Families of Casey Heynes and "bully" both receive $40,000 for TV interviews

[KurtNYC]

Sydney schoolboys Casey Heynes and Ritchard Gale hit international headlines after their schoolyard fight was broadcast on the internet. The families of the two boys have reportedly made about $40,000 each after TV interviews on A Current Affair and Today Tonight following the incident.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/chifley-college-student-casey-heynes-bully-ritchard-gale-says-he-was-provoked/story-e6frea8c-1226026621695

Also in there is:
- Gale (the puncher) handed off his phone to a mate to record his assault,
- the boy who accepted the phone and recorded the fight got 20 days (Gale and Heynes got 4 days) suspension
- school officials are saying that the video and publicity makes it harder for them to deal with bullying

The interview with Gale is here. His father coaches him from off camera (as they reveal toward the end):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag-dv-Cb37o&NR=1

[speltwon]

1. I wouldn't put bully in scare quotes

I don't think there's any doubt at this point that the kid was a bully. Even if his only bullying incident was his relentless taunting and punching of the kid - he was a bully.

And he learned a valuable lesson.

[KurtNYC]

2. I think he learned that if you video your own beat down it is worth $40K

I disagree with 'bully' because what he did was premeditated assault. And videotaping it makes it worse.

He committed Assault and Battery:
In common law, criminal assault was an attempted battery. The elements of battery are (1) a volitional act<6> (2) done for the purpose of causing an harmful or offensive contact with another person or under circumstances that make such contact substantially certain to occur and (3) which causes such contact.<7> Thus throwing a rock at someone for the purpose of hitting him is a battery if the rock in fact strikes the person and is an assault if the rock misses. The fact that the person may have been unaware that the rock had been thrown at him is irrelevant under this definition of assault.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault

With the taping it would be charged as a felony.

[speltwon]

3. I am well aware of what the common law says

as well as the law of my state, since I have arrested a bunch of people for assault before (we don't have such a thing as "assault and battery" in my state.)

What I am saying is that the kid did was bullying. No scare quotes required. Bullying isn't a lesser thing than assault. Bullying is a broad term that can include all kinds of stuff to include criminal stuff like robbery, assault, etc. and noncriminal stuff like name calling, etc.

That's one of the problems with some anti-bullying legislation is it is overbroad and underinclusive at the same time.

Regardless, he was a bully. A bully who committed Assault and Battery (although it would be Assault in my state, but I digress).

Saying it is an assault and battery doesn't take away from the fact that it was ALSO an incident of bullying. Not all assaults are bullying, and not all bullies assault people.