NY electronic giveaway event sparks riot

Not only did youngsters who went to Union Square in Manhattan hoping to land a new PlayStation end up being disappointed, but many of them also ended up being arrested.

Thousands overran Union Square Park on Friday about 3 pm after a social media influencer, Kai Cenat, announced that PlayStation 5 consoles, gift cards and other electronics would be given away.

The proceedings were interrupted by police as those present impeded traffic, clambered on vehicles and threw hard objects and fireworks at each other and law enforcement.

An estimated 1,000 police officers responded to the unrest, which left some people injured.

Nearly 70 people were arrested, more than half of them juveniles, police said.

Cenat, who has 6.5 million followers on the gaming platform Twitch and 4 million subscribers on YouTube, was charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. He was released on Saturday afternoon and is due to appear in court on Aug 18.

"It reminded me of people occupying Wall Street 10 years ago," said Angel Silva, who sells "healing crystals" near the park.

"Those people were more civilized," he said. " (This) really was a riot."

Kevin Polo, owner of a small business in the area, said: "At the beginning, I didn't know what was going on. People didn't know."

He saw teenagers jumping from a bus, vandalizing things on the street and throwing things, including construction tools, fireworks and bottles, he said. "It's just unbelievable."

The chaos spurred police to activate a high-level emergency response.

"We went from 300 kids to a couple of thousands of kids in minutes," said Jeffrey Maddrey, chief of the New York Police Department, and both police officers and young people had been injured in the mayhem. "You had people walking around with shovels, axes and other tools …. Individuals were also lighting fireworks, throwing them toward the police. They were throwing them toward each other."

Regaining control

Police managed to regain control of the area at about 5 pm.

The Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, said he believed "outside influencers" may have "attempted to aggravate the situation".

"You don't come to get free GameBoys and bring smoke bombs and bring M-80s."

The gathering "could have turned really ugly", but it was not a policing issue, he said. "This is a parenting issue."

People were throwing things from construction sites, but police were abusing young people and pepper spraying everyone, he said.

A 17-year-old boy who was at the scene said: "It was a crazy day when they were chasing after the bus."

He saw no PlayStation 5 consoles, he said, but he heard Cenat hand out gift cards. "Free Kai," he said. "Free the king."

A public relations company said to be representing Cenat, AMP Group, said it had organized giveaway events before and "never experienced anything at the scale of what took place yesterday".

"We are deeply disheartened by the outbreak of disorderly conduct that affected innocent people and businesses, and do not condone that behavior. We apologize to all of those impacted. We are fully cooperating with local authorities."

Adams said Saturday during a news briefing: "I don't think people realize the level of discipline that we showed to take a very dangerous, volatile situation and to be able to bring it to a level of resolve without any loss of life or any substantial damage to property and without young people harming themselves."

Friday's chaotic event highlighted the huge impact social media livestreamers may have on people, especially on teenagers, in the United States.

"Our children cannot be raised by social media," Adams said Saturday at another news briefing.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.