https://www.facebook.com/keoke1914/videos/10215952400101415/
A Seattle man found himself in police custody Friday after going on a public, racist rant against a passerby in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood.
In a Facebook post, University of Washington photographer Keoke Silvano detailed the moment he witnessed the racist attack. He said he was headed home from work to prepare for an evening photo shoot when he exited the Beacon Hill station and saw a white man hurling the N-word at a Black man.
That’s when Silvano, who’s also an academic adviser, whipped out his cellphone and started recording.
“C’mon n—-r,” the racist man shouts. “I run this country — you guys are dead. My people are gonna bury you!” He yells the N-word several more times, both at the Black passerby and Silvano after realizing he was being recorded.
The man completely loses it when two white bystanders step in and tell him to “get out of our neighborhood.”
“We built these streets!” the racist man screams. “The white man built these streets! We built these streets!
Police were eventually called, after which the man, later identified as 35-year-old Steven Jay Watts, fled down the street, Silvano told MyNorthwest.com. It wasn’t long before the cops caught up with him, however.
“This is the fight people of color are in,” Silvano wrote, recalling the shocking incident. “We are simply trying coexist and live in this world, to raise our children to be successful, and loving human beings … My conscious within me could not stand idly by and let this White man verbally assault someone just because he did not like the color he saw.”
“It’s sad that this is what our country has come to,” he continued.
Seattle police confirmed Watts was arrested Friday and booked into the King County Jail, local station KIRO reported. He’s since been charged with misdemeanor harassment and obstruction. In court, a city attorney noted Watts’ lengthy rap sheet, which includes four previous assault convictions, the station reported.
“I’m getting harassed everywhere I go in this country,” the suspect said in court after entering a not guilty plea. “Everywhere in this country I get harassed.”
The judge in the case said Watt had refused the mental health treatment ordered in his previous convictions, noting that his behavior has gotten increasingly worse.
Watts’ next court date is set for June 25. He’s currently being held on $10,000 bond.
