131
Tourist accused of hurling rock at rare Hawaiian seal was ‘brutally assaulted,’ his lawyer claims
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
131 points (98.5% liked)
News
37794 readers
2746 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Igor Lytvynchuk can get fucked.
So can his lawyer.. Claims his client was "brutally assaulted".. No photos, no police report. OK buddy. And Wtf kind of racist-adjacent statement is this:
Yeah, whaddabout the locals??
Sounds like the beatdown was richly earned.
The same again for the lawyer, please.
There is video of him eating a few punches from a local after the incident.
Unfortunately for Igor, the unnamed local was promptly named an honorary ambassador by a local politicians, while still being kept anonymous.
Yes. But real quick for those who don’t know - a defense counsel says whatever they need to say to get the client out of court/prison/whatever. And that sounds weird until it’s understood that the State has the burden to prove their case and they cheat at every opportunity. That’s because the state has so many resources, and it uses all of them on every bastard that upset a cop.
People go to prison for stealing a candy bar, due to recidivism laws, minimum sentencing, and a shit-ton of Republican legislation for the last fifty years. Additionally, conservatives hold most of the judgeships and some of these people are dumb as f*ck.
So while the lawyer might be an asshole, even if they weren’t they’re still obligated to say their client was wronged, the facts are poor- whatever. That’s the way the adversarial system the US uses works.
Hypothetically, there might be some video of this piece of shit getting karmalized by a seal defender. I didn’t see it and if I did I don’t recall.
If said video existed I'd hypothetically offer the karma-deliverer a drink of their choice.
Imagine being this insufferable. I'd kill myself.
Me reading my inbox today..
'uhh.. wtf did I write last night??'
LOL they actually pulled the racism card against a people who are held under colonial rule.
One of my favorite anecdotes is about a (white) professor at University of Hawaii-Manoa who had a white student complain about being called a haole, saying it wasn’t fair that Hawaiians could be “racist” against white people. The professor responded “if you’re white in Hawaii you can be one of three things: a haole, a dumb haole, or a dumb fucking haole.”
I grew up white in Hawaii, and I’m happy to say I was only ever called a haole.
is haole basically "outsider"?
good story, it goes to show how ingrained race relations can be in people
Indigenous Hawaiians would greet each other by touching foreheads and “sharing breath.” The English colonizers and missionaries thought that was dirty, and were called “ha ole,” “without breath.” Over time, “haole” came to mean “foreigner” and then “white” (after multiple ethnicities would intermarry while white people largely refused to do so.)
So to avoid being called that as a white person, you have to have grown up with the native Hawaiians and be treated as one of them, I presume.
Nobody called me names when I went. Then again, I wasn't throwing rocks at seals or doing other stupid shit.
Don't act like a jackass when you're an outsider and most people will not give you a hard time. Tends to be true most places.
Hawaii is literal paradise and a bunch of jackoffs bought most of it and pushed the natives to the margins. They have every right to not want anyone there. If you go, just remember, you are a guest in a place that you do not belong. Be respectful and be kind, but don't be shocked when a Toyota Tacoma comes flying up past you and rips past as you're staring off into the trees doing 24.5 MPH on the road that they use to go home.
Us outsiders are tolerated, but we do not belong.
Everyone who's not an asshole belongs.
My grandfather grew up in New Mexico and spoke the New Mexico disalect of Spanish (he learned it from his mother) but was an obvious gringo: tall, blond and light-skinned. He was truly bicultural, and handled occasional disparaging comments from the Spanish-speaking people with humor, in Spanish. Also, he was a tough bastard, out there doing the same hard manual work in harsh conditions, like any of the ranch hands. And he'd eat food with so many chili peppers in it that it'd melt your face.
So it's possible to not be part of an in-group, but still belong somewhere. He could go anywhere in NM or Chihuahua and fit right in. He could also hang with the white folk, as long as they weren't (in his words) "prissy."
And one thing he taught me very early about racism still stays with me: "Unless they've spent a summer pickin' lettuce in Salinas, those fools should shut the hell up about Mexicans takin' their jobs." He could be a difficult man, but he had a code he lived by, and that included fairness above all. Nobody's better than any other honest person. And if you were getting too big for your britches, he'd be happy to knock you back down to size. Sometimes a bit too eager... We got on well, because I was a stubborn, ornery kid who'd never take crap, even when it got me into trouble.
This was also my secret to a happy life when I lived in Argentina. Most people thought I was European, which was a bonus. I have that "maybe not from here but I can't tell from where" look.
As someone who grew up in Brazil as a gringo,
Asking how not to be a gringo is pointless.
Gringo oozes out of your pores, it's in your haircut, your shoes, on your breath, your skin, your jewelry, your posture, how sweaty you are, everything.
If you go, you'll be a haole, you have to live with it.
In Argentina, I managed to be mysterious. Nobody could tell where I was from. I enjoyed that feeling.
I think the thought is that native islanders can harbor racist notions against white people. Whether that actually played a part or not remains to be seen.
Edit: what's with the downvotes? I'm explaining why they might try to play the race card. Not condoning racism, claiming racism for sympathy, or his actions.
I don't think it would've made a difference, when he was told there was a fine for attacking the seal and that it's extremely endangered he responded with "I don't care, I'm rich"
Dudes face immediately became a target regardless of race
Sure. But I wasn't addressing that. I was only commenting on why they might use a "racist adjacent" statement.
Maybe so, but it's a terrible defence as the lawyer stated it.
Like the lawyer is in a Hawaiian court and says what boils down to "bro the natives only hate him cos he's white - plus they way more seals your honour". That's a terrible argument. 1) know your audience. 2) "a different race also broke the law" is not a defence. P. S. Didn't downvote, I appreciate the attempted explanation.