Twitch streamer facing charges of inciting a riot after threatening to give away PS5s
21-year-old Kai Cenat, one of the planet's biggest streamers, is now facing charges of inciting a riot after trying to hold a giveaway event in New York
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One of the planet’s biggest streaming superstars is on the hook for charges of inciting a riot this week, as Kai Cenat—the most-subscribed Twitch streamer of all time, and a winner of multiple “Streamer Of The Year” awards at the kinds of awards shows that recognize streamers of the year—was brought in for questioning by the NYPD after an attempted giveaway for his fans led to reports of chaos in New York’s Union Park
Per Vulture, Cenat—who’s 21, and whose brand includes prank-based, self-described “mischief” from time to time—announced to his more than 15 million social media followers yesterday, “Fuck it <3 NYC! Tomorrow 8/4/23 huge giveaway at 14 St Union Square Park,” announcing that he’d be giving away “PC’s, PS5’s, gaming chairs etc,” and demanding that they “BE THERE.”
And THERE they, indeed, were with the NYPD stating that ““thousands” of “mostly young people” arrived in the park earlier today in hopes of loading up on, presumably, furniture. And while we are not immediately inclined to take the NYPD’s word entirely at face value when describing the actions of young people—and especially a group of young people who, from photos, was made up largely people of color—there do appear to have been a whole hell of a lot of people in Union Park today. The cops say that people in the crowd were throwing fireworks at each other, along with other debris, and that, “officers were attacked. We were crushed, we were pushed. We had officers on the floor.”
Ultimately, several dozen people were arrested during the incident, presumably without receiving their chairs or expensive video game consoles. (NYPD eventually put the number of arrests at 65, including 30 juveniles.) Police also said that Cenat now faces charges of inciting a riot and unlawful assembly; it’s not clear if streamer Fanum, who was a co-organizer of the event, will face similar charges.
34 Comments
Uhhh…. Next ticket off this planet, as far away from , ya know…. people, as possible? Thanks!
Man, we could really do with some of that disproportionate use of force from the cops right now.
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Try that in a small town.
Fuck you.Scratch that. I don’t want to fuck you. No one wants to fuck you. Especially the farm animals you try to force yourself on in your shit-stinking, sister-banging, bigoted and god forsaken small town.
Bro I live in Miami 😂
Too bad someone brought you out of the grays. It’s still fun to dismiss your racist, insurrectionist ass.
.
Hush now, your betters are talking.
Rich white dude is angry his attempt to rig an election backfired, and tells his supports to march to Capitol Hill and express their displeasure. The cops (mostly) stand aside and let the people do their thing, and calmly escort them (and their guns) out of the building to allow them to go home. Nothing happens.A black dude gives away free shit in New York and the police immediately arrest and charge him for rioting.Just another day in the United States.
Supremely stupid take.
An unarmed J6 rioter was shot and killed at point blank range by police, remember that? So far there are no reports of excessive force by the NYPD during this riot.
An unarmed J6 rioter was shot and killed at point blank range by police, remember that?I remember every other idiot in that corridor suddenly losing interest in whatever they were doing seconds earlier.When a cop tells you to stop, charging forward isn’t the answer. Everyone else learned it the easy way.
A J6 rioter stormed the Capitol building as part of an angry mob incited by a loser ex president attempting a half-assed coup, played stupid games, and won a stupid prize.And nothing of value was lost.
Change a few words, and you just described the rioters Kyle Rittenhouse shot.
Good thing nobody was calmly escorted to the nether realm after being shot and killed by the police or were sentenced to prison for years of their life…
To be clear, Trump and his band of fascists were attempting a coup on Jan. 6th, and with luck he dies in prison for his actions. Further, it is without question that the police apply the law far differently based on race (NYPD is, in particular, well known for this).
However, a political protest (however evil and misguided) is protected speech in a way that “cramming into Union Park in the hopes of free shit” is not.
“…allow them to go home. Nothing happens.” You are aware, aren’t you that there are over 1,000 people arrested for J6 485 of whom have received criminal charges the balance of whom are awaiting trial along with several dozen in prison yet to be formally charged. Mind you, I’m not defending the rioters but come on, that sure doesn’t seem like “Nothing happens.”
I’m pretty Axe is the sort of dude whose entire media consumption consists of twitch streamers and vidya-game news, so he probably wasn’t aware.
We need AI to replace “influencers” and “streamers.”
Would it help if instead of “streamer” they called him an “internet radio star”?
Only if Trevor Horn can strangle them with a bass string.Ah fuck it, I’m posting the live version.
Kai Cenat sounds like a Star Wars character.
a winner of multiple “Streamer Of The Year” awards at the kinds of awards shows that recognize streamers of the yearThis kind of dismissive attitude always puzzles me. Yeah, streaming is sort of a big thing, why shouldn’t there be recognition? I know you guys are fighting to, like, keep movies in movie theaters along with Spielberg and stuff, but don’t you think “Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed” ought to try to keep up with… pop culture?
