Comments

130
@3 I disagree. He's not trying to get a rise out of people. He's looking to prove he can go ride a ferry wearing a swastika arm band and nobody will say shit about it--because they either support him, or they are scared of him and what he represents, or they just don't care. It shows him the power he holds. He got what he wanted.
131
Would future commenters please read #129, who actually knows this guy, before you post something.
133
@119: No need for permission, unless the photo is being used for commercial purposes (in an ad, for example). If you're out in public you're fair game.
134
Thanks for the gutsy photo shoot! Maybe he thinks this is Nazi Pride Month - out of the closet with his racism, and my guess is it's related to the Charleston murders. He's flaunting, in your face. You were the one who death with it - everyone else treated him as invisible.
135
Page clicks! Get your page clicks here!

But seriously, if you had talked to the guy you might have gleaned an interesting story from this whole thing. Then again, I think I just have you mistaken for an actual journalist...
136
That guy is my neighbor. He is not all there in the head, he wears a different outfit every day(cowboy, football player, clown, ect.) He probably doesn't even know what he is representing...
137
@121:

Native Americans certainly have a reason to be offended by the symbol of the nation that oppressed them, drove them off their lands, forced them onto reservations, and deliberately engaged in acts of genocide against them. So, if the individual is truly offended by the display, regardless of what the rest of us may think, they have a First Amendment right to express their opinion, just like Nazi-boy, and it would probably be prudent of them to anticipate getting an earful of opinion back in response. That's the way it works - at least in theory.

@129, 136:

Okay, so "Ron" is mentally ill. Having a mental illness doesn't necessarily mean he's unintelligent or devoid of a moral sense of right-and-wrong. So, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be advised that what he's wearing is offensive and represents an ideology that, among the many other atrocities committed in its name, put people like him to death. Perhaps if someone took the time to explain to him that what he's doing is inappropriate, and why, he might actually refrain from doing so in the future.
138
Great comments everyone!
139
What did the author expect? The man is obviously unhinged, confronting him about it could lead to him becoming violent and hurting someone. Better to ignore him and let him sit and stew in his own free speech hate.

I say this as someone who has spoken out to people in public. I once confronted someone on a bus for using their cell phone loudly and obnoxiously and he nearly hit me, then kept on doing it anyway. No one said anything, despite everyone being annoyed at his rude behavior. Anyone could have just said "Yes, you are annoying us please stop." I actually said something and nobody backed me up. It was easier to just suffer in silence than get involved in any small way.

People are disgusting. Nazis, people who venerate them, and the general sheep like public who would rather pretend nothing is happening.
140
A word of caution to the internet tuffgais posting here. The swastika chap could, for all you know, have a few friends nearby just waiting for one of you to start something so they could finish it to their own satisfaction.

You really shouldn't pick a fight unless you know who and how many of them you're taking on. But, hey, it's your teeth.
141
I was in line at grocery store in Seattle and saw a guy with crew cut, black leather jacket, and a red, white, and black stylized eagle button which looked pretty Nazi to me. So I asked him what the button was about. Turns out it was Future Farmers of America. That said, if I'd been in ferry terminal, instead of just taking pictures of the guy without talking to him--kind of lame--I would have asked him why he was wearing a Nazi armband. That's how civil discourse starts, people--by asking questions.
142
This guy is my former customer. He always wears weird stuff. I think he is off, not racist. You don't know, but this is a zanny, weird guy that loves Michael Jackson (which means there is at least a small possibility he's not like a racist but maybe just a weirdo seeking attention) When I read the article the way the photographer wrote about him, it was very obvious the photographer had never seen or met him before because the photographer said he was "a Philippine American" so he feared a little confrontation or something but said he was BIGGER so he could take him out. And I'm thinking to myself "Dude, with that guy I don't think it would ever come to that"

#41 As far as the crazy saying the ability to ignore him shows white privilege, everybody ignores him. Its not white privilege, everybody that knows him knows he's crazy but harmless. This article was only brought to my attention because my friend/former coworker (who is not at all white, not even a little bit. She's Mexican and native; showed it to me) She ignores his costumes all the time. So her ignoring the costumes is her white privilege? Even tho she's not white? Kinda proves you're inventing white privilege when its not even there. The ability to ignore a crazy but harmless guy is not a "white thing". Its just a humility thing.
143
"But nobody openly challenged the man."

