A man wearing a red swastika armband on a bus in Seattle on Sunday became the focus of posts on Twitter and Reddit before ultimately becoming the subject of a viral video in which he was punched out by another man on a downtown sidewalk.
BuzzFeed News tracked the saga online as it was described in a series of tweets and other posts. Some by so-called anti-fascists used the hashtag #AntiFascistAlert and sought the community’s help in identifying the man, who was photographed riding the Metro D line toward downtown Seattle.
The user @BigotBasher said that the man in the armband was harassing a black man on the bus.
Nazi shit head seen on D line headed to downtown #Seattle
Submitter said they were harassing a black man on the bus pic.twitter.com/ianQUnyCsC
— BabyGoose (@bigotbasher) September 17, 2017
The same picture was posted to the Seattle subreddit. Other tweets embedded by BuzzFeed included people saying they had spotted the man downtown and that he was “spewing racist vitriol.”
A witness named Sean Patrick Duff was on his way to see the movie “Baby Driver,” he told BuzzFeed and Seattle’s Stranger newspaper.
“I literally just got off a bus and was walking to a movie and saw some guy being obnoxious up the way,” Duff told BuzzFeed. “Which I’m used to in downtown Seattle, but then I saw the Nazi armband and realize we are dealing with a guy a little more than just obnoxious. I had eaten over 800mg of THC and was way too high for confrontation so I just held back with two other passersby to watch what would unfold.”
At Third Avenue and Pine Street the man was finally confronted by another man. The man in the armband raises his hand but a punch on the chin from the other man knocks him to the ground where he is left motionless. Video of the incident was on YouTube briefly, but was removed for violating the site’s policy on harassment and bullying.
But The Stranger embedded a clip from World Star Hip Hop, Reddit has a Facebook version, and it’s all over Twitter, too. In true viral nature, it has been remixed by different folks to include assorted musical tracks.
Some on Twitter were celebrating that it took only 90 minutes from the time the man was spotted to the time he was knocked out. Others found nothing to celebrate in the violent confrontation.
The Seattle Police Department weighed in Monday with a series of tweets saying officers responded to the scene, found the man on the ground and that he left without providing any information — while also removing the swastika armband.
Around 4pm Sunday, SPD received reports of a man wearing a swastika armband, instigating fights at 3rd Ave / Pine. (1/3)
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) September 18, 2017
Police were on scene in 5 mins & found him on the ground. He declined to provide info about incident & left after removing his armband.(2/3)
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) September 18, 2017
No one else at the scene contacted officers to make a report about the incident.(3/3)
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) September 18, 2017