A screenshot from the video published on World Star Hip Hop of a man in a swastika arm band getting punched in downtown Seattle.
A screenshot from the video published on World Star Hip Hop showing a man in a swastika arm band getting punched in downtown Seattle. world star hip hop

When a man wearing a swastika armband got clocked in downtown Seattle last month, it reignited the never-ending online debate of our time: Should we punch Nazis? So, when the Stranger Election Control Board got the two men vying to be Seattle City Attorney into our muggy windowless conference room for an endorsement meeting, we put the question to them too. Pete Holmes is the incumbent city attorney. Scott Lindsay is the challenger, who previously worked as public safety adviser to former mayor Ed Murray.

Here's what they had to say about the punch:

SECB: Where are you on punching Nazis?

SECB: Is it Assault 4 or is it a citizen’s arrest?

Pete Holmes: If the Nazi is a police officer or a uniformed person, it’s an Assault 3. I can say that, which is a scary thought.

Scott Lindsay: Wait, what?

Holmes: The same assault that on an average citizen is a misdemeanor Assault 4 is an Assault 3 felony if it’s a uniformed officer. Just saying, that’s the law.

[At this point, Holmes pulled out a copy of the Seattle Weekly to try to make a point about an entirely different topic from earlier in our interview. The SECB told him we'd read the story online but to please remove the Weekly from our offices.]

SECB: But where do you stand on the punch?

Holmes: Let's face it: Unprovoked punch. We have to be equal in the eyes of the law. If someone—the most, asinine, loud, racist crap—is just spouting off and not hurting anyone and then gets assaulted, we do have to [respond]. I would want to make sure that a Black Lives Matter protester that was assaulted, that they get the same follow through on going after their attacker. So, I think we have to respect First Amendment rights. I do think the city has done a great job, in contrast to misfortune like in Portland, about how we manage these kinds of protests. I mean, we've got people with crazy views, but at the end of the day we have to maintain a civil society and allow people to say—in fact I think the more the Donald Trump supporters of the world speak out with white supremacist views and we hear them, the more we're going to effectively alienate them in the public discourse.

[Holmes then tried to go back to the other thing. We moved on to Lindsay.]

SECB: Scott, punching Nazis?

Lindsay: I watched the video about 20 times and I clearly saw self defense. I would not prosecute that case.

Holmes: I don’t know the video you’re talking about.

[The SECB explained the video.]

Lindsay: The Nazi clearly provoked the gentleman who responded in self defense.

Later, Holmes asked us to send him the video, which we did. He sent this by email:

As for the video itself, it is not possible to tell from that one short clip what happened before the punch. To bring an assault charge, a prosecutor must not only prove the assault but must also prove the absence of self defense. That requires understanding the actions that led up to the punch, and the video standing alone does not show those events. Whether I would bring charges in this case depends on additional information that we don't have.

Which of these men did we endorse? The shameless panderer or the guy who doesn't go online? And what of the many, many other non-Nazi-punching topics we discussed? You'll have to pick up The Stranger next week for all that. Endorsements hit newsstands October 11.

Oh, also: October 9—that's Monday!—is the last day to register online to vote in the November election. Start a new voter registration or check to make sure your information is up to date right here.