To think being bullied doesn't justify stabbing someone in the face?

[Topaz25]

So this article popped up in my newsfeed today. Teenager stabs girl in the face and beats another black and blue because they called him HARRY POTTER
www.facebook.com/dailymirror/posts/552566581523132

I was shocked at the amount of comments defending him! I was bullied as a child so I do understand it is devastating but that doesn't justify stabbing someone in the face! He didn't just lash out in the moment, he went home to get a knife to cause maximum damage, he lead the girls to the park, he thought this through. He is a danger to the public. I am also surprised at the sentence, I think stabbing someone in the face while shouting "die, die!" indicates intent to kill and should have been charged accordingly. I do wonder if his supporters would want to live next to him when he gets out or have him round to dinner since he is so misunderstood? I don't agree with bullying but when he attacked two younger girls I feel he effectively became the bully, it was a massive overreaction to the situation and he had other options. AIBU?

They are not 'young girls'. They are plenty old enough to understand that if you push someone to the edge then all they can do is go over or push back.

My child is permanently scared - by a bully.

If he had lashed out with something to hand then that would have been consistent with someone "snapping".

Rather, he went to his flat, got a deadly weapon and used sustained and severe violence.

That to me suggests an element of pre-meditation.

The girls have their own responsibility for what happened for their actions too.

Calani If you're incessently bullied, it's understandable that you may snap and hit the person with whatever is closest to hand - that is the result of bullying. Going home, getting a knife and then seeking out the other people to "pay them back" is not an instinctive response to bullying, it's calculated and scary, a lot like the mass shootings in schools in the US

That is a very good point.

I was bullied at school from the age of seven until I dropped out at fifteen (by which time I was basically a walking zombie - I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, I didn't go to classes, I didn't speak to anyone, I pretty much just sat in the toilets and cried). I took out my anger and sadness on myself, self harming from the age of twelve, up until DS1 came along when I was twenty. I am literally scarred for life by the way the bullies made me feel and sometimes I wish they could be too. I suffered a total mental breakdown and spent eighteen months drunk every day, taking copious amounts of drugs, self harming and barely eating or sleeping. If I had seen someone who bullied me at school I have no idea what I could have done to them.

My DH was bullied at school too, by lots of his classmates but by one boy in particular who would hold him down and punch/kick him repeatedly, almost every day. My DH left school at sixteen and didn't see that boy again for almost six years, and then we ran into him in a pub one day. He called my DH a name and made a joke about him 'still having a face for kicking'.. my DH lost his temper, kicked him in the ribs, and broke one of them.

The point of all that ^^ is to say that bullying can really mess with someone's head. It chips away at you bit by bit and it ruins your life, and it can drive you crazy. I feel sorry for the girls who have been hurt but I feel sorry for the guy who was bullied too. He needs help, not condemning.

I should add - my DH is not a violent man, I have never seen him lose his temper like that before or since. It was just that one person who had made his life hell, and he couldn't deal with seeing him again.

Yeah the 'young girls' description is incredibly stupid.

The girl in this case:
www.liveleak.com/view?i=9bb_1358397910&comments=1
was ELEVEN

www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/wishaw-girl-12-punches-taller-boy-five-times-in-internet-film.1358340981

and the victim is twice her size.

I don't believe that it was pre meditated just because he went back in for a knife.

He snapped, must have appeared calm on the outside but mentally he'd had enough. Just beacuse reaction are not immidiate doesn't mean that he thought about it - he just did it.

When you have been pushed and pushed to your absolute limit it's hard to say how you would react and at a point you just stop thinking, everything goes blank and angry. It's scarey, not just because you did it, but because you know how that's how you react when pushed far enough and there could be a possibility of it happening again.

I haven't read the article and don't really want to. But those girls have nobody but themselves to blame. They'll think twice about bullying in future.

*scary

So I'm thinking that everyone defending this man (yes, at 19 he is a man, not a boy) stabbing two young girls would also think school shootings in the US are justified also? After all it must have served the victims right?

If he had been in the US and had access to guns what do you think he would have chosen as a weapon? To knife someone in the head is horrific and the actions of a total psycho who needs locking up. And I fucking hate bullies. He is also a bully. A violent one who attacked younger, weaker victims. He should have got a lot longer.

They had plenty of chances to walk away and leave him

He chucked water on them and yet they still stood outside his house and when he came out again followed him and spat at him.

No he shouldnt have stabbed them obviously but I dont have any sympathy for those girls.

If they were my daughters id be ashamed of them

15 and 16 isn't "young". He shouldn't have stabbed them, but they're not innocent, playful, ickle things.

Seems clear to me that they have been harassing him for a while. That was how the court concluded that he knew they would follow him to the park.

I think the mother needs to take a good hard look at herself, and her assumption that name-calling is part of life.

Marjorie - He is also a bully. A violent one who attacked younger, weaker victims. He should have got a lot longer

Wrong - he is a VICTIM. If you don't know the difference, well you jolly well should.

With respect Marjorie that is rubbish, and comparing this to US school shootings is absurdly stupid.

