Police say they plan to charge US YouTuber Kai Cenat after a video games console giveaway event he organised sparked mayhem in New York.
Thousands of people rampaged through Union Square in anticipation of free PlayStation 5 devices, hurling bottles, stones and tins of paint.
Mr Cenat could be charged with multiple counts of inciting a riot and unlawful assembly.
Police say they made more than 60 arrests.
People first gathered at about 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT) after Mr Cenat posted on social media - where he has more than 10 million followers and subscribers - that he would be handing out 300 PlayStations.
By 15:00, hundreds had piled on to streets surrounding one of New York’s busiest train stops.
They climbed cars and the train station entrance’s roof and threw bottles at responding police officers.
During a livestream inside a vehicle near Union Square as the disorder was unfolding, Mr Cenat said: "They’re throwing tear gas out there.
“We’re not going to do nothing until it’s safe. Everybody for themselves, because it’s a war out there man.”
Mr Cenat was taken into police custody at around 17:00. The crowd was finally dispersed about an hour later.
According to a CBS affiliate, Mr Cenat did not have a permit for the event, which was reportedly a collaboration with Bronx YouTube star Fanum.
NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey said: “We have encountered things like this before, but never to this level of dangerousness, where young people would not listen to our commands.”
He added: "You had people walking around with shovels, axes and other tools from the construction trade.
“In addition, individuals were also lighting fireworks. They were throwing them towards police and they were throwing them at each other.”
Mr Cenat made headlines in March after he broke the record for attracting the most Twitch subscribers by reaching 300,000.
Twitch is a livestreaming platform, where people typically play video games while chatting to viewers.
In the build-up to breaking the record, Mr Cenat launched a round-the-clock drive to boost his subscribers - chatting, gaming and interviewing guests, as well as sleeping, all on camera - for 30 days.
This appears to be the event where NYPD broke a window with a kids head. I think that’s his photo in the article pic.
https://imgur.com/a/Car6XFeServe and protect
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Jesus
To me it looks like it’s the officers fist that broke the window, not the kids face. Hopefully he wasn’t badly hurt.
Either way, wayyy too much force to detain someone who doesn’t appear to be resisting in any way.
1312
That’s insane
I coincidentally walked past on my way to an appointment at 4p and honestly the way the place was crawling with emergency cycles made me think there was a shooting or something. Haven’t seen this kind of police presence in NYC since the BLM protests in 2020.
how is Kai responsible for people “hurling bottles, stones and tins of paint” or “throwing fireworks at police”?
not filing for event paperwork though? yeah that’s a fine.
It’s about not having a permit for an event in major city. Getting a permit comes with things like making sure security/police presence to ward people off of acting like twats to begin with.
It’s also about Doubling down (on stream smh) once things already went sideways.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Police say they plan to charge US YouTuber Kai Cenat after a video games console giveaway event he organised sparked mayhem in New York.
Thousands of people rampaged through Union Square in anticipation of free PlayStation 5 devices, hurling bottles, stones and tins of paint.
People first gathered at about 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT) after Mr Cenat posted on social media - where he has more than 10 million followers and subscribers - that he would be handing out 300 PlayStations.
According to a CBS affiliate, Mr Cenat did not have a permit for the event, which was reportedly a collaboration with Bronx YouTube star Fanum.
NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey said: “We have encountered things like this before, but never to this level of dangerousness, where young people would not listen to our commands.”
In the build-up to breaking the record, Mr Cenat launched a round-the-clock drive to boost his subscribers - chatting, gaming and interviewing guests, as well as sleeping, all on camera - for 30 days.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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In what world does giving stuff away equate to incitement? It’s not like he was encouraging his fans to fight each other for the PS5s.
He has enough viewers that he basically arranged a concert in the middle of new york without telling anyone beforehand. When you have an audience his size you are legally not allowed to be as stupid as he is.
Sure but that doesn’t seem like incitement.
That depends on the local law. Setting things up in such a way that you know a crime will occur is often also considered incitement even if you never told anyone directly to do anything. Would you be more comfortable if people just said “causing a riot” because they mean the same thing here.
I think whether “he caused” a riot is a difficult question to answer without taking some strong positions on the nature of responsibility that I’m honestly not confident in.
He caused the riot. If he didn’t cause the riot and has no responsibility then we are in some weird Saw movie logic where Jigsaw technically didn’t kill anyone because he only set up the circumstances and the people killed themselves. If you are older and twelve you should be able to sort these things out.
The whole reason we have permitting for events like this is so police/security presence can be planned for to ward people off of acting like twats. By holding the event with no permit in place he created the environment for this to happen.
If he was a white rich man ranting about how the election was stolen and how his supporters need to fight and take their country back then he would have been fine.
He even said they’re not doing anything until it’s safe. Poor planning for sure but I don’t see how he’s liable
He organized an event without getting a permit.
The permitting process ensures that there’s adequate security, traffic control, etc.
He didn’t do any of that legally required stuff, and the result was an angry mob. We’ve been through this. This is why you need a permit for large public gatherings, and why he’s legally liable for what happened.
Then charge for Organizing without a permit, not inviting a riot.
Don’t worry he was charged with unlawful assembly too.
Yeah, he’s liable alright. Planning a giveaway without permitting with the city is pretty huge. I’m fairly confident that given the supply chain issues with the console, and the fact he wanted the event to take place at one of the busiest locations in NYC, the city might have denied the permit outright.
How are you enjoying summer break?
