YouTuber Jake Paul sparked outrage among fans for documenting the looting and vandalism of a mall in Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday night.
The 23-year-old It’s Everyday Bro singer, who was not seen destroying the shopping center, was videoed and photographed at the scene with pals.
Among the chaos of broken glass and windows, Paul shared videos of his ‘bleeding eyes’ after being tear gassed by law enforcement officers.
No sympathy: YouTuber Jake Paul sparked outrage among fans, while documenting the looting and vandalism of a mall in Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday night
YouTube star Jake Paul and his friends were caught ¿looting¿ and trashing property in a Scottsdale mall last night amid protests pic.twitter.com/KyrE87TvA9
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 31, 2020
‘Bunch of f**king idiots, bro. Literally I walked right here, right up to there,’ the controversial star said with distain in his voice, while pointing to armed policemen.
He added: ‘These f**king idiots teargassed me. I ain’t doing s**t, bro. Look at them pointing guns at me.’
In his video, he captured a cloud of tear gas in the air and the sound of a woman yelping outside an Apple store, which he captioned: ‘America is in ruins.’
On the scene: The 23-year-old It’s Everyday Bro singer, who was not seen destroying the shopping center, was videoed and photographed at the scene with pals; pictured in January
While the ex of Tana Mongeau claimed to have done no wrong, in since-deleted videos from his videographer Andrew Blue’s social media accounts Paul can clearly be seen wandering among rioters in an upscale shopping mall.
As looters grab merchandise and others destroy property within the plaza, he simply observed the chaos.
‘To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism,’ Paul wrote an Instagram Story Sunday morning .
‘We were gassed and forced to keep moving on foot,’ Paul detailed. ‘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’
He added: ‘We spent the day doing our part to peacefully protest one of the most horrific injustices out country has ever seen, which led to us being tear-gassed for filming the events and brutality that were unfolding.’
‘We were gassed and forced to keep moving on foot,’ he detailed. ‘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.’
Paul also reiterated that he does not ‘condone violence, looting, or breaking the law,’ but understands the ‘anger and frustration that led the destruction’ he witnessed.
Witnesses: His friend Blue released a similar statement hours before saying, ‘Just for clarity, I am a videographer and my job is to document virtually everything’
His friend Blue released a similar statement hours before saying, ‘Just for clarity, I am a videographer and my job is to document virtually everything. We were strictly documenting the situation and doing our part to use our platform to raise awareness about the horrific event and overall injustice,’ Blue wrote on his Instagram Story.
‘Nobody with us was looting or vandalizing, bit it certainly was tragic to see and while we understand the frustration, we don’t condone or support any behavior like that’ he furthered.
Also on his own social media, Paul has condemned police brutality in recent days.
Tone-deaf: His images and footage, however, garnered no sympathy from fans, who slammed the star for ’embodying white privilege’
His images and explanation, however, did not garner any sympathy from fans, who slammed the star for ’embodying white privilege.’
One Twitter user wrote his decision to ‘publicly victimize’ himself being tear gassed, while ‘showing up with vlog cameras only to loot and trash the city is beyond unacceptable.’
‘If you’re not coming to fight for black lives, don’t come at all,’ the same person concluded.