'Green shirt guy' says laughing at Trump supporters was a 'bold statement of morality' after council meeting video goes viral
TUCSON, ARIZONA: The hashtag "green shirt guy" began trending on Twitter after a guy in a shirt of that color was seen laughing uncontrollably at two Trump supporters yelling about immigration reform at a city council meeting on August 7 in Tucson.
The video of the protesters, beside the laughing guy, was first tweeted out by a local reporter, Nick VinZant, and quickly spread like wildfire across social media, with users sharing the clip and commenting on it. Hours after the clip went viral, Alex Kack, 28, the man in the green shirt, identified himself on Twitter.
Scene inside a Tucson City Council Meeting. Officials voted to put a "Sanctuary City" measure on the November ballot pic.twitter.com/mEh4PNj0Wo
— Nick VinZant (@NickVinZant) 7 August 2019
Replying to someone's comment, which said, "He used to be my neighbor! He's a rad dude!" Kack wrote, "Aw shucks but I'm not very rad."
The council meeting in question was held to discuss a proposed initiative to make Tucson a sanctuary city for immigrants - a measure that was able to collect the required number of signatures and was hence legally required to be put on the November ballot.
Although the protesters - one of them sporting the president's signature "Make America Great Again" hat - did not speak during the public comment period, given before the vote was held, they stood up after the vote and began shouting. While the female Trump supporter held a sign that said, “Respect our laws or we will deport you! No sanctuary for criminals” the man she is with, held another sign that said, “Stop rewarding start deporting.”
The pair were met with loud booing from the meeting attendees, with occasional yells of "shut up" and "you're a moron." When the woman shouted, "You're in direct violation of the oath you took to the United States constitution," someone in the crowd replied, "You're in direct violation of being a jackass."
From the moment the protesters stood up, the camera kept panning to Kack, who sat in the front row, wearing a lime green shirt, with his left arm resting on the chair beside him. The entire time he was seen laughing his heart out as he watched the protesters getting escorted out after a while by security men.
At one point, he was even seen doubling over with laughter as he clasped his chest.
Kack later told VinZant in an interview that he was a field organizer for Peoples Defense Initiative, a grassroot organization, who worked specifically with Tucson Families Free and Together on the sanctuary city measure and was at the meeting to support it.
"The majority of this country.... understands that the loudest voices happening right now are kinda ridiculous. And I think the laughter is resonating because that's how people feel right now," he said, explaining the reason behind his now-famous laughter.
In another interview with Mashable, he elaborated, "I think it's a bold statement of morality that our community needs to make, given our history with the larger sanctuary movement and the community that lives here it's something that we need to pass. Families deserve to be together and all people deserve the right to feel safe.
"Who has the time in their day to come into a public space just to spread hatred and negativity? Like honestly what happened that made them so ridiculous and hateful?" he added.
Kack's current Twitter cover shows an animated version of him pointing at a cartoon Trump and laughing.