This story truly saddens and angers me. It concerns a disturbing incident that involved an American Airlines passenger and occurred in a major U.S. airport. Unfortunately, it’s a story that people should be aware of.
Deep sigh. According to Gary Leff over at The View From The Wing, a man was arrested after performing a Nazi salute and screaming ‘sieg heil’ at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on November 20. The viral footage just made its way across social media channels yesterday.
@StopAntisemites tweeted the disturbing video with the caption: “Seattle, WA airport earlier today – a man was arrested after throwing up Heil Hitler salutes and screaming of a race war in the busy airport, gate D10.”
They followed the tweet up with a correction on the date and a video of the arrest: “Correction – this incident occurred on November 20; footage of the arrest ??”
Correction – this incident occurred on November 20; footage of the arrest ?? pic.twitter.com/5BSW7HpnIq
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 25, 2022
A Twitter user by the name Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) shared a better arrest video that has sound.
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) November 25, 2022
The Jewish Chronicle also covered this incident and said: “ The man, named by MailOnline as Nicholas Letney, age 31, also pledged his allegiance to Adolf Hitler and screamed “Jews got what they deserve”.
Fortunately, the police acted quickly and arrested him so he wasn’t allowed to fly to Dallas. It remains to be seen if American Airlines will ban him for life but I hope the general public does as there’s no place for hate in this country.
Unfortunately, there’s been a huge rise in these types of incidents and It’s not just happening in the United States. It’s happening all around the world and just this weekend, there was a school shooting in Brazil. According to FOX News: “Brazilian police said the 16-year-old suspect who allegedly killed four people and wounded 12 others in shootings at two schools in the southeastern part of the country wore a swastika pinned to his vest. The unidentified teen suspect, wielding a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver, allegedly carried out the attacks on Friday at a public school with elementary and middle school students and a private school, both located on the same street in the small town of Aracruz in Espirito Santo state.”
Gary shared multiple social media posts from Nicholas Letney where he spreads his hateful propaganda. I won’t help spread it but let’s hope this is a one-off incident, though I have a sinking feeling it won’t be. If you ever do come across a situation like this, call the police, drown out the lies (instructions below) and encourage the person to spend time at a holocaust museum. One visit to Yad Vashem in Israel will straighten them out.
A Twitter commenter with the handle @Concern731, posted on the original video what I think is good advice: “WHEN A HATER LIKE THIS STARTS OWNING THE ROOM EVERY PERSON IN THE ROOM NEEDS TO OUT-SHOUT HIM / SHOUT HIM DOWN. We do this at rallies. Do not allow haters to spew in public places. If one person started chanting (LOUDLY) “No to hate in this place” others would join.”
WHEN A HATER LIKE THIS STARTS OWNING THE ROOM EVERY PERSON IN THE ROOM NEEDS TO OUT-SHOUT HIM / SHOUT HIM DOWN. We do this at rallies. Do not allow haters to spew in public places. If one person started chanting (LOUDLY) “No to hate in this place” others would join.
— ConcernedCitizen (@Concern731) November 25, 2022
It sickens me that things like this are happening in the United States of America but I think it’s important to shine a light on these incidents so that we can all come together against them.
Obviously this person has some type of a mental illness, as rational people don’t act that way.
There are some people who feel that they can spew hate and not pay the consequences. They have already darkened their soul and now want to remove all light from the rest of us. Pretty pitiful and sad.
J. Bloom
What was the man arrested for? Disorderly conduct? My point is, that speech is free in this country – no matter how offensive his speech was, you can’t arrest him for that…not even in the communist city of Seattle.
So, what were the charges?
Don’t get me wrong or mince my words, I’m shocked by his behavior and the content of his speech, but if they take away his right to speak freely, then they’ll come after me or you all next.
He must be mentally sick. Normal people don’t act like that. It is not just what he says but he is screaming and yelling.
He is disturbing the airport. He should be sent to the hospital to see psychiatrist.
he is not normal he was not arrested for his speech but for making a seen
scene****************
You can be arrested for inflammatory speech. The 1st amendment is not a free pass. You can not scream “fire” in a crowd at a movie theater. You can not cause disruption of the Peace or enticing chaos. He’s not in his front yard. He’s at a federal airport. In addition you can’t just going spewing what you want in the street, gotta apply, pay for and have a permit approved 1st. Our free speech have rules to them!
I thought people were protected under free speech in this COUNTRY! When do we tell people what they can say and can’t say! If you don’t want to hear what a person is saying it’s so simple just to move along! Mind your own business. We are so wrapped up in everyone else’s business it’s disgusting! Personally I’m so tired of hearing about something that happened 100 years ago, and people act like no Germans were killed or anyone else it’s just always about the Jews. Well people have a right to like who they like without your approval. And if you want to stop the race thing in this country then just stop it..but instead we continue to open up black only non profits, Hispanic month and so on!
He was arrested for disturbing the peace and public nuisance. He was also on private property and refused to leave when asked. Nothing to do with his rights of freedom of speech being violated.
Anyone who hates God’s children, is not a Christian but worships satan and Hitler.
Wow Preston, what an ugly ignorant statement. There are so many racist remarks on one paragraph. Clearly I’m not going to be able to educate you on your hate but let’s educate you on law. No, you don’t have a right to scream whatever you want in public but nice try. Try educating yourself before you add to the hateful ignorance in this world. You don’t have a right to make another group of people feel threatened. People have a complete misunderstanding of free speech. The government can’t infringe on your speech and only the government. Any business can have you thrown out or arrested for speaking in a manner that is not conducive to that business. Threatening a group of people, harassing a group of people, loudly screaming fire are all illegal and not free speech. If you come into my restaurant and I don’t like what you are saying out loud, you’re out no questions asked and none of these is an infringement on free speech.
Preston are you trans?
Everyone has the right to freedom of their speech, but NOBODY has the right to disturbing the peace and making a nuisance of their selves in a public place. Get over it, Preston! This lunatic’s freedom of speech was not taken away.
Preston stop with hate
Free speech rights isn’t an open invitation to say whatever you want in front of others in a place of business, doesn’t work that way folks
“Obviously this person has some type of a mental illness, as rational people don’t act that way.”
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My first thought – another day, another “5150”.
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The next is, are we as a collective species being driven crazy in higher numbers than the historical norm due to an exponentially rising number of “micro-stressors” that the modern world imposes upon us, exacerbated by the aggregate stressors of the pandemic and the reactions to it; or, are we just *seeing* more incidents because of the ubiquitous presence of a video production and broadcast studio in everyone’s pocket, where each “people behaving badly” incident is instantly live-streamed into the social media echo chambers of the modern digital world?
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Whatever the driving force behind it, it certainly appears like the number of cases where people go off the rails of the crazy train in public have been accelerating over the past decade or so.
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Another recent trend I have observed among at least some individuals in public, e.g. a long frustrating checkout line at Wal-Mart, or gridlocked traffic, is a hyper-politeness paired with a hyper-vigilant “head on a swivel” pattern, like they are walking on eggshells or picking their way through a minefield lest they become the target of someone’s road rage or worse, a violent outburst.