And, my prediction came true. I got my ass kicked. When the teachers broke it up, everyone said “Marc started it.” So I got an ass kicking and I got sent to detention. That sucked.
I went to my grandparents’ house after detention. My grandfather asked me what happened. I told him, “I hit him, he beat me up, and then I got detention. Just like I told you would happen!”
My grandfather reached into his pocket, gave me $5, and told me “that’s a good boy.”
I was very confused at that point.
But, that kid never picked on me again. Years later, he and I became friends, and he confessed that after that day, he was terrified of me. I was baffled… “why, you kicked my ass two days in a row.” He said, “dude, exactly. I was twice your size, I kicked your ass, and the next time I saw you, you came charging at me like a berzerker. The next day, I figured you’d come at me with a bat or something. I figured that you were just waiting for your chance.”
That’s the thing: Bullying only works if the bully thinks that the victim won’t fight back. That is something my grandfather had to teach me. Casey Heynes learned it himself. Good on you, Casey.
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The Legal Satyricon 
When I first saw the Casey Heynes video, my first thought was, “I’ll bet Marc Randazza has a new hero, to go alongside Epic Bearded Man.”
To the dozen or so people who don’t know what this post is about (YouTube is removing the videos left and right), here’s a link, with video in the sidebar.
Casey Heynes is a hero to bullied kids everywhere, and the so-called “experts” who are clicking their tongues over a kid standing up for himself need to be run out of town on a rail.
In a matter of seconds, Casey Heynes dealt with a bully in a far more productive manner than hours of school assemblies and teacher lectures could ever do.
“He should have gone for help – told a teacher.” – Fuck that. Instead of having a reputation as a snitch, Casey Heynes now has a reputation as someone who won’t take any shit from bullies. Good for him.
If my children complain of being bullied, I am going to show them a clip from Oz and make it very clear what victims like Beecher eventually do to bullies like Schillinger.
Hey Jack thanks for posting your story. I went through a similar situation when I was a kid, albeit with slightly different circumstances. There was a bully two years older than me who was twice my size. On a daily basis he would spew out racial slurs and hit me in the back of the head. He was always with a group of friends that would back him up, knowing that I wouldn’t retaliate.
On one particular afternoon I had enough and swore back at him which then prompted his buddies to challenge the both of us to a fight. I was scared shitless as I was a skinny 98 pound weakling. As we gathered in a park after school ready to fight, I could actually sense that he was much more frightened than I. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or my sensing his fear, but as soon we started fighting, I punched him the mouth as hard as could and almost knocked out his front teeth. He was bleeding profusely and instead of continuing to punch him, I freaked out and started to cry. He stood there stunned and through a couple of punches that only grazed my head. At that point, he simply got up and left. Much to my amazement, his friends congratulated me and I was never picked on again by that or any other group.
As an adult (now) I don’t consider myself a violent person even though I get into the odd scuffle playing ice hockey, but I support what Casey did. As with your experience, once a bully gets a taste of their own medicine, they stop bullying.
i have 4 sons and i one of them i have told many times when he comes how saying he has been bullied to go to school find the kid first thing in the morning grab him by the hair and punch him in the face then stand your ground my son said i can’t do that he’ll beat the crap out of me i said well it happen again and again if you don’t if you keep trying to deal with it then the bully is going to keep doing just that!!!!!
Correct. Even losing a fight to a bully is usually sufficient to put him back in his place.
And if there are 4 sons, nothing wrong with bringing your three brothers to your fight.
Papa FTW!
[…] have some thoughts at the Daily Beast about what Casey Heynes’ response to being informed that he’s fat might tell us about Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move […]
I had friends call the other day because their son was defending himself. School has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy so son got 1/2 day suspension. They are all upset about the suspension I sent them an email saying give him a hug, tell him you are proud of him and take him to the movie during his suspension.
I never was bullied despite the fact that I was always teeny tiny, and foreign. The mean girls weren’t mean to me. I don’t know why, but perhaps it’s because I barked pretty loud. If you ask my kids “what do you do when someone kicks you?” they answer “kick them back, harder.” This might be poor parenting on my part, but I’m ok with that.
