Wait, so people are upset that the situation was handled poorly by one admin who should have asked for help?
Weren't those people a big part of the reason for the whole situation to arise in the first place?
Most of the people that got involved in the "mob aspect" of it only did so after the bans became ridiculous in the first place. Yes a few bad apples started the situation, but the initial use of the slur was by firebus, telling someone to kill themselves, and he did not get banned at all.
People weren’t being banned proportionally to their offense, instead they were being banned in increasing severity in order of participation in the event. Additionally the later threat to wipe people's characters if it happened was completely ludicrous and unprecedented in this community, despite several worst cases that did result in permanent bans.The situation was handled poorly in server, poorly on the forums, and was entirely avoidable in the first place.
The entire situation is ugly, but the escalation of the situation was as much caused by the disproportionate admin response as it was by the offenders.
Edit: Now that is not to say that the offenders in question did not deserve a ban for the chat riot that occurred. But 30-90 days on a first time chat abuse offense? In a situation like that you start with mutes, then go to 1 hour-1 day bans if absolutely necessary. Sure you could still wind up with 19 people banned, but when 19 people complain you banned them for 1 hour for saying 'friend' then no one is going to say they didn't deserve it.