What is mobbing?

"Mobbing is an emotional assault. Through innuendo, rumors and public discrediting, a hostile environment is created in which one individual gathers to willingly or unwillingly participate in continuous malevolent actions to force a person out of a place."

- Mobbing Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace by Davenport, Schwartz and Elliott, 1999

The actual quote reads workplace not place, but the experiences I've had were not at work, but on the street, in supermarkets - things that we all do in a normal day. I've been followed, called names, had things thrown in my direction and the worst of it - had my reputation tarnished through lies and unwanted pictures taken of me and placed on the internet. I know if this has happened to me, it's happening to others.

When I was doing research on mobbing, most of the information was based in the UK and was workplace related. This saddens me because we all know bullying happens in the US, but no one really likes to talk about it. Anytime I see a story about it on television, they only show the target, never the bully. And the target always seems to come off as weak and uncool as if somehow what happened to them was their fault. It's time to change this way of thinking. Bullying is pathetic and weak and always will be.