Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada was reportedly finishing up a meal somewhere in Las Vegas with his wife and daughter when a man asked to have a selfie taken with him. This is when video footage of the incident begins. In the video, the unidentified man wears some kind of cannabis start-up t-shirt, with a thick chain and crucifix. He is a big guy. Not a tall guy, and not a “big guy” in the sense that he’s generous. The video seems to have been shot sometime after Gov. Sisolak ended the state’s mask mandate, as both he and the man are not wearing masks in the dining facility, though employees at the spot seem to be wearing theirs.
The unidentified man puts his arm around Gov. Sisolak’s shoulder and says, “Sisolak, right? This is amazing.” Then, as they pose for what Sisolak believes is a still image, but is clearly a video, the man says, “I can’t tell you what a piece of fucking shit you are,” while holding onto Sisolak’s shoulder. Gov. Sisolak, to his credit, responds, “Sorry to hear that,” before he tries to put some space between himself and this guy.
And then things get worse.
As aggressive as this guy’s statement is to Gov. Sisolak, and as rude a thing as it is to say to someone, this is all within the boundaries of reason, in my opinion. If you don’t like a politician, you can tell them that. You can even use vulgar language, which may not be appropriate, but is not illegal. But when this strange man adds, “You New-World-Order traitor piece of shit bastard,” things go from inappropriate to true harassment and threats. “You’re in here without security? Woohooo!”
That “New World Order” bullshit is a conspiracist dog whistle used by QAnon (and other conspiracy groups) to indicate which people they believe are truly terrible entities worthy of death. I say “entity” because some off-shoots of New World Order conspiracy-thinking include beliefs that actual aliens or even lizard people control the world. Also, antisemitism, rife in virtually all New World Order thinking, places Jewish folks in the other-than-human category, as well.
At this point, someone else can be heard saying, “I want to second that. You’re a traitor. You should go down for treason, and I hope you hang.” That’s a threat.
The original guy, once again leap-frogging onto that sentiment as Sisolak begins to move toward an exit, looking to collect his wife and daughter to leave, yells, “Yeah, you piece of shit!”
From there, as Sisolak moves through the restaurant toward the lobby, the man continues to set the stage of his actual threats of harm, like a true coward. “I’m surprised you have the balls to be out here in public, punk. Out here without a cop. Out here without security. Woohoo! You got balls on you, boy. I’m not moving.”
Seems like not a nice guy. Mostly a bully of older folks
The other guy, the one saying he hopes he hangs, mentions money and “hiding the hydroxychloroquine,” and you know you are dealing with people whose sense of reality doesn’t match up with the temporal world we actually live in.
Sisolak turns to his wife to say, “Let’s go,” at which point the man, who it must be said, remains intensely close to the governor the entire time, says, “Yeah, you better get the fuck out of here, Sisolak!”
As the couple tries to go through the door, the man with the phone yells, “Where’s your security at, punk?” and then snaps at Sisolak’s wife, who is clearly trying to follow her husband outside.
“Don’t touch me, lady!” he says, to which she responds she didn’t touch him, something that Gov. Sisolak reiterates as they begin walking outdoors, into the parking lot, toward their car. He continues, and ramps it up with new accusations: “You trying to sell us all down the river, you working-for-China piece of shit!” The connection to China may be Sisolak’s Nevada-born-and-raised wife, Kathleen Ong Sisolak, whose parents immigrated from China back in the 1950s. You know, before this asshat’s parents had likely even met and created this disappointment.
And it is right here when this guy steps even further over the clear line of harassment and into “threat crimes” in the Sagebrush State. “You fucking traitors, we should string you up on a lamppost right now, pussyboy.” This is where this guy’s quieter, best buddy and lackey, pipes in with the rhetorical conspiracy theorist question: “Do you know what they do to traitors? They hang traitors.”
The true pathetic nature of the bully is now unveiled. In the light of day, as this asshole threatens an elderly couple while they briskly walk to their car, making vague accusations that they are taking money from China to … maybe hide an anti-malarial drug that has been proven not to do anything worthwhile in the fight against COVID-19, this man who spends an inordinate amount of time on his beard says, “You running into a patriot now. Huh? Huh? Where’s your security at?”
Patriot? Of what, exactly? The entire United States is one big conspiracy theory, with millions of operatives lying and tricking the public for who knows how long, and only this guy, his fancy crucifix, and his buddy in the plaid shirt can see the truth.
He doesn’t have a country. It’s over, right? Didn’t President Barack Obama steal all of his guns and give them to Lee Harvey Oswald before telling Dr. Anthony Fauci to give everybody injections that would make them Muslims?
If you weren’t already afraid of how far down a fabricated rabbit-hole this guy threatening the governor is, he follows it up by saying: “I heard about you banging that little girl and then wrecking your car, has she [the first lady] heard about that?”
This “patriot” seems to be connecting a single, well-documented dot from a car crash Gov. Sisolek was involved in a few months back, and … who the hell knows? A quick Google search of the car crash incident would give this “patriot” actual video of the aftermath of the crash, where Gov. Sisolak’s wife was a passenger in the car. So, yes, she does know about that. There aren’t any “girls” involved in the crash, and it happened in the middle of the day. So, any attempt to turn this into a scene out of the second Godfather movie is just lazy writing.
He proceeds to call Sisolak a lot of bad words with a lot of vehemence, asking where Sisolak’s “security” is, and then saying, “Woohooo, you’re lucky I’m a law-abiding citizen.” At this point, Sisolak’s daughter, who was still inside, runs up to them. It is at this point that Mr. Patriot does his best Ric Flair “woohoo” thing before graciously telling the governor’s family, that, “’cause your daughter is with you” he’s “gonna leave you alone now.”
So, this guy thinks Gov. Sisolak deserves to be hanged for treason, is working on something terrible with the Chinese government or Chinese money backers, and has been sexually assaulting a minor girl, and used a car crash to hide this gross violation of human rights. But, he’s going to leave him alone now?
The threatener then walks back, out of breath, toward the restaurant, turns the camera to himself, and says, “Patriot shit.” Not really. Just bully coward shit.
Harassment under Nevada Law:
To be guilty of harassment NRS 200.571, you must have knowingly, intentionally made the threat. It must have been a threat to inflict real harm on another person, and there must have been a reasonable fear created in the other person that the threat would, in fact, be carried through on.
Note that either words or actions can be used to make a threat under Nevada's harassment law. Nor does the threat have to be of immediate harm to be inflicted, nor even a threat to harm the individual to whom the threat is communicated (it could be to harm, for example, the child of the one threatened.)
A first-time offense is considered a misdemeanor, but can carry up to one year in the county jail and a $1,000 fine. Maybe that money can go to teaching this patriot how to use a library?
