Seattle Nazi punched out: Social media reacts to the presence of a white supremacist leading to his assault? At what cost vigilante justice for ideas?
A Seattle man wearing a Nazi swastika armband has been filmed being punched out after allegedly harassing a black man on a bus earlier in the day.
The unidentified white supremacist was spotted Sunday afternoon while riding Seattle’s D line bus where witnesses claimed he had been harassing another passenger.
A photo of the racict sitting on the bus was quickly passed on to several anti-fascists who then used their Twitter and Facebook accounts to track him down in less than 90 minutes.
The ‘wanted man’ was eventually found on a street corner in downtown Seattle where he was filmed getting into a confrontation with several unidentified people.
Footage of the ordeal showed the Nazi being punched directly in the face by a man wearing a gray sweatshirt.
Moments before being hit, he could be heard saying, ‘They deserve welfare.’
After being knocked to the ground with a single punch, another man could be heard saying to him: ‘Night, night.’
Punch a Nazi Seattle edition pic.twitter.com/XtX15gqmwj
— Peter Baggenstos MD (@Baggenst0s) September 18, 2017
Seattle Nazi punched: How a white supremacist became a hunted man.
One of the social media users who tracked the white supremacist congratulated the person who threw the punch.
‘I would say that we successfully identified, tracked and coordinated to neutralize a clear and present danger to Seattle,’ he told BuzzFeed.
Adding, ‘Whether we coordinated the actual punch or not… I, for one, applaud the anonymous hero.’
Seattle Police said they received reports of a man wearing a swastika armbands and instigating fights on Sunday afternoon.
‘Police were on the scene in five minutes and found him on the ground. He declined to provide info about the incident and left after removing his armband,’ police said.
‘No one else at the scene contacted officers to make a report about the incident.’
Seattle Nazi punched: At what cost vigilante justice?
While many opined that the Seattle Nazi ‘deserved what he had coming to him,’ others including this author wondered to what degree begetting violence against perceived violent agitators precedes vigilante justice behavior and mob rule taking over social civility and if so, at what cost? And who is next defined as being worthy of being king-hit?
And then there were these comments on the web that made this author wonder, see what you think?
First amendment and all that… BUT… if you walk around inciting chaos… don’t be surprised when you get chaos.
Freedom of expression also comes with consequences
The guy who threw the punch should be arrested. It does’t matter that the guy he hit is bad. He wasn’t an imminent threat to anyone. If the guy wearing the Nazi armband broke the law, then he should have been dealt with by law enforcement officials. We can’t condone vigilantism even if the target is a despicable person. This was not self-defense. The guy who was hit is a pathetic loser.
As much as I dislike Nazis, you can’t punch people for disliking their speech. This is supposed to be America. Land of free, right to have dissenting opinions etc.
