In a snapshot of the ugliness of the immigration debate, pro-reform activists demonstrating outside the Spokane City Hall in Washington state were reportedly met with racist taunts and a middle finger.
The local Spokesman-Review captured the incident from last week:
A young man walked briskly past the ongoing news conference and, with TV cameras rolling, muttered, “Go back to Mexico.” He then continued toward the intersection of Post Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard and swiveled back to face the group, raising his arm in a Nazi salute and yelling, “Heil Hitler” before extending his middle finger as he scampered away.
The activists from Fast for Families ignored the racist antics and continued their rally, though one of the organizers later confided that while the group is accustomed to occasional heckling, the one-fingered Nazi salute marked a new low.
An isolated incident, to be sure, in a region with an ugly history of white supremacy. But it captures some of the raw passions that have complicated the debate as the prospects of reform fade in Washington.
(Pictured above: Eliseo Medina of the group Fast For Families, which held the protest.)
