The Headline
Kentucky student sues
Washington Post for defamation; seeks $250 million for "permanent damage
to his life and reputation"
The Grind
Nick Sandmann, 16, is suing
The Washington Post for $250 million over its coverage of a controversial
incident between a Native American elder and a group of students wearing MAGA
hats.
The Native American - Omaha
tribe elder Nathan Philips - was at the Lincoln Memorial performing an American
Indian Movement song as part of the Indigenous Peoples Rally.
Nick and his friends were in
DC attending the annual March for Life rally as part of a school field trip.
They were instructed to meet at the Lincoln Memorial before heading back to
Kentucky.
Video footage of the event
appears to show the students mocking Phillips during his performance. In the
video, Nick is smiling and standing directly in front of Philips.
The video went viral and the
incident was covered by several media sources.
The Details
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday,
Nick's attorneys claim The Washington Post "wrongfully targeted and
bullied" Nick "because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a
red MAGA souvenir cap."
Additional footage of the
incident shows a group of black men shouting racist slurs at the students and
mocking the Native American activists. The men identified themselves as
"Hebrew Israelites," a movement that believes some black Americans
are the descendants of an ancient Israelite tribe.
The Israelites described the
students as "young Klansmen" and "future school shooters"
and laughed at their MAGA hats. They also shamed black students for associating
with their "oppressors."
Nick told reporters he was
trying to help diffuse the situation and explained how the students raised
their voices to drown out the Israelites.
"A student in our group
asked one of our chaperones for permission to begin our school spirit chants to
counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group," said
Nick. "The chants are commonly used at sporting events. They are all
positive in nature and sound like what you would hear at any high school."
From Philips's point of view,
Nick was blocking his escape.
"It was getting ugly, and
I was thinking: 'I've got to find myself an exit out of this situation and
finish my song,'" said Philips. "I started going that way, and that
guy in the hat stood in my way, and we were at an impasse."
In comments to reporters,
Philips said he had forgiven Nick but believes there are "intentional
falsehoods in his testimony." Nick told reporters he wished he could have
"walked away and avoided the whole thing."
President Trump expressed
support for the students and suggested they visit the White House.
The Daily Grind News, 24-2-2019
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