People mistreated are sure to strike back

Initial rationales offered for the tragic shootings in Munich last Friday, which left nine people dead and 27 others injured, have tended to portray the teenage perpetrator as either anti-West due to his Middle Eastern ancestry or as a mentally ill loner. It was noted that the attack came on the fifth anniversary of right-wing extremist Anders Breivik’s massacre in Norway, which might have inspired the young man’s rampage.

The truth appears to be deeper and far darker. Eighteen-year-old Iranian-German Ali Sonboly, who took his own life as well, had in his childhood been a regular victim of playground bullying. The son of a taxi driver and a department-store clerk shared this fact with a complete stranger in the midst of his shooting spree. “Because of you I was bullied for seven years,” he said, “and now I have to buy a gun to shoot you all!” His exchange with the man who was standing on a rooftop at a safe distance perhaps revealed the true origin of his murderous hatred. The man had cursed him as a “foreigner”, to which Sonboly replied, “I am German – yeah, I was born here!” One of his former schoolmates later confirmed that Sonboly had indeed been “frequently bullied” – and was “really unpopular”.

There can be no doubt that excessive bullying can trigger violent, vengeful reactions. If revenge cannot be taken against the bully, the hurt suffered tends to fester until some form of resolution is found. The depression, low self-esteem and anger Sonboly likely harboured from his years of being bullied and treated as an outsider could easily have been channelled into homicidal intent by his reported obsession with violent online shooting games. It was likely just a matter of time before he plotted his indiscriminate attack against society.

We have witnessed far too many cases in which the motivation for such attacks comes not from ideological or religious derangement but from common social frustrations. Often the perpetrators have no record of crimes or mental-health issues, so no one is aware of possible danger in advance of the attacks.

Most victims of bullying, of course, find non-violent ways to cope with the pain and the memories. But society faces a greater likelihood of violence if it doesn’t properly address the problem of bullying – and if it doesn’t find ways to disarm people with violent intent. The possibility of such acts of revenge becomes less likely if access to firearms is curtailed, and if high-powered assault weapons are removed from the equation altogether.

Schoolyard bullies target the people they misperceive as inferior in some way – younger children, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities. In Thailand, academics Ruthaychonnee Sittichai and Peter K Smith prepared a report in 2013 on bullying and cyber-bullying here. Statistically, they found, both the bullies and their victims suffer from low self-esteem. Other such surveys have determined that bullies tend to come from “divorced or violated families” and many have witnessed physical violence between their parents. In school they seek to impose on others the same harassment, embarrassment and threats they experience.

In such cases, where the parents are displaying the hurtful behaviour that their children are bound to imitate, teachers and education officials represent the front line in discouraging bullying at school. It is a terrible burden for the educators to carry alone. Society as a whole has to foster better behaviour. Parents should be instilling morals and ethics, confidence and esteem, in their children, not sowing the seeds of violence. 

The government’s healthcare agencies should be providing consulting services for victims of bullying. Parents and teachers should be encouraging the young victims to report incidents and then helping them cope with the hurt and humiliation, steering them gently away from thoughts of vengeance for the sake of a peaceable future.