No doubt, Ansel would have stood up courageously to challenge this person. In a world where we're constantly asked to understand context and history, it is critical to have heroes like Ansel who will step in and challenge those who display either fringe beliefs or the status quo.

Thank you, Ansel!
144
Dear "TheStranger", please add an addendum to Ansel's article to shed light on the lack of journalist integrity - Commenter's please: read #129; #136; #142; and #100 for important details before jumping to conclusions the way this emotional, non-fact checked article does.
#112's point taken - Ansel's conjecture and projection was extremely off - next stop: Rolling Stone.
147
Unfortunately, there is no accommodation on this site for a photo, specifically a photo of the scar I proudly bear on my left leg from a confrontation with neoNazis at the Republican Convention in Miami in 1972. I would tell him to remove the armband. If he said no he wouldn't, I would point hiim out to authorities, who could do what they wanted. If he wanted to fight, he looks (from one picture) as though we would be close to the same weight class (I weighed 172 at last weighing). He has the constitutional right to wear what he has on. I have the constitutional right to tell him to take it off, and no particular reluctance to go to court about it if it turned physical. I am 66 years old. I would not put up with his armband silently.

My father fought the Nazis in the North Atlantic and at Anzio. My daughter will fight them if necessary.
150
I appreciate the armband--sure wish pedophiles and rapists would do the same thing.
152
If I were there I would have just asked him if he was Hopi or Navajo. But who knows and why should we care? Were he with an intimidating skinhead gang, I would think quite different. I've dealt with those kids before in life, believe me. Just fuck with their minds with absurdity.

But yeah it seems the guy is just mentally ill.
153
What confrontation are you suggesting? Chances are, this person knows very well what they are doing, and sought to provoke others by doing it. As a Jew who lost much of their family in the Holocaust, I find it disgusting. But I love the freedoms that this country offers, and I will defend his right express himself as a disgusting person. If he expresses an intent to cause harm to others, that's very different.

What are the possible outcomes of a confrontation? Well, one outcome is that you might upset the individual and you may get physically attached. However, it could be argued that you initiated the confrontation. As someone who legally carries a firearm for self-defense, I am very conscious about doing whatever I can to avoid or de-escalate a confrontation. Even if you are not carrying a weapon, you would still likely be held legally responsible for initiating the confrontation, and charged with assault. Guess what? The disgusting racist wins. He's free...you're in jail.

So initiating a confrontation with this individual that could escalate would be about the dumbest thing I think a person could do. Your endorsing such a public confrontation is irresponsible and reckless.

Taking his photo and posting it was the best thing someone could do. If he was keeping his beliefs private, they are now exposed for his family and friends to see.
154
The photographer is the bigger prick here... just saying. Attention seeking whore, like the nazi wannabe.
155
Okay so this guy sat on the Bainbridge Island ferry on a day when 9 black people were slaughtered with a Nazi armband on- opening defying someone/anyone to call him out and nobody did a thing. Thank god for the photographer. He was the only one who showed courage on that boat that day. Shame on the rest of you. This is exactly why white supremacists continue to feel empowered. The best way for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. Somebody should have done something or said something. Is this an indication of the type of people who live on insulated, practically all white, very affluent Bainbridge Island? You can answer that question for yourself. Shame on you. Black lives matter. Speak up people.
156
Why don't you make a big deal about SOME of the black people on T.V. and Social Media, stating To KILL ALL WHITE PEOPLE and they're stomping on the Ameican Flag. Post all that to your page and make a big deal out of that also!!!!
158
@157:

