Bully says: "I'm not a mean person"

[Quantess]

A group of teenagers harrassed, intimidated, and threatened a teenage girl who eventually committed suicide because of the nonstop bullying. One of the bullies appeared on tv to tell us all what a great person she is:

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9781587-bullied-girls-suicide-has-ongoing-impact

Yes it's a few months old but I found it apropos to the current events.

[Javaman]

1. bullies are like that.

lack of empathy makes them unable to discern between mean and nice.

[Quantess]

2. The video makes me angry, honestly.

She denies bullying behavior, and her mother is there for the camera saying that she wants to protect her daughter from these mean accusations that people are making about her daughter (who viciously harrassed Phoebe Prince for months).

The mean girl cries on tv because people are now harrassing her and bullying her. She shows absolutely no remorse whatsoever! And neither does the mother!

[Javaman]

4. the kid is a manipulator and the mom is enabler. nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. I wonder if they really aren't cognizant of the hurt they inflict?

I know bullying is as old as humanity but for the life of me I cannot understand how it endures as a human institution.

[Quantess]

7. It's amazing. She seems to be in complete denial.

She helped drive a girl to suicide after months of torment, and yet she insists that she's being maligned. No, she's actually a nice person, she insists.

She has no remorse, none.What will it take? She harrassed and tormented someone so relentlessly that they killed themselves, and yet she doesn't feel bad about what she did. She has no compassion for anyone except herself.

[seabeyond]

5. there is so much in here, and it is in no way simple. with ALL the ugly of this situation

this is the results of stupid, for all of them.

i read an article on a man that was protecting his GF. he hit a man that was being aggressive, and verbally abusive to the GF. one hit, the man fell on the sidewalk, hit his head and died. there could be no reasonable expectation this is what is caused.

in the situation with this bullying, and i am a firm believe it was absolutely bully and mean, ugly and nasty, the death could not be a reasonable expectation.

we have so many conversations on du, in RL where we talk past each other. really do not listen to each other. we dont take the time to feel what the other is saying, try to see from another perspective.

it is sounding like this was the same situation. a do over. but we do not get do overs.

i dont think it is as easy as some of the posters suggest.

[Quantess]

6. No, of course not everyone who endures a several-month-long campaign of bullying

commits suicide.

But we would like to see a little self-reflection on the bully's part. We would like to see some pondering, some deep thinking, maybe a turn-around. Acknowledging, "my words and actions hurt that person". Some humility. Is that too much to ask?

Instead, here we see that the bully hasn't learned a thing!

What does it take?! She helped drive someone to suicide, and she only feels sorry for herself!

I never bullied anyone and was never bullied, but I look back and feel sorry that I didn't stick up for the bullying victims. I look back and I feel bad that I may have snickered at people who were outcasts, while I was with my group of friends. That's because I have a heart.

But not this girl in the video. She has zero compassion.

[seabeyond]

9. i think that is hearing what you want to hear. because i heard this girl say

if i had known what she was going thru, i would not have said what i did. i would have tried to help her. i was seeing it from my friends view. i was standing up for my friend. i did not realize what the other girls was going thru. i would have tried to help her if i knew.

so it is not like she did not get it.

she said it was mean.

then did she back away, yes.

but i expected a cold heartless account from the posters. that is not what i heard.

[Quantess]

10. Maybe she and her mother came across badly in the interview?

That is possible. All anyone really wants, is for her to learn from this. I don't think she's there, yet. It may take a few more years of maturity. She will get there, I hope.

Sticking up for a friend: great, but, there are limits. She was one of the main bullies, so she obviously got more out of it than just sticking up for a friend.
I used to defend some of my dumb high school friends, too, but I never did anything mean like that.

But you understood that she was crying for herself mostly, right? Now she is being bullied. Oh, these mean people picking on lil' ol' me! I could be wrong, but... she still doesn't get it!

[seabeyond]

12. "she was crying for herself mostly, right?" i get that.

i was putting self in play all thru the interview. i get what the mom was saying, .... but, i dont think i would have addressed from daughters position. i would have been saying the horror of it all and something we will have with us for a lifetime.... the wrong that was done to that girl. i would never want child to forget the lesson. and i would not want it to take child down to where it is a lifetime of fuck up or even... resort to ending it all out of guilt.

but there would be a need to own the results and behavior.

[Quantess]

13. I see where you're coming from and I agree...

they have a lifetime to think about their consequences.

[LeftinOH]

8. All bullies are "nice people"; just ask any of their friends

or family members. That's how it works.

[Gemini Cat]

11. Sorry kid, but you're mean.

What a festering pile of crap.

[Initech]

14. "Oh I'm not a mean person..." Yeah right.

Thats like "I'm not racist, but....."