Man arrested for doing Nazi salute in airport
A man was arrested in a US airport for doing Nazi salutes and shouting a series anti-Semitic phrases.
The incident occurred on 20 November at Gate D10 of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just before passengers were due to embark on a flight to Dallas, Texas.
The man was standing apart from the queue to the plane when he began screaming obscenities and performing the Nazi salute to the crowd of people waiting to board their flight.
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He threw up a number of Nazi salutes and screamed slogans such as 'heil Hitler', 'sieg heil' and 'race war' at those around him.
A member of airport staff attempted to speak to him and get him to stop and was attacked as 'f***ing filthy Jewish scum' by the man, who then claimed 'the Jews got what they deserved'.
He then accused the person trying to stop him from shouting Nazi propaganda of being 'an alien and a reptilian' before insisting to her that he 'didn't do anything wrong'.
Members of the crowd were clearly uncomfortable with his actions, with one person questioning when security was going to arrive and deal with the man.
According to the group Stop Antisemitism, the man was later identified as Nicholas Edward Letney,
They later shared footage of officers from the Port of Seattle Police Department arresting the man, who asked the cops if they'd 'ever heard of the first amendment' while he was laying on the ground.
When officers told Letney they knew what that was he argued that they had 'violated that because I'm a Nazi', insisting 'you're just doing this because I'm a Nazi'.
He then argued 'you just don't like my religion because I'm Christian', telling one of the officers they were a 'racist Jewish person'.
Continuing his rant while officers held him down on the ground, he complained that there were 'lots of people discriminating against Hitler' and claimed 'I think we should wipe out this whole darn country'.
Someone who said they'd been in the queue for the plane and witnessed his Nazi salutes and anti-Semitism first-hand said the man was 'unstable' and 'couldn't be convinced to do anything besides yell loudly/aggressively Nazi sentiments'.
Others who saw the footage said it was 'just so awful and disgusting to see', and that 'antisemitism is becoming normalized in the US'.
Another person wrote that they were worried about people 'getting emboldened' to do this, while plenty said they hoped he was 'put on the no fly list immediately'.
Joe Harker