KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

‘If you don’t like it, just leave’: Curley criticizes man who confronted street preacher at Pike Place Market

Jul 27, 2026, 8:34 AM

A street preacher near Pike Place Market was recently confronted by a man who yelled at him and tried to assault him, demanding he turn off his speaker.

John Curley, host of “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, broke down the incident in detail and likened it to a similar situation on a flight with a different outcome.

“One guy’s beating up the preacher basically and grabbing his stuff, throwing him down. They don’t want him to have his say,” Curley said. “I’m assuming the guy saying, ‘Get the blank out of here,’ is not the preacher. Why don’t you just go away? Let the guy set up, and if you don’t like it, just leave. ‘Oh, I’m going to beat you up.’ OK, that’s good. That’s a quality individual that’s beating up the preacher because he doesn’t like what he’s saying. I don’t want to hear any more of that guy.”

Curley brought up another story about a man who comforted passengers during a flight that was headed for an emergency landing.

“There was a story about an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Seattle in July 2021, flight 2775,” Curley said. “As soon as they took off, the pilot announced they were having some engine trouble, and they were going to have to crash-land, or an emergency landing — can’t say crash-land. ‘Folks, we’re going to make a crash landing.’ Right, so this guy’s sitting there, and the woman next to him starts crying. He’s a minister, so he goes, ‘This is it, I’m going full bore.’

“He told everybody, ‘Are you ready to meet God? Do you have nothing to fear? You’ll be surrounded by love,'” Curley continued. “The people that were near him were all listening and said, ‘Thank you, I feel a little better.’

Another story flipped the script on how passengers reacted to a preacher

Curley noted another story where a woman was preaching in the aisle before a flight. If put in that situation, Curley said he would be interested in what the preacher had to say, viewing it as a social experiment.

“The plane comes in, and lands, and people are saying, ‘Oh, what a nightmare. I’d like to get out of the plane. How do you open the emergency exit? I wish it would suck her out or suck me out, so I don’t have to listen to this,'” Curley said. “If I were sitting there, I would look at it like a social experiment. Like, ‘OK, what do you have to say? Alright, I’m listening, I’m watching.’

“You look around and see what everybody else is doing,” Curley continued. “If somebody’s up there saying, ‘Hey, bless you, and Jesus’s going to bless you,’ and you’re like, ‘Hey, sit down, who cares about God?’ All of a sudden, the engine catches on fire. If you get on a plane and someone hasn’t wished you a safe flight, pretty good chance that thing’s going to crash.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

John Curley on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
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John Curley

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‘If you don’t like it, just leave’: Curley criticizes man who confronted street preacher at Pike Place Market