Patrik Banga: General acceptance of aggression led to the recent assault on a girl in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Once the kicking is no longer enough, the assailant stomps on the girl’s head. One of the other children watching this at the scene filmed the video that was then posted to the Internet.

The first question is whether this is normal. The answer is that it is not normal under any circumstances.

I am writing these words as a person who also got into scuffles from time to time in my youth. It wasn’t fun then, either.

What I have seen on this video, though, exceeds all thinkable bounds of behavior. In the first place, these are girls.

In the second place, the assailant has explained her attack to reporters from the daily MF Dnes. She described the matter as follows: 

“She was my best friend, but she started accusing me of being a hooker for the Germans. So I started beating her up. She deserved it,” 15-year-old R. K., who lives near the scene of the incident, explained with surprising willingness to the media.

One cannot help but be further amazed. Say what?

A 15-year-old accused of being a “hooker”? What the hell is that?

When I was 15, I would never have dared call a girl a “hooker”. That may be because there were simply no 15-year-old hookers around, with the exception of one who went to the school on Havličák.

Everybody in the Žižkov quarter knew about her (and she wasn’t Romani). Even if somebody had said it to her face, though, would that have been a reason to stomp them on the head?

This girl gave her accuser 20 kicks to the head, to the abdomen, to the shins, and ultimately stomped on her head. The police have apprehended her, and although she doesn’t face prosecution as an adult, she could end up in a diagnostic institute.

Thank God for that. I’d take on her parents next.

Whether people like it or not, children are a reflection of their parents. I am under no illusions that my own son is some kind of super-saint.

It would never have occurred to him to do something like this at that age, though. It wouldn’t even occur to him today as an adult.

If anybody were to do this to my daughter, there would be hell to pay, even if I had to demonstrate in front of the courthouse. The acceptance of aggression is what this is about.

A conflict happens, 10 people stare at it, and just one intervenes. Paradoxically, it was the youngest person on the scene in this case.

That brings me to the headline I’ve given to this commentary. I’m convinced that aggression in society has increased to such a level that it can no longer be controlled.

Not only could we see this during the elections, we’ve been seeing it for the last few years. On Facebook, which videos get the most followers?

Those with abuse, cursing, death threats and insults are watched the most. That’s the standard today.

Is nobody watching your videos? No problem.

The solution is to curse somebody out, or cut yourself in the chest with a broken bottle. A recent livestream with that content was seen by several thousand people here.

Who among those thousands of viewers called an ambulance for David Mezei when he did that? I can tell you absolutely exactly how many: Two.

I was one, and the other was Zdeněk Ryšavý. I called an ambulance, and according to the numbers on the column where Mezei was sitting, we located his whereabouts.

Did you vote for Petr Pavel in the presidential elections and let people know about it? You can anticipate receiving death threats, people saying they hope you get cancer, threats of violence, vulgarities of the highest calibre – and those posts will get the highest number of “likes” by far.

If you look into the details, you will see that even women are writing such posts. They are doing so absolutely without shame.

Is this normal? For some people, yes.

On posts about the election, such comments form the majority. They say whoever votes for Pavel is a collaborator, a sellout, and everything else negative in the world that might occur to you.

Friends, this is disgusting. It’s so disgusting I’m afraid to open Facebook, because I see content of exactly that kind there.

I keep thinking about what the hell has gone wrong here? Did any of you ever hear your mothers speaking like this?

Did our grandmothers speak like this? Our granddads?

I never heard anything of the kind from my grandma or grandpa. My grandfather was an elegant gentleman, he never dressed in anything other than a suit and he would never have left the house without combing his hair.

He wasn’t a saint either, no doubt. I never heard him say anything like what we hear today, though.

When I was 20, I would never have dared speak that way with my elders. I was raised differently.

Romani pativ nane. Romipen nane. [There is no Romani honor, Romani law is not being respected].

Some of us have become aggressive animals. The worst are the ones who watch these videos and share them with others.

Sure, you could say this is the principle of supply and demand. If people want something, other people will make it for them.

In all sincerity, though, would you want somebody to beat up your daughter like this? Do you like it when a Romani man shows his genitals in a video?

Do you like it when people curse each other out while debating about the elections, when they wish death upon each other and threaten each other’s families with a fight? If you’ve answered “Yes” to just one of these questions, then you are the problem.

What you all are doing is what your children will do one day. Believe me, this will not benefit us.

Don’t be surprised if people don’t want us Roma here if this keeps happening. Don’t be surprised when nobody votes for a Romani candidate.

Don’t be surprised when we have to live on the outskirts of some localities. Among other things, incidents like this are our “calling card” as well.