Casey Haynes, bullies, parents and the hypocrisy of YouTube

It’s been a busy week for viral videos, there’s the child laughing at mom blowing her nose, that strange creature with an umbrella and Casey Haynes getting bullied at school.  The first two were great to see, but the bullying video has really taken on a life of its own for many reasons.

Background

Casey Haynes had been getting bullied at school for quite some time.  A bully (who was physically smaller than Casey) started to punch Casey and dance around him as if in a boxing match while his friends cheered him on.   Casey grabbed the bully, picked him up and body slammed him to the ground.  It was then that one of bully’s friends stepped in and broke up the fight, leaving Casey to walk away and the original bully to stagger to the wall.

I was never bullied as a kid, but I can appreciate the video.   Apparently this particular case had been going on for a while and it would’ve been nice for the school to get involved.  Casey’s parents had taught him that if he’s picked on to just walk away.  Still, knowing all of the above I liked seeing the bully get what he deserved.

The Punishment and Apology

Aside from the physical punishment that the bully took, both of the boys were suspended from school for 4 days.  An incorrect media report went out that stated that the bully’s mother wanted an apology from Casey.   This report has since been corrected in the media and the mother in fact wants an apology from her son to everybody involved.

Good for the mother.  This boy needs to apologize to everyone, go on Oprah with Casey and continue to make amends for a long time.  If his parents have any sort of caliber then the boy is doing more chores, grounded for a long time and has his non essential electronics taken away and sold on eBay.

Unfortunately the bully and his family are also receiving threats.   The school system is also considering pressing charges against Casey.

I can understand the 4 day suspension for both boys.  The mob mentality behind the threats to the bully’s family is based on emotion and should not happen.  In this case two wrongs do not make a right.  The possible future charges against Casey are an outrage as the boy was clearly defending himself.

The Video

I originally saw the video on a news site.  Later that same day I was on a site that linked the video to YouTube and clicked because I wanted to see it again.  This time though, I couldn’t watch the video because it had been banned because it had been banned under YouTube’s TOS (Terms of Service).  Apparently YouTube was concerned about other youth taking on this sort of vigilante justice against the people bullying them.

The banning of the video has yielded many copies of it taped from television, re-created with puppets, cartoons, poster boards and more.  After a bit of looking I finally found a copy that I can embed.

YouTube is a private company and can have any policy that they like.  Granted there are other video sharing sites, but YouTube is far and away the biggest.

Since YouTube banned that video I decided to do a search for the most extreme, vile, hate filled videos on that site.  I won’t even mention the terms I used, but there was no shortage of death, torture, xenophobic, racist, terroristic videos out there that are enough to make the FBI wonder about my I.P. address.

YouTube, I like you, I really do.  But you ban a video from a bully getting his just desserts and leave up dozens of videos about Jihaddis who are bragging about how they will kill western people?  Oh, you also left up some videos on rape, racism, incest and lots of other topics that probably violate your TOS.

You are great YouTube, but play it straight and even.    Some of the videos that you have on your site only serve to divide people and sew hate.  You should have the courage to delete their accounts and the videos that they’ve posted.

When YouTube bans a video like a bully getting what he deserves it only makes me want to visit Vimeo, who controls their content to a greater degree.