2023 Union Square riot

On August 4, 2023, at approximately 3:30 p.m. EDT, internet personality Kai Cenat held a purported giveaway of gaming-related items in Union Square, Manhattan, while not having a permit for the gathering. The event, which drew thousands of participants to Union Square Park, became a riot. Social media posts of the event surfaced around the same time.

Cenat was taken into police custody by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) during the riot and was charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. He appeared in court on August 16 and 18. His business partners at Any Means Possible apologized for the riot. Cenat would also apologize in a livestream on August 9. The incident led to discussion and debate about the influence of internet personalities.

Background

Kai Cenat is an American livestreamer and YouTuber. He attended Frederick Douglass Academy and the State University of New York at Morrisville. At this time, Cenat traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to work with a group of Internet personalities called Any Means Possible (AMP), which he joined in 2020. The following year he gained popularity after producing a series of livestreams with Drake, 21 Savage, Toosii and Lil Baby. In February 2023, the United Talent Agency announced that they would represent Cenat during his subathon. At the end of the livestream, he had amassed 300,000 Twitch subscribers, a record for the platform. As of August 2023, Cenat has a cumulative 11.1 million followers across YouTube and Twitch.

Union Square, the location of the riot, was named after the intersection of Broadway and the city's 19th-century street grid. The Union Square station, where several New York City Subway routes converge, allowed large amounts of people to easily access the square.

In the days preceding the gathering, Cenat announced that he would give away PlayStation 5 consoles at 4 p.m. in Union Square along 14th Street, where he would be joined by Fanum, Duke Dennis and Agent00, three Twitch streamers. All four men are members of AMP. In a livestream on August 2, Cenat claimed that he would give away gift cards, headphones, gaming chairs, computers, webcams, keyboards, and microphones to attendees who could correctly answer questions about YouTube and live streaming. He called this mission "get off the streets and go stream". The video was viewed two million times. Despite not having secured a permit for a gathering at Union Square, Cenat posted on Twitter that he would be live streaming the event at 3:30 p.m. According to Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times, this is not Cenat's first giveaway: in July 2023, he surprised a Massachusetts woman whom he used to visit with, by giving her $20,000, saying she was "a second mother to him", and that she deserved it. The woman, Cathy Parker, was "reluctant to accept the money."

Union Square riot

By 3 p.m., a large crowd had gathered in Union Square, many of whom were drawn to the event by word of mouth from sources outside of Cenat's fans. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) became aware of the gathering at the same time, as dozens of people began converging. By 3:30 p.m. the NYPD had mobilized dozens of officers to the area and established a perimeter; the crowd took down barriers and conflict broke out between police and members of the mob. Members of the crowd climbed upon a gazebo, street signs, vehicles including a bus, and a George Washington statue, with some throwing bottles at officers and other objects at car windows. Social media posts of the riot surfaced at the same time. According to the NYPD, individuals walked around with shovels and axes taken from a nearby construction site, while others lit fireworks. A CBS New York helicopter captured a man emptying a fire extinguisher on a crowd of people.

The NYPD called on an estimated 1000 officers to respond as part of a level four mobilization at around 4:30 p.m.,the highest level of response of the police department. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had subway trains bypass the 14th Street–Union Square station. A nearby Best Buy, an eyeglass shop, and the Union Square Greenmarket were forced to close early. At least two thousand people came to the event, though the NYPD estimated that three to five thousand people were present. Cenat appeared in a black SUV on a livestream with gift cards worth US$100 and claimed that police were throwing tear gas. Seconds later, he exited the SUV and was swarmed by fans. The NYPD pushed the crowd north; By 5:30 p.m. the number of participants had begun to decrease with the police eventually blocking the entrances to Union Square. In an Instagram livestream from a police car, Cenat told the crowd to go home.

At least nine people were injured according to the NYPD. Four people were taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel, while two others were taken to Lenox Hill Hospital. Three officers were injured, and NYPD chief Jeffrey Maddrey was among officers who had objects thrown at them. A witness reported not being able to breathe. Maddrey also reported that a 17-year-old was wounded by a large firecracker. At approximately 5:00 p.m., Cenat was released on his own accord after being charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. Police filled an MTA bus with prisoners; at least 65 people at the event were arrested, including 30 juveniles. The bus was attacked by other people attempting to free those on board. In a press conference, chief Maddrey claimed that multiple police cars and food carts had been destroyed.

Aftermath

The incident polarized Internet users and became an Internet meme. Rapper Offset criticized the police for arresting Cenat. Cenat appeared in court on August 16, following his release from police custody on August 5. He appeared in court again on August 18. In May 2024, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg dropped charges against Cenat, Denzel Dennis, and Muktar Din, in exchange for an apology and US$57,000 in restitution.

At a press conference, Maddrey stated, "When I go back later on this evening, I will have an after-action determine exactly what our steps were. We can't allow this to happen again in the future". New York City mayor Eric Adams praised police for their "quick work" in dispersing the crowd. In a statement on August 5, Cenat's streaming group AMP apologized for the riot. In his first public appearance after the riot, Cenat held up a New York Daily News issue and apologized in a livestream on August 9, while announcing that he would take a break from livestreaming. He said that he was "beyond disappointed in anybody who became destructive that day."

After a video spread on social media depicting two police officers smashing a man in a red sweatshirt's head into a taxi window, the Civilian Complaint Review Board began an investigation looking into the incident and others from the day. On August 25, Night, a talent management firm based in Austin, Texas, announced the acquisition of LFM Management, another talent management company based in New York, placing Night as talent management for Cenat and other AMP members.

Analysis

The incident generated discourse about the outsized influence of internet personalities. Following the event, Mayor Adams stated in a press briefing that "children cannot be raised by social media," while researcher Megan Moreno stated in an NPR interview that the incident "does speak to how much investment people can place within these parasocial relationships".

In a Wired article comparing the event to similar internet-based incidents, University of Sydney lecturer Mark Johnson opined on the role of social media (such as the interactivity of Twitch) on the relationships between streamers and their fans. Johnson described the occurrence as an example of "emergent behavior", where internet users transition from interacting online to entering the real world. The article also claimed that Cenat was "the first Twitch streamer to be charged with inciting a riot".

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