Twitch streamers earn from their content by having fans watch their livestreams. Some of them, like Kai Cenat, decided to give back to the fans through a giveaway event. However, it turned out for the worse when thousands crowded the scene, making it hard to control the attendees and leading to a riot.
Cenat was Held, Charged, and Released
Around 2,000 people showed up at Cenat's event in Union Square, and the crowd immediately swarmed the content creator upon arrival of his bus along with his bodyguards. His fans had gotten rowdy to the point that some were arrested for it.
It turns out that Cenat did not have a permit for the event. As a result of the unintended riot, the streamer was charged with at least two counts of inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. Overall, there had been 65 arrests which include 30 juveniles.
Due to the intensity of the riot, some of the officers along with other civilians were sent to the hospital to have their injuries tended to. According to The Verge, at least one teenager was harmed by fireworks and others sustained fractures.
Reports say that the crowd called for almost 1,000 police officers for it to be controlled. The NYPD sent out a Level 4 Mobilization which led to Cenat being escorted away by the police. Even then, the vehicle was still surrounded by his fans.
NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey says that they did hold the Twitch streamer, although they did not disclose which precinct he was in. He was already released from custody on Saturday, but he is required to appear in court on August 18th.
The Giveaway
Kai Cenat is the most-subscribed streamer on Twitch, celebrating the fact that he had reached 300,000 active subscribers. The content creator started out on YouTube before he moved on to the live-streaming platform in 2021 playing titles like GTA and NBA.
He was also known to frequent the "Just Chatting" section on Twitch, as well as hang out with the popular rapper, Ice Spice, according to Kotaku. During his years on YouTube, he was popular for doing comedy skits, pranks, and other content.
He arranged the event in Union Square, New York City on August 4th with the promise of giving away things like $100 gift cards, PCs, and PlayStation 5 consoles. Before the streamer headed out to the meet, he addressed his fans telling them to be safe.
He even acknowledged that there was already a huge number of people who attended in a stream before heading to the event, adding that the police is already in "full force" and used tear gas on some of the attendees to control the crowd.
Content creators gathering a huge crowd is not new. In fact, when MrBeast opened his restaurant on September 4th at the American Dream Mall, over 10,000 people had fallen in line to order. Despite the huge crowd, bigger than Cenat's, there were no reported incidents in the event.
