YouTube streamer faces riot charge after Union Square Park erupts in chaos

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Union Square Park where he planned to give away video game consoles descended into mayhem, drawing a crowd estimated at several thousand young people. In addition to the riot count, the livestreamer, Kai Carlo Cenat III, was expected to be charged with unlawful assembly and, potentially, other crimes, Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York Police Department's chief of department, said at a news conference late Friday. The episode, which began shortly after 3 p.m.

and was effectively over by 6 p.m., resulted in 65 arrests (nearly half of them of juveniles); injuries to officers and some of those in the crowd; and damage to food carts, police vehicles and stores, officials said. «It was uncontrolled. It took us a while to get it under control.

And a lot of young people got hurt,» Maddrey said, speaking against the backdrop of a trash-littered plaza at one of two news conferences held after the park had been cleared. Cenat and another streamer, Fanum, had announced plans to hand out PlayStation 5 consoles at the park at 4 p.m. The two are members of the streaming group AMP, which has legions of fans on YouTube and the streaming site Twitch.

Cenat's YouTube channel has more than 3.6 million followers. The event was spontaneous and came together without a city permit, Maddrey said. Police learned of the gathering from a social media post around midday, he added.

By 3 p.m., he said, «the post had gone viral.» At that point, he said, «the event grew exponentially, rapidly, vast.» Hordes of young people were soon packing the park and spilling onto the surrounding streets and sidewalks, where they blocked cars and pedestrians. The popular Union Square Greenmarket shut down early. Subway trains began bypassing the Union Square station.