I think those defending him are the ones who have been on the receiving end of sustained long term bullying. Unless you have been in that position you will never understand why he reacted the way he did.

They are not innocent, weak young girls - they are old enough to know what they were doing, old enough to know better and should have been old enough to know when to back the hell off, like when he threw the water at them to get them to leave him alone - that was a warning, they ignored it and carried on. They didn't deserve getting stabbed in the face but they had it coming to them.

Farrow It's that slow burn thing, isn't it. You suddenly get to a point where all you feel is anger and a desire to defend yourself.

Innocent weak young girls who followed him to the park with the specific intention of tormenting him? Who called him names and spat in his face?

They might be younger but so what? That makes them immune, means they should be able to spit at and torment people who are older than them?

That's the one.

I suffer from it and can feel it rising, it's scary. I have to walk away or do something that I'll end up regretting. There's only so many times you can warn or tell people to leave you alone when that happens...if they continue to piss you off..well..

Did you just compare rape to calling someone Harry Potter and grabbing their bag? Did you really just do that?

Not in the way you mean but if you don't understand the difference then feel free to be physically sick or hold your breath til you go blue. Whatever usually works for you.

He then went back into the flat and re-emerged with a vegetable knife before walking to a local park - knowing the girls would follow him.

How did he know? The only way would be if they always followed him. So he was being bullied and stalked. Something that also carries a prison sentence.

He was wrong and he says so himself, but it's possible to see it was wrong and understand how someone could be driven to it.

I think he is the victim not them.
The article makes out they are the victim but to actually follow someone home and bully them outside their flat is evil behaviour.

It also says in the article he took the knife and headed to the park as he knew they'd be following.

This wasn't just teasing the playground type bullying this was full on harassment.

I don't believe they deserved to be stabbed but they definitely deserved something.
IMO he should have gone to the police instead of retaliating but I can imagine it's easy to snap with that level of harassment

DanceParty Wrong - he is a VICTIM. If you don't know the difference, well you jolly well should

There are some really odd people on here.

I wonder how different some of the responses would be if he was a girl (not allowed to use the word "young") who followed two boys to the park, stabbed one and beat the other.

Treating men like little emperors who can do no wrong does no good in society at all. I am astonished that so many people on here cannot distinguish between a violent criminal act and alleged name calling.

An awful lot of school shootings have been carried out by people who gave been bullied. They differ in that the violence unleashed is indiscriminate and a couple of black eyes is not the same as being shot dead. I wouldn't say mass shootings, or violence generally is 'justified' but when we choose to say nothing when bullying starts then we choose the fallout when the victim finished it. Our actions have an impact and so do our inactions. These un-young girls chose to push and push, even after he had thrown water on them (not the equivalent of a mass shooting) they still followed him.
Asking for it? - No
Justified?- Not really
But seriously, it's like taunting a dog. Do if enough and you'll get bitten. You can't go through life being a massive twat on the assumption that it's everyone else's job to be restrained and be the bigger man. You can't step out on zebra crossings without looking on the basis that it's the job of the driver to stop. Well you can but you'll have to be self righteous in traction.

With respect Marjorie that is rubbish, and comparing this to US school shootings is absurdly stupid. Why? In the case of the one in California that was directly linked to the shooter being bullied. People don't have access to guns here like they do in the States, so I don't see the comparison as absurd at all.

MarjorieChardem it's absurd to say 'but what if he gunned down a school full of innocent kids'. He didn't do that.

Two specific bullies chose to follow him in order to bully him. It's not comparable with shooting up a school.

It's not necessarily the case that he's a total psycho, I can't say that my son (now 11) if exposed to 8 years of bullying wouldn't do the same thing. That's not to say that my son is a total psycho, just that having that happen would fuck with anyone's head.

As it happens I'm fortunate that

(a) I don't live in a block of flats, I live in a nice detached house in a nice road without any bullies
(b) my son goes to a private school and though he is vulnerable to bullying, his school is very sheltered
(c) I can afford to protect him (move school, move house, whatever) from this

so my son will I hope never be exposed to this.

This boy didn't have that, he lived in a really shitty part of Southampton and his parent(s) probably were not financially in a position to protect him from that.

According to the comments here: www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/10750700.Residents_tell_of_their_shock_after_attack_on_teenage_girls/, this man (like my son) has a form of autism and it would perhaps have been the cumulative effect of years of this bullying that got to him.

That doesn't justify stabbing people, but it does explain things a little better than calling people psycho.

My guess is the real problem in this area is widespread anti-social behaviour, affecting many vulnerable people (not just this man), but it suits some people just to write him off as a 'psycho' and ignore the wider social problems.

It's bloody horrible to have a vile child living next door to you who goes out of their way to make your life a living hell every time you, your DP or your DS step out the door.

You can see where they get it from when you hear their parents who don't give a fuck.

The police don't give a fuck.

Social housing don't give a fuck.

She knew no one would or could stop her.

This was a pre teen to teenage girl and I am a mid 40s woman!

Thank god her family moved away.

I don't condone his actions but I bloody understand how he was driven to it.