It wasn't because someone was "offended by some words and a drawing". It was because Tesla broke long-established employment law by supporting a hostile work e

It wasn't because someone was "offended by some words and a drawing". It was because Tesla broke long-established employment law by supporting a hostile work environment. Nearly all of the amount is due to punitive damages - $175,000 in damages for emotional distress and $3 million in punitive damages. That's meant to punish Tesla for unlawful activity and deter them from doing so again. (In the original trial it was $6.9 million in compensatory damages and $130 million in punitive damages. That's the amount that then got knocked down to a $15M offer.) (Two other options to deter this behavior are strong government oversight, and strong unions, but the US has decided to go the court-based punitive damage route instead.) Scrawled swastikas on the wall are hardly characterized as "some words and a drawing." And Tesla management's lack of activity is part of the problem.