The Awful Truth: What really happened with the Covington Catholic students

Saturday’s video of the incident involving Covington Catholic High School students and a Native American man is troubling, no matter which account you believe.

We don’t like to see veterans or Native Americans insulted, and we especially don’t wish to believe that a group of teenagers could be capable of this. No version of these events is a good one.

It’s no surprise in our divided nation that some people view the teens with more sympathy, while others support the Native American protesters.

What’s even more surprising, however, is that we can all view videos shot in broad daylight with clear sound and come away with entirely different versions of what happened. Forget a difference of opinion; we’ve also got a difference of FACT.

I watched TWO HOURS of unedited smart phone video from various participants and bystanders. I also read statements from more than ten witnesses and read five or more newspaper articles about the incident.

These are my findings.

Summary

If you don’t want to read my rather detailed analysis of the video and witness accounts, I’ll summarize it up front.

1) The Native American group is almost entirely blameless here. The videos support their version of events almost entirely. They appear to have acted peaceably.

2) The speaker(s) from the Black Hebrew Israelites said some inflammatory and controversial things in the rambling speech (which was given in a rambling, invective style of a street preacher). Some of the things he said were racist and homophobic. While he appears to be, well, disturbed, that is no excuse. He said many offensive things, and this is part of what started the confrontation.

3) The students were the truly bad actors here. While many people have said that the students were judged unfairly based on incomplete information, the entire video shows that the reports are accurate. In fact, it’s worse than what you’ve seen. The prolonged video of the students’ behavior is hard to watch.

The parties

Three different groups participated in the events.

CovCath students

Covington Catholic High School is a private school in the Cincinnati suburb of Covington, Ky. The school brought a group of its students to Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion protest.

While I would not normally use a minor’s name, the teenager who is featured prominently in the video has given statements to various media outlets using his full name. For that reason, I will use it here: Nick Sandmann.

Native Americans

Several Native American groups attended the Indigenous People’s March Friday, and were protesting on the National Mall on Saturday.

The drumming man in the video is Nathan Phillips, an elder of the Omaha tribe.

Phillips, 64, is a Native American activist and Vietnam veteran.

Black Hebrew Israelites

Also protesting on the National Mall was a small group (it appeared to be three men, but it’s hard to say) who call themselves the Black Hebrew Israelites. This group appears to adhere to elements of both Christianity and Judaism. (Some called them “black Muslims,” which is inaccurate.)

The men in the group were giving speeches that were Biblically-themed and lasted for hours. In the manner of the street preacher, the speaker wove various passersby into his polemic.

This is where the trouble began.

The incident

If you watch the video snippets, you’d get the impression that the incident lasted a few minutes. In fact, the confrontation unfolded over the course of more than an hour.

On Saturday, tourists, protesters, and other groups were milling about the National Mall.

The Black Hebrew Israelites were speaking in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, while the Native groups chanted and drummed somewhat nearby.

At one point, before the students got involved, the Black Israelite speaker noted the Native groups and began tailoring his invective toward them. In general he made statements such as “…you are not savages… but you lost your land because you do not worship the living God of Israel….” and similar statements.

At one point, a Native man approached the speaker, presumably to disagree with him, but there was no real confrontation that I saw and the man walked away.

A few minutes later, the CovCath teens assembled in the speaker’s line of sight. Many of the students began wearing “Make America Great Again” hats. The speaker picked up on this and made general statements that America wasn’t great for the American Indian or African slaves.

The CovCath students began to notice the speaker and took issue with his speech, which was inflammatory at times. The debate became heated. The Black Israel speaker began saying some offensive things at the students (“cracker,” for example, and said something about supporting “faggots,” although it is not clear what he meant by this).

The students began to yell insults back at the speaker, although it is unclear what they said. Other students were trying to debate the speaker, and did not appear to be insulting him.

Bad to Worse

Things continued to escalate, and the students formed a large circle around the speaker. At this point, someone takes a 360-degree video from the speaker’s point of view, and the teens are surrounding him in a complete circle of more than 100 people.

Tensions increase. Other people (perhaps tourists) notice the spectacle and join the circle. Now, it’s a circle that is getting tighter and has grown to more than 200 people.

Several of the teens are yelling now. One of them throws something (a water bottle, perhaps) towards the speaker.

Another student comes to the center of the circle, removes his shirt, and leads the students in the Haka, the “dance of life” of the Maori, who are the native people of New Zealand. The students cheer loudly.

The situation appears to be potentially dangerous now.

The Native group

At this point, but three men (including Phillips) from the Native American group approach, drumming and chanting. While it’s impossible to know anyone’s intentions, the video supports Phillips’s later statements that the men approached to try to disperse the crowd.

The men walk into the circle, which closes around them.

All the while, the students are jeering and loudly mocking the Native men.

For example, the students yell and laugh at the men and mug for the camera. They do the controversial “tomahawk chop” at the men and yell out war whoops. They mimic the men’s chants. There is no question here that the students are mocking the Native men, and frankly they are laughing and delighting in it.

Here, the student Nick Sandmann is visible. He, too, is laughing and mocking the men. As the men are encircled by Sandmann and the others, they stop.

This is an important point: Some report that Sandmann stepped up to Phillips, while others say that Phillips approached Sandmann. In reality, neither statement is true. The two came together through the motion of the crowd. Phillips is walking slowly, drumming and chanting. Sandmann and his friends are circling, but neither person approaches the other deliberately.

In addition to the rest of the noise, one or more of the students yells “Make America Great Again!” Phillips says that someone in the crowd yells “build the wall!” I did not hear this on the video.

Where were the chaperones?

This is a fair question.

At no point in the video are chaperones visible. At the very end, after it’s over, a woman is seen leading the students away, but it’s too late.

The situation became dangerous, and it unfolded over a long period of time.

An adult should have stepped in and stopped the students while things were escalating with the Black Israel speaker. If a chaperone was witnessing this, it’s disturbing that he or she didn’t step in at this point.

Am I biased?
We all are, and I try to be aware of my biases and account for them.

I’m not sure where my biases lie here, though.

On the one hand, I didn’t want to believe this about the students. I also don’t want to believe this about the future of my country.

On the other hand, I was sickened to see a Native elder and a Vietnam vet (or anyone at all) disrespected.

I also hoped the media got it right, because this would be a very unfortunate mistake to make.

Further, I have been very vocal that I do not like many of Trump’s policies. I did not vote for him, so I’m not a MAGA fan as these students are.

Those are my biases, so please note that I was watching and reading with those in the background. I was watching and reading, though, and what I saw would have been upsetting to the most ardent Trump supporter, I believe.

Doxing and defamation

Conservative pundits have accused various celebrities of doxing the students and have suggested that the students sue for defamation.

I agree that doxing is wrong, and I am dismayed at our society’s tendency in this online age to destroy people’s lives who made a dumb mistake. (To be clear, these teens are guilty of more than just a small lapse in judgment, but I still don’t want to see them destroyed. It would be nice if they could visit a reservation and do some hard volunteer work alongside some elders, who could teach them.)

It’s also important to note that the CovCath students did this for an extended period in public, and their clothing identified their school. Many of them were shooting video of themselves and their classmates at the time, so I think much of the doxing criticism is misplaced. It would be hard for them to argue successfully that they were embarrassed by this revelation.

Regarding defamation: Without getting into a complex legal analysis of a defamation lawsuit here, it’s clear that the teens haven't got one. To cut a long story short, they would have to prove that the accusations against them are false.

The videos show the awful truth.