Ross: Once again, we let the online virus get to us
Jan 22, 2019, 7:35 AM | Updated: 7:39 am
In this Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 image made from video provided by the Survival Media Agency, a teenager wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, center left, stands in front of an elderly Native American singing and playing a drum in Washington.(Survival Media Agency via AP)
(Survival Media Agency via AP)
We now know there’s more to the story of that weekend confrontation near the Lincoln Memorial – where a viral video appeared to show a group of students from a Catholic high school confronting a Native American drummer and a group of black men.
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Turns out it was the drummer who had walked up to the students to try to stop what he called a combustible situation.
But that “combustible” situation started when three preachers from the Black Hebrew Israelites — who believe themselves to be the true Children of Israel — saw the group of mostly white students and started yelling nasty things. They ridiculed a black student as a “token,” used homophobic and racial slurs I’d better not quote.
But here’s the point: Nobody was being physically threatened.
Those preachers certainly didn’t feel threatened. They’re outside shouting Bible verses every day. In fact, an hour and 40 minutes into a video that they posted themselves, a couple of police officers walk up and ask, “were you threatened?”
“Nah, we’re good,” they say on the video. “We weren’t threatened by them. It was OK dialogue. Sometimes things get like that.”
Other bystanders asked the same question.
“They were OK. No threat.”
So there’s your “confrontation.”
Another reminder that until science can develop a vaccine, sharing viral videos is wildly unhygienic.
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