Following the thousands-strong crowds that gathered in Union Square in New York City for a giveaway, which resulted in hundreds of people being arrested and numerous police officers being hurt, social media star Kai Cenat has been charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly.
Cenat announced during a Twitch live on Wednesday that he would be throwing a “huge giveaway” on Friday at 4 p.m. in Union Square Park. Cenat has more than 4 million subscribers to his channel on YouTube, more than 5 million to his Instagram account, and 6.5 million to Twitch.
He said that they would be handing out PCs, Play Station 5s, microphones, keyboards, cameras, gaming seats, headphones, and gift cards from a truck in Union Square during the webcast. He remarked, “I think New York really deserves it.
At one of two press conferences held on Friday, NYPD Commissioner Jeffrey Maddrey stated that people started congregating at the park around 3 p.m. The park and the nearby streets quickly became congested with people, preventing both pedestrian and vehicle circulation, he claimed.
At the second briefing, he remarked, “We went from 300 kids to a couple of thousand kids in minutes.”
The large crowds prompted the NYPD to activate its highest level of disaster response, “Level 4”. The government had previously declared that a “Level 2” reaction had been launched to manage the people and vacate the area.
