Posted on 06/09/2008 7:08:44 PM PDT by Lowcountry
This past Saturday (6/7/08) my wife and I took our kids to the Statue of Liberty. They are 10 and 13 and it was their first trip to NYC. We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and were to proceed on to Ellis Island.
Like most tourist, we were taking photos and helping others to take group photos as well. As we got close to the front of the Statue, we saw a young, 18-22 year old young man step on top of the wall separating the grassy area from the sidewalk which circles the statue. Below him stood his mother and father to take his picture. He posed for his picture, Lady Liberty directly behind him, with his right arm lifted and middle finger extended. He was clearly mocking the statue... and America.
I started to get mad and told my wife to look at him. As I started to walk towards the family, my wife begged me to go no further. I did not want to create a scene, nor did I want to argue with my wife. My heart was racing.
As I stood and watched, the mother (late 40's) was helping him pose and told him to curl his middle finger instead of holding it straight. As the mother, son and father all laughed, there was not a single person around who was looking at them or approaching in disgust. I could hear the family talking and laughing, but the language was not American. It sounded like a cross between German and Russian (is that possible?) My wife was trying to look away, so I walked close to the family and spat on the ground behind them in absolute disgust. They looked around but I was moving away. Then I stood and stared in my green reflector fishing glasses.
Again they started the pose. This time my 10 year old daughter saw him holding a water bottle between his legs at the crotch like he was peeing while giving the finger. My wife came up and said "let's go!" I said OK, just give me a second. I got a large loogy in my mouth, walked up and spat in the middle of them, took three steps back and stood and stared. They looked somewhat shocked and a little intimidated. I did not break my glare. They looked around as if someone might come and take me away. After about 15-20 seconds when that did not happen, they packed up their camera stuff and walked quickly away and got in the ferry line. The laughing had stopped.
Did I do the right thing? Could I have done something "more American"? I felt very angry about the way they came on our soil and mocked our most cherished symbol of Liberty and Freedom. Have you witnessed other acts of Euro punk desecration? How dare they do this and no American set them straight.
Eurotrash—there are too many of them here, especially in the summer. They have nasty mouths and bad manners. But with the dollar at an all-time low, more and more of them can afford to vacation in the U.S.
Even in our small town here we get them at the Wegman’s every weekend, on their way to Niagara Falls., on tour buses. They push and shove their way to the head of the deli line. One guy closed the door in the milk section on my arm. They leave their trash all over the ground outside.
And then they dare to call us the Ugly Americans.
why not get in Their faces and say how we feel?
Yes.
Good Job!
From your description of the language, it might be Slavic or Magyar (Hungarian) or even Polish from Gdansk (formerly Danzig under German rule). They each have their share of nincompoops. I knew an illegal Serb who did that type of thing (peeing at American monuments) and showed photos to all his friends, PC multi-culti fans of Michael Moore.
I sent a photo and description of him to DHS but I hear he’s still around. Damn!
Good job. You showed much more restraint that I would have.
Disgusting pigs.
“Ultimately you did the right thing. You showed your outrage and disgust for them in a manner that was clear and assertive without being abusive and threatening. I don’t think anyone could fault you for what was a good balance of action/restraint.”
My thoughts exactly. The message was far more poignant than words could have been. How do you even argue with someone spitting at your feet? Anything verbal might be seen as an invitation to response. It conveyed disgust, and there was nothing left to say. It didn’t even matter if the spoke English or not—message conveyed and hopefully guilt/shame initiated.
That said, I’m puzzled: if they’re that anti-American, why did they come to the US to spend their money here? Or were they just joking around? (albeit completely offensively and irresponsibly)
And what kind of 40-year old mother lets her son behave that way?! Had that been my parents, I wouldn’t have even tried a stunt like that. I already know the result would be a smack on the butt, an earfull, and a grounding.
My husband would be the one holding ME back. :)
If you’d had time to think it thru, you could have approached them in a friendly manner and offered to take a group shot of their gross behavior and then accidentally dropped and smashed their camera to the ground... oops !
Trust me, nothing would have happened.
If a NYC cop had shown up, with the guy screaming in a foreign language that you hit him, all you'd have to tell the cop, in a calm tone of voice, is: "Officer, look, this guy is crazy. He started the whole thing. What I am supposed to do, just sit there and take it?"
I guarantee the cop's response to the screaming foreigner would be: "Look. I don't know how this whole thing got started. Either I can take both of you down to the station and you can spend all day giving statements and swearing out complaints, or you can both just shut up and walk away. Understand?"
The idiot tourist from the crappy country will do the math in his head and realize that he does not want to spend a full, expensive vacation day in NYC in the basement of a police station in order to swear out a complaint that will never go to trial or, if it does go to trial, get dismissed because he is not going to hire a lawyer and fly all the way back to the USA to testify months from now.
Good one. If I were there I would have stood with you.
(and shouted and probably would not have remained calm)
You did the right thing.
These cretins probably believe everything they see on the Euro-media.
Alternatively, they might be uncomfortable to find themselves in a country where people not only notice body odor but actually comment on it.
A warning to any Euro-trash who might be lurking: Don’t try this at the Alamo.
You could have at least broke his finger. I know you wanted to.
I literally hate Eurotrash.
Kudos to you!! I think what you did was wonderful. You restrained yourself from committing violence on them thus preventing yourself from being arrested. You also got your feelings about their disrespect across without having to say a word. I just wish more people there had seen the whole thing play out! If I had been there, I would have applauded you.
yes, you made one mistake here...you forgot to grab the camera and smash it in front of them and then cross your arms and THEN glare
It’s the order of events, I am sure you’ll get it right next time...
:)
At least you chose the right place to take the liberty to express yourself. Had you looked up, you might have noticed a smile.
YOU THE MAN!!
my only problem is that you had bad aim. Should have spit _ON_ the pos
You reminded me of the scene in “The Godfather” where Sonny breaks a paparazzi’s camera and tosses a coupla bucks on the ground. ;-)
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