If the Axis Powers had won WW II, it's entirely possible you wouldn't be around today post your pathetic screed, as one of your recent predecessors most likely would have been "cleansed" from the gene pool for some eugenic abnormality, of which you yourself are a shining example.
159
A long, hearty laugh in his face would be a good response. His party got the balls kicked off them worldwide a few decades back and now he is just a pathetic attention seeker. A lot of ridicule would be in order. Reminding him of how humiliatingly his sort were put in their place might be fun as well. Take him seriously? Are you serious?
160
Dude can wear whatever he wants, who is this guy to judge? Mind your own business you judgmental arse!
167
@137 - Note that I didn't ask whether a Native American (or an Iraqi) would have the right to speak out against a person wearing the American flag. Of course he or she would, you are correct.

Instead I asked whether the commenters here would support and encourage that hypothetical "them vs. us" confrontation, and with equal vigor.

And if not, why not? Are things like attempted genocide, ethnic cleansing, slaughter of innocents, torture and the like only bad when *other* countries do it? Because you don't have to read Howard Zinn to realize that the history of the US and Germany in these areas is (unfortunately) sometimes more similar than many would care to admit. To be clear, I'm not saying these various atrocities are morally or numerically equivalent. But I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine, for example, exactly how much "better" hundreds of thousands of innocents killed by US smart bombs is than millions killed by Nazi gas chambers.
171
Why do you care about his armband? The guy is just minding his own business. Jay you should just mind your own business loser......You are commenting on his little bicep, he looks fit enough to me. Please post a pic of your bicep or upper body Jay. You are a photographer............It amazes me that the lefties are flabbergasted by this guy with a swastika,.....yet most or much of the left embrace or tolerate socialists running around the world and our country wearing the hammer and sickle, or carrying signs with the hammer and sickle.........Wake up, the soviets with your hammer and sickle killed more people based on their ethnicity and social status, than the Nazis did.
172
@167:

And my response to you was meant as an expression of support for that; I can't speak for anyone else.
173
Great photo, wonderful courage, lousy implied assumptions about those setting around doing nothing. With 2nd Amendment "activists" insuring universal access to guns by any unstable person I wouldn't be making a calculation about whether taking the photo would result in a fist fight. The people in the terminal dealing with what is likely a mentally unstable individual must worry about gun violence should they express their moral outrage to this person. The root problem is the very real intimidation associated with universal access to deadly force, not whether complacency in the face of visible displays of hate is due to complacency.
174
Seattle Weekly has a more detailed story, including mention that the "Nazi" is "a harmless kook" who is also autistic. A Man, a Swastika, and a Photo Worth a Thousand Comments
http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/959210…
175
@155: I feel the same way. Always makes my life easier when people advertise their hate so I know to avoid the hell out of them.
176
Well Well aren't you all just a bunch of fascist? It is called freedom of speech for a reason. You may disagree with what he says, and I do, but he also has the right to free speech. Just because you don't like what he has to say, does not give you the right to take away his right to free speech. That is what Stalin and Mao did, they took away people's right to speak their minds, and that was wrong. I agree with #173 & well said.
177
@176:

Perhaps you've just skimmed the comments, but not very many here are saying he doesn't have a First Amendment right to wear on his arm the symbol of a fascist dictatorship bent on world domination and the utter extermination of "non-pure, sub-human" races, but rather, by the same token, the rest of us also have a First Amendment right to tell him what we think of his fascist, genocide-supporting armband, and where he can stick it.
178
Holy shit! @14! Finally! I've been trying to explain this to people for quite some time. Especially lately. It's disturbing how many people don't understand how the 1st amendment works.

179
Whatever is wrong with anyone wearing exactly what they want to wear, expressing themselves, selling or sharing their message as they please? Is this the debate?
I'm not afraid of this fellow, or of his message, or of his taste is clothing style. But I am afraid of the big muscle forcing abject conformity.
Look around: There are all kinds of different and weird messages out there on the street. It's just the way humankind travels, unless it's in some kind of cult of personality or politics. We're not going to get anywhere in our search for relevance, meaning or acceptance if we're afraid to speak our minds and hearts, take it or leave it.
180
You're worse than he is. Let him exercise his free speech and fashion choice. He wasn't bothering anyone, yet you couldn't resist attempting to harass him.
181
Gut reaction...same way I feel when I see a Confederate flag representing 'some fu*king thing' on an American government entity...eg. capital grounds, license plates, etc.
182
Looks like he is minding his own (low mind you) business.
183
I am not German and I am not a Jew. I am an American. A WASP no less.

