Ninja Breaks His Silence On Jake Paul Looting Scandal
Jake Paul, a YouTuber known for his controversial videos and brash attitude, is facing charges after videos surfaced that seemed to show him looting the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, Ariz. Paul and some of his team members were at the mall making content during a Black Lives Matter protest. Paul has since been facing backlash from the community for apparently taking stolen goods from one of the destroyed shops broken into during the event.
Paul defended himself from the allegations on Twitter, insisting that he and his group were there only to record what was happening, not to loot or vandalize. He called the protests a response to horrific injustices, and said that while he doesn't condone violence or breaking the law, he understands why people have been driven to do so.
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, a popular streamer on Mixer who has spoken out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, wasn't having it.
"He made this statement like, 'I was just trying to show support, shed light, bring awareness...'" Ninja, imitating Jake Paul, said on his stream. "Dude, that would have been amazing, honestly, like it would have been a huge turning point."
However, while he supports what Paul claims he was trying to do, Ninja doesn't feel that his actions line up with his words.
"All he had to do was just peacefully protest, record it, spread awareness, be positive..." Ninja continued, "but instead he pulls a classic Jake Paul and records the looting and the rioting." Here Ninja is referring to Paul's pattern of attracting attention with questionable content and offensive behavior, and lamenting what he seems to think was a missed opportunity for the YouTube star to change for the better.
This is hardly Jake Paul's first brush with controversy, and Ninja is far from the first person to call him out on it. In fact, Paul seems to thrive on the attention. In his earlier days back in 2017, he was threatened with a class-action lawsuit declaring him a public nuisance, caught up in a racism allegation, and fired from his job on the Disney Channel. All this controversy didn't seem to hurt him, though — in fact, the attention catapulted his viewership higher than ever.
Paul has been trying to take the attention he's been getting for the looting scandal and shift it to the protests. "[G]imme my charges and let's put the focus back on George Floyd and Black Lives Matter," he wrote in response to the breaking story, continuing to push the idea that he was only there as an observer trying to raise awareness. Video evidence, however, seems to disagree with Jake Paul's account of the night in question, and many claim that the clip shows him taking stolen goods from a friend or team member.
Ninja isn't the only one taking Paul to task over the criminal charges he's facing now. Jake's brother Logan, another huge YouTube star and no stranger to controversy himself, made this statement:
"I love him, but I don't always like him [...] Sometimes I do not understand why he does the things he does, as I'm sure he feels about me. Why he was inside of a mall that was being looted, I have no idea [...] It was very unfortunate but very on-brand for Jake Paul to magically be seen at a looting site."
That statement comes from episode 189 of