Blogger and actor George Hahn posted a video on Tuesday evening about “Navigating the nightmarish hellscape that is New York City.”
Though he recorded his video in Manhattan, over in Rochester, New York, protests have been underway for several days after the death of Daniel Prude.
In the clip, Hahn films a street where people can be seen queuing for ice cream and having dinner.
“There is people and violence and looting and fires everywhere and the streets are lined with people doing things like getting ice cream,” he says.
Hahn continues to walk down the street pretending to fret, commenting on how he understands that “people left and are not coming back because, it’s like, so scary.”
“The city’s streets are a warzone. Look, there’s more people having dinner, oh my god, and there’s people having drinks and laughing, like, what’s happening,” he says.
After a brief pause, the blogger whispers to viewers to “stop watching Fox News… now.”
Fox News has been covering the ongoing protests around New York, city and state, often focusing on scenes of violence and disorder. However, it is not clear if any specific coverage prompted Hahn to release his satirical video.
Over the past weekend, a splinter group broke out from a larger peaceful march and caused damage to storefronts and shop windows in Lower Manhattan. Police arrested eight people.
A recent Fox News article said: “New York City police arrested several rioters in Manhattan on Friday night after several buildings were vandalized, reportedly causing thousands of dollars in damage. The rioters were a small segment of a larger peaceful protest that saw marchers travel down Lafayette Street.”
Of the protests taking place in Rochester, the article said that “rioters set fires, vandalized property and threw objects at police, who declared the unrest an unlawful assembly after the evening started peacefully.”
While protests are underway across the country in response to various incidents of police brutality, in New York recent protests have been focused on the death of Daniel Prude, following the release of the footage of his arrest by Prude’s family.
The initial police narrative was that Prude had suffered a drug overdose and stopped breathing while being arrested, for which he was taken to hospital where he died two weeks later.
This version was scrutinized by his family after the video of his arrest was released, which showed seven officers involved and Prude not resisting apprehension.
Rochester Police Department Chief La’Ron Singletary and a number of other senior police have stepped down from their positions following backlash and protests.