I view the Confederate Flag as equally offensive as the Swastika - PERIOD!

Outlaw the Confederate flag - change the US Constitution is we must given how the Republicans are racists, support the Johnny Reb as free speech when it is hatred, bigotry, and a symbol of states who tried to take down these United States!

It is time we and the media become as outraged by the Confederate flag as we do with symbols of Nazi Germany. OR, are we all so racist that we somehow are more sensitive to the Holocaust than we are to the hundreds of years of oppression of blacks in America and across the globe!
184
The hypocrisy in this town amazes me. Those who scream the loudest for tolerance show the least.
185
You are the biggest bunch of phony hypocritical losers i have ever had the displeasure of reading. Every essence of your being reeks of double-standard. Free Speech should only be free as long as you agree with it? Is that the ticket LIBTARD?

I don't give s shit about what he wears, and i don't agree with him. But i am a retired US Marine and i gave my entire adult life up to defending his right to say it. Where do you collection of misfits get off thinking you are entitled to go through life without getting your feelings hUrt?.

I can bet most of you never spent a second reading the Constitution, you just think you have certain rights because some gay right's, black rights, illegal rights, or just plain idiot rights activist told you that you do. Just in the last year a man right from Washington State had is conviction overturned by the Supreme Court for threatening to kill President O'Buimmer.

The court ruled his diatribe stating he thought someone should shoot the man, didn't rise to the level of a crime. In order for him to be wrong, he must show intent. And any law enforcement official must prove intent. So short of buying a gun, and a one way plane ticket to the Capitol Mall, He is within his CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.

Kind of shoots huge holes in your old LIBTARD fall back "hate speech" now doesn't it. Time for law abiding Americans, exercising their god given rights to fucking hate you and all you stand for. HATE SPEECH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS are nothing more than your NAZI LIBTARD THOUGHT POLICE, making excuses to stifle dissent.

Guess what, no matter how much you hate it, people don't have to accept your being GAY, and they don't have to accept your being black, and they most certainly don't have to accept your being a fucking illegal. They don't have to like you, and thy don't have to want to be around you. You are the ignorant ones, not them. You are a bunch of pseudo-intellectual phonies, who are really nothing more than a modern day equivalent of the bully's you sop often rail on about. You attack anyone who fails to fall into lock step party line so fast their heads spin. WORTHLESS FUCKING FRAUDS
186
Quite interesting.

While that Nazi armband is classic Nazi, the symbol itself has been around far longer. Do you know its history? How do you know that he's a racist/white supremacist? He's entitled to freedom of expression. And being in Seattle, why the hell are you complaining? Isn't Seattle known for its tolerance of alternative lifestyles and expressions? Or am I just completely wrong here? It seems to me that the only one with the issue is you. :)

And for the users leaving comments such as, "I'd kick his ass!" Really? You think physical violence is the appropriate response? It sounds like you should be wearing the arm band. :)

Hate is a strong word and I _hate_ what the Nazis stood for, not to mention the many unfathomable atrocities performed by party members.
187
@129 - We need more cops like you. My brother is mentally handicapped and I wish the officers that we have dealt with over the years had your compassion.
188
Love this comment below:
Ignore him?!?!? That guy is begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.
LOL ... I'd probably start with his Heaven's Gate UFO suicide cult shoes and pretend like I didn't notice the armband.

