A white man with a reported history of violence was arrested for harassment and obstruction after going on a racist rant filled with slurs and saying, “White men built these streets!” After video of the incident went viral and the man was charged, he claimed to be the victim of harassment.
Keoke Silvano caught the disturbing exchange, which took place in Seattle, on video. It is unclear why the altercation between 35-year-old Steven Jay Watts and an unidentified Black man took place.
“Put your hands on me, n***er,” Watts says.
“I’ll kill your b*tch ass,” the Black man responds, as he appears to be turning to walk away.
When Watts realizes he is on camera, he directs his hate toward Silvano, who is Filipino.
“Come on n***er. You putting cameras on me Come on,” Watts says.
“I am,” Silvano answers.
“No cameras, n***er. I run this country,” Watts says.
“I run this country, you guys are dead.”
At least two white men try to intervene and ask Watts to leave.
“Are you running with these n***ers” Watts asks. “Get the fuck out of here.”
“Get out of this neighborhood. You’re in the wrong neighborhood,” one of the white men says.
“Wrong neighborhood My people are gonna bury you,” Watts says. “Look at this sh*t. Yeah, I’m the president. Man, shut the f*ck up. Shut the f*ck up. Shut the f*ck up.”
“Get out of our neighborhood,” one of the white men repeats.
“Your neighborhood We built these streets! White men built these streets!” Watts screams.
“No they did not,” a white man says.
“Yeah they did!” Watts snaps.
Watts’ rap sheet includes four assault convictions, the city attorney shared in court. But Watts believes he is the victim.
“I’m getting harassed everywhere I go in this town. Everywhere I go in this town I get harassed,” he said after entering a not guilty plea.
Silvano, a photographer, wanted to record the incident in case it escalated, he told ABC 13.
“The main thing is if something happened either to myself or the gentleman sitting here, I would have some sort of living document of what was happening,” he explained.
Silvano uploaded the video to Instagram and shared it on Facebook.
“This may be the Beacon Hill Community in Seattle… but this is not an isolated incident,” Silvano wrote. “This is occurring in other neighborhoods, in other cities, in other states. ‘My President’… which has become the yelling cry that has nationalized racist Whites across this country.”
Warning: Video contains offensive language.
Watts will appear back in court on June 25 and is being held on $10,000 bond until then.