It is anything but poor parenting. The poor parenting people are the wussy asses who want their kids to grow up to be wussy asses just like them.
YEAH! Tell ’em to kick some butt! Then they can grow up to be Republican congressmen! (Although apparently you escaped that sorry fate…)
I’d rather have self-help than teach my kids to run to the shelter of an authority figure any time they feel that they have been wronged.
There are people saying that Casey “shouldn’t have done that!” I say he handled it very well. He stood there and took that first shot. He gave that little punk a chance to walk away, then he put him on the ground, decisively, and stepped away. He did not try to continue the attack. He did not try to do more than was needed. He defended himself and that was that. — that little kid learned an important lesson. And if he somehow missed it, I hope he get’s another chance to figure it out.
I was told “You don’t start a fight, but you go ahead and finish it if you have to.”
Well done Casey. Well done.
My kids would be republicans as an act of rebellion. I know it.
When my mother was dying of cancer, she came up with some pretty good chemo jokes.
But some people need to be reminded: the fact that a joke is tasteless or “edgy” doesn’t mean it will be funny.
wrong post?
This Taiwanese animation sums up the Casey Heynes story quite nicely.
Casey did the right thing and should be commended not condemned for standing up for himself. The smaller kid/bully clearly got what he deserved, no, not wha he deserved as he deserved much more of an ass kicking.
I couldn’t have typed that better myself, fellow Casey supporter.
hi, it’s never good being bullied. i was bullied too when i was at school. a pal of mine is a self defence and personal safety expert and he gives his views of the casey heynes bullying incident here.
http://al-peasland.blogspot.com/2011/03/casey-heynes-bullied-fights-back.html
I also have a similar story. I was your typical good grade nerdy skinny white boy all threw my school years. Freshman year of highschool, I had one kid named Eddie who was a very large tongan football player. He would always smack me in the back of the head when he would walk in for science class. One day, I finally got fed up with it and decided I had enough so when he came in and smacked me in the head, I stood up and squared away with him face to face (or technically my face to his chest lol) He looked at me and said what are you gunna do (little did he know that I had taken martial arts from the age of 8) I turned around to act like I was sitting down and then caught him with a right hook sqauare in the jaw and knocked him out cold. The teacher of course sent me to the principal and him to the nurse however I explaned my situation to the principal and he understood because there had been complaints about this kid before.
After that, he never messed with me again.
Good on the kid in the video for standing up to a bully. Complaining doesnt do anything but egg the bully on more.
You are exactly right. I was bullied as a child, mainly by one kid. His name was Jack. He was a smaller little fuck with a Napoleon complex. I was much taller then he was, kinda skinny (at the time). After a few weeks of putting up with his crap I just wasn’t going to take it anymore. We were all in the gym to get of pictures taken. I was sitting by myself at the top of the bleachers near the edge of the bleachers. Jack saw his chance to impress his fellow degenerates and came over to me and knocked over my books that were stacked in front of me. A couple of them fell off the side of the bleachers onto the gym floor about 10 feet below. I told him “go get my books”. Jack said ” fuck you”. I picked him up and threw him off the bleachers in the same direction my books went. As he layer sprawled on the gym floor I yelled “no, fuck you!”. I looked at his puck ass friends and said “any of you want to go get my books?” They took off running. Needless to say I was never bullied again, not even once. And anytime I was walking through the halls and saw someone getting bullied, they took one look at me and stopped. Bullies feared me from that day on.
You and marcorandazza are my favorite reviewers in this article. I applaud you for what you did just as I applaud Casey for defeating that sorry little d**khead Richard Gale.
Since you typed that bullies feared you. I wish that they could fear me so much that they’ll never bully again.
To people saying that escalating a situation is a proper solution to bullying, I would suggest doing anything and everything to exit from whatever immediate danger there is and then calling the cops.
You do this sort of thing to the wrong person and they’ll be at your door with 6 other people with knives and guns. Speaking as someone who didn’t grow up in quaint little suburbia.
You’re an example of why there are total do-gooders in this day and age. Here’s how:
‘We should just tell on everyone who picks on us and be overly dependent on authority to solve our problems.”