Soooo...further extrapolating this I guess this goes for anyone with different lifestyles...
homosexuals - begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.
transgendered - begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.
democrats/republicans - begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.
the poor / disfigured - begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.
jews/muslims/christians - begging to be loudly and publicly mocked. THAT is freedom of speech.

hmmm I wonder if there's a certain amount of hypocrisy that goes hand in hand with that post?
190
@185:

Sooo, is it your contention that people who express disapproval and disgust for someone wearing a FUCKING NAZI SWASTIKA are exactly equivalent to those same Nazis who systematically exterminated six million Jews, and some five million Gays, Roma, Catholics, Jehova's Witnesses, and mentally and physically disabled (among countless others) in a brutal attempt to subject the entire human race to their fascist agenda? Because, it naturally follows that anyone who hates Nazis and says so is, uh, a fucking Nazi? Have I got that straight?

Amazing you survived your hitch without shooting yourself in the ass, seeing as that's where your head appears to be pointing...
192
@ 191:

Not ALL. I'm actually a retired U.S. Air Force Commando who worked for the CIA on their secret moon base.
193
I wonder if he got the full security treatment? I mean if anyone deserves extra scrutiny, it's the guy wearing the symbol of a known violent group with an ideology that is counter to that of the United States. An enemy of the state if I ever saw one.
194
I wonder if he got the full security treatment? I mean if anyone deserves extra scrutiny, it's the guy wearing the symbol of a known violent group with fanatical membership and a strict ideology that is counter to that of the United States. A self-avowed enemy of the state if I ever saw one.
195
A lot of the comments here make me extremely sad. I'm a small black woman. I've been confronted by people in Nazi regalia, people with white supremacist tattoos, people with Confederate flags emblazoned on their t-shirts before. I never know what they're going to do, and that mystery sends a serious shiver down my spine. I put my head down, because if anyone were to murder me and leave me in a ditch by the road for speaking up for myself, that is the exact kind of person who would do it. That doesn't mean it doesn't bother me. It means that these people scare the crap out of me. I don't want to die.

If you're white and you see a person like this, you have an opportunity to do something I can't do, which is fight for my rights in a situation that could mean danger for me but probably won't for you. Whether it's shooting him a disapproving look, giving him an extremely wide and obvious berth, or, bravest of all, casually approaching him and engaging him in a conversation in which you thoughtfully argue for the humanity of people of color, people who are Jewish or Muslim, people who are LGBTQ, etc., you can do that much more effectively than I can.

To those who says he's not bothering or hurting anybody: am I a nobody, then? To those who say judging him is intolerant, and that's hypocrisy: is refusing to tolerate intolerance really hypocrisy? Or is it simply demanding the same respect that the intolerant person demands? To those who say he's just exercising his freedom of speech: since when did freedom of speech give you immunity from criticism?

In the wake of Charleston, I'm just mystified, utterly mystified, by the continued apathy and rationalization of hatred by some people in this country.
196
It is a free country. The man is allowed to have any symbol he likes on his sleeve. I do like the drama infused by the photographer - "he looked up at me and scowled" - all I see is a guy looking back at someone taking his picture. I also like the fact that the only person in the story hoping for violence is the person talking about what a p.o.s. the guy with the swastika is !
197
kick his ass seabass. that'll learn him who's superior.
198
Thanks to Jay Trinidad for bearing witness.

How's this for juxtaposition, regarding subject & photographer?
http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/eyes-hat…
199
Not to mention the juxtaposition of Nazi apologist commenters.
200
I (white female) worked in retail. A white man came though my line with scary arm tattoos and a white t shirt with a red flag with a swastika on it. Now my job was customer service, whether the person be young and aggressive or old and senile, or smelly or demanding or nice as pie, and I knew it. I had ignored icky t shirt before, and I did not know whether to say something.
Eventually I asked if the shirt was religious. (I was thinking that surely no one could seriously walk around consciously wearing a Nazi symbol! Surely. Perhaps it was one of those sociology pranks?) He said "Ha!! No!" Then he answered his phone. He said "Just got my first comment on the shirt today! --Asked if it was religious." I think he actually was a Nazi ignoramus. And no one had mentioned it to him all day.
(What would have happened if I'd encountered him outside of a service situation, I don't know.)

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