A man who livestreamed himself drinking and dancing outside Friday night in Cincinnati, huddling close together with over 20 other people and bragging that they did not care about the risk of catching COVID-19, was arrested Saturday afternoon by Cincinnati police.
Rashaan Davis, 25, stands charged with a second-degree misdemeanor for violating Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton’s “stay at home order,” which commands Ohioans to keep a six-foot distance from one another and avoid leaving their homes for non-essential activities.
“This is how we celebrate our coronavirus,” Davis says at one point in the recording, which was originally streamed on Facebook but later reposted to YouTube. He repeatedly mentioned his hope that the video would be picked up by Worldstarhiphop, a content aggregation site known for spreading clips of fights and other shocking public confrontations.
"Man, f*** corona," another attendee shouted in a separate recording of the same party.
Davis and other attendees referred to the gathering as “Club Shell” — a reference to the Shell gas station in the background of the video — and posted on social media that they planned to meet again.
“Y’all turnt but this is not the time,” one Facebook commenter wrote on the stream.
“I’m about to call the Health Department right now,” wrote another.
Over 55,000 people watched the stream, according to court documents. Police requested Davis be given a high bond, if any.
“This particular offense is egregious in nature due to the fact arrested publicly acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic and incited others to violate the ‘stay at home’ order,” wrote the arresting officer.
City officials weighed in, too.
"Videos of our people defying the state-at-home order and social distancing recommendation pisses me off for several reasons," wrote Councilman Jeff Pastor on Facebook. "Chief among those reasons, it’s selfish and potentially harmful to those whose immune systems are compromised.
"I poured my heart out yesterday about how difficult it is for me and others to balance our inclination for freedom with our desire to protect the masses from a worsening pandemic. That does not mean I am going to throw a block party!
Stop that dumb ****, hang in there. We are all in this together."