If you give that advice to someone, that person gets in trouble, and tells whoever punishes him or her that you gave that advice, and where you are, you could be the one to answer for it.
Good luck in having sex with your a** kissers in jail.
@Huh has it right.
To all you brave keyboard warriors with your “I hit back and was never bullied again” anecdotes: it isn’t the 1950s anymore.
What worked for you on the shady streets of Mayberry doesn’t automatically transfer to the present day.
It just shows you know as little about real, modern-world violence as the limp-wristed academics who have condemned Heynes’ action.
I prefer to listen to guys like Al Peasland. (Thanks to @mike for posting the link.) Did any of you people stop agreeing with each other long enough to actually follow the link and read Peasland’s post?
Guys like Peasland, who spent decades bouncing in Britain and are still alive to tell the tale, know a thing or two about violence. (For you suburbanite cluebags, bouncing in Great Britain is NOT the same as bouncing in the States. Let’s just say the mortality rate for bouncers is considerably higher in there than it is here.)
So, keyboard warriors, are any of you LEOs, bouncers, bodyguards, or the like? Anyone spent years dealing with gangbangers, drug dealers, and assorted criminals? Anyone spent any time attempting to teach in an inner city school?
No?
Then toddle off to your safe, comfortable fantasy worlds, and stop voicing opinions on issues beyond your experience.
How deluded and hypocritical you are. Who are you tell others not to voice their opinions on issues beyond their experience? You’re not the boss. In case you haven’t, this is the Internet and anyone has the right to express anything he or she wants. Or do you not believe in the First Amendment? If not, don’t bother typing anything on here.
You blame people for being keyboard warriors when yourself act like one pathetic.
And you feel safe behind a computer typing yourself self-righteous tripe to people who you don’t feel sympathy for rather than say it to their faces. Such a coward you are and Huh are.
It’s seems obvious that you were never bullied and you think everyone should just lets bullies do whatever they want to them. I dare you to let bullies walk all over you and see if you’ll survive afterwards. Don’t be surprised if you get killed.
The point that I’m trying to make is, “Don’t f**k with victims or you might get your a** handed to you.”
What a self-righteous and deluded hypocrite you are. Go shove your goodie-goodie advice up your ass and fuck Huh.
[…] of this – a pudgy Australian kid was getting picked on by a classmate. So what does he do? He fights back. Now, I know your not supposed to condone violence and fighting isn’t the answer etc. But I […]
@Huh, SarahPalinIsEvil: Well, that’s why I live in a civilized country and state, have a concealed handgun license, and know how to use what I carry. Brandishing deadly weapons at me is a great way to get twelve new orifices. If all good people were willing to do the same thing, there would be no more violent crime.
I blame the parents for not teaching their child to behave. Bullying is a serious matter and I believe that Casey Heynes gave him what he deserved. He was provoked. You don’t punch someone in the face without getting that sort of response.
i think what casey heynes did was right way te go man you rock.:)
My kids would be republicans as an act of rebellion. I know it.
lol love the fake cliche story about your childhood
Bullsh*t on that life lesson. I tried that. I tried that my entire childhood. I was bullied constantly and every single time, school after school, district after district, state after goshdarn state they just kept at it.
No matter how many times I fought back, no matter how many fights and subsequent suspensions I got in, they always came back. It didn’t matter that I I regularly hit them in the face these people were gluttons for punishment. Dozens of people were proven to be masochists because my reaction was almost always violence.
You have one life experience; I have hundreds. Some people don’t care that you’ll fight back. Some people just like fighting. Some people enjoy the status claim the get at their school when they win a fight. Some people fight and fight and fight because they love it.
My parents were honestly concerned I’d die before I turned 18 I was so good at finding these people. Your suggestion ignores a broader reality than schoolyard pranks. Sometimes its the big guys doing the bullying and it has nothing to do with cowardice.
Your suggestion could honestly get someone killed if the right person follows it.
Sounds like the problem was you.
Casey Heynes did in 5 seconds what that little s***s parents failed to do for 14 years.