That's a beautiful story. There's something really powerful about standing up for people who you'd be totally justified to let rot. I think we'd be in a much better place as a species if this kind of reaction was more commonplace, especially in this time of hyper-overreaction. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
That woman is a redditor and actually chimed in on the reddit thread in the TIL community earlier today: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_that_at_a_1996_kkk_rally_in_ann_arbor/cixg55k" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_t...</a>
Commendable even without the neo-nazi angle. Jumping into an angry mob to save the victim of their aggression is incredibly dangerous. You risk the mob turning on you as well.<p>I don't know if I'd have the guts to do it.
I have noticed that Reddit's TIL subreddit (reddit.com/r/todayilearned) is becoming a source of lot of non tech articles on Hacker News including this one.
Living in Ann Arbor, it is rather odd to hear about a protest getting violent in an otherwise open minded community that is as liberal and far left as San Francisco. Mob mentality.<p>Not the same context as the article, but as an example the protests can get rather fervent and loud: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw</a>
It may not be well known outside the state but the small town of Howell which is less than thirty miles from Ann Arbor was a Northern center for Klan activity. Robert E. Miles was a grand dragon in the Klan and I remember he regularly held events at a farm along with ritualistically burning crosses which frequently made the news.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles</a><p>Most of the original followers of Miles have passed away but Howell still is unable to shake its Klan past.<p><a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale_of_two_towns_newest_rac.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale...</a>