YouTuber Jake Paul denies looting Arizona mall during George Floyd protests
YOUTUBER Jake Paul denied looting an Arizona mall during the George Floyd protests. The 23-year-old was filmed among a group of people breaking glass windows and destroying kiosks at the shopping center. A video surfaced on Twitter showing Jake at the Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was seen watching looters vandalize the exterior […]
YOUTUBER Jake Paul denied looting an Arizona mall during the George Floyd protests.
The 23-year-old was filmed among a group of people breaking glass windows and destroying kiosks at the shopping center.
A video surfaced on Twitter showing Jake at the Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale, Arizona.
He was seen watching looters vandalize the exterior of a P.F. Chang’s restaurant.
However, the social media star was never actually seen causing any damage at the mall.
Jake also shared videos, which have since been taken down, to his Instagram stories of him demonstrating.
He wrote over the clips “America is in ruins” and “what can we do.”
Jake also shared a photo of his face captioned: “I’m tear-gassed my eyes bleeding.”
In another video outside the mall, he said of police: “Bunch of f***king idiots, bro. Literally I walked right here, right up to there.
“These f***king idiots teargassed me. I ain’t doing s**t, bro. Look at them pointing guns at me.”
Jake recently tweeted in support of George Floyd and against police brutality.
There have been protests across the country since video footage in Minneapolis showed white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck after he was an arrest.
The former truck driver, 46, died moments later.
Jake released a statement denying his accused looting: “To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism.”
“For context, we spent the day doing our part to peacefully protest one of the most horrific injustices our country has ever seen, which led to use being tear-gassed for filming the events and brutality that were unfolding in Arizona.
We were gassed and forced to keep moving on foot. We filmed everything we saw in an effort to share our experience and bring more attention to the anger felt in every neighborhood we traveled through; we were strictly documenting, not engaging.
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He went on: “I do not condone violence, looting, or breaking the law; however, I understand the anger and frustration that led to the destruction we witnessed and while it’s not the answer, it’s important that people see it and collectively figure out how to move forward in a healthy way.
We are all doing the best we can to be helpful and raise awareness; this is not the time to attack each other, it’s time to join together and evolve.”
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