I get what you’re saying and, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried my damnedest to keep from becoming the Skinner “No, it’s the children who are wrong” meme when it comes to new media that isn’t made for me and that I don’t understand.To be fair though, streamers are more akin to radio DJs and daytime talk show hosts of old rather than the books, films, or TV shows this site is built on. They’re part of a new medium, certainly, but the niche they fill is not entirely new. Many, many people like to watch/listen to a charismatic human doing their thing live for long periods of time.But, the same way I wouldn’t expect the 2000s-era AV Club to cover some random episode of Howard Stern or whatever, I don’t expect 2020s-era AV Club to cover this generation’s shock jocks except when they make headlines like this. Sure, it’s pop culture. But not really the pop culture covered here.But, yes, as much as we hate to admit it, the aging commentariat of this site are frequently the Skinner meme. That’s just how it is.
I agree with everything you’ve said. I don’t really expect AV Club to cover new media, even if they should try, but what irks me is their attitude about it. There’s this sense of, I don’t know if “elitism” is right, or “gatekeeping,” but it’s the same energy I used to get from adults who’d find it silly that my generation took comic books or cartoons more seriously than theirs did (or, excuse me, graphic novels and anime).Do I understand everything the kids are up to? Hell no. I’m fully in my middle-age, and I mostly live down to the stereotype. But I’ve at least learned enough to know to respect their interests and passions, and to expect that in ten or twenty years, it’ll likely be mainstream, and ten or twenty after that, nostalgia. As we go, I’ll never really “get” every successive new thing, but hopefully I’ll maintain enough perspective to keep me from crapping on it.
Totally! I think the best we can do is recognize the difference between something that seems bad because it’s a new medium we don’t relate to and something that’s bad because it’s bad.I have accepted that streaming on Twitch or TikTok Live or whatever is here to stay as a new medium that I just don’t relate to. That’s fine. I also don’t relate to, say, spoken word poetry. But I can still recognize that there’s spoken word poetry with artistic value and spoken word poetry that sucks. The same should be true of streamers.The best way we can not be like those shitty adults we hated growing up, is to not judge all streaming by its worst examples the way those adults of the past judged all video games off of the one crappy Atari game they half-looked at one time.
Everything I’ve seen and heard of Kai Cenat makes me think he’s a massive idiot, and by extension so are his fans.
That being said, ‘inciting a riot,’ seems kinda OTT to me. Unless evidence comes out that he wanted to cause anarchy, it would be a stretch and a pretty harsh one at that. If I was a 21-year-old millionaire this might be the kind of thing I’d do thinking ‘it would be fine.’ Maybe. ‘Unlawful assembly’ is perhaps a more reasonable charge.But I expect it’s also a matter of making an example and clamping down on this sort of dumb streamer behavior, so that there are no more similar incidents.
One more thing:And THERE they, indeed, were with the NYPD stating that ““thousands” of
“mostly young people” arrived in the park earlier today in hopes of
loading up on, presumably, furniture. And while we are not immediately
inclined to take the NYPD’s word entirely at face value when describing
the actions of young people—and especially a group of young people who,
from photos, was made up largely people of color—there do appear to have
been a whole hell of a lot of people in Union Park today.So… despite having seen the videos showing that there were thousands of mostly young people there, you… think that the NYPD might be lying when they say that there were thousands of mostly young people there?
I was watching the CBS live feed- if that wasn’t a riot, I don’t know what is. That construction site was decimated, and Cenac himself had to be picked up and bodysurfed by cops to safety in order to avoid the mob. It also didn’t help that there were several (now deleted, but news outlets have been able to capture them) posts from him about how the COPS were allegedly gassing and shooting, which a) didn’t happen and b) contrasts the live feed where the police are the ones having things thrown at them (on video, you could also see reporters being instructed to stand behind or in the middle of the police flank because they were getting pelted with water bottles and debris from the crowd). So you have thousands of kids- already excitable over free shit- being fed a lie that the popo are coming to shoot them and are reacting violently and destructively. Did he cause a bunch of idiots to act like idiots? If Trump did (and he DID), so did this dude.
Fair. Based on the clips I’ve seen, people were definitely throwing stuff at police, definitely throwing at least one firework, and definitely jumping on/stomping cars at one point. It’s unclear what happened beforehand though, so I was holding off judgment there. If what you say about Cenat is true, though, then yeah it’s not looking good for him.
Well, you can’t expect the AV Club to do some actual journalism when there’s a chance to pander to self-righteous outrage of Zoomers (although I think AVC lost out to Kotaku on that one). Plus their…creative reinterpretation…of actual news they do link to gets iffy. Besides, it’s not like they have anyone based on the east coast any more.
“Threatening to give away PS5s” is a weird way to put it. It makes it sound like he had a list of demands, or something. “I want a chopper to take me to the airport where I will be allowed to board a flight to Brazil, or so help me God, I’ll give away these consoles! I’ll fucking do it, man!”
and a winner of multiple “Streamer Of The Year” awards at the kinds of awards shows that recognize streamers of the yearThat reads so strangely to me. That’s like saying “winner of multiple “movie of the year” awards at the kinds of award shows that recognize movies of the year”
The Internet was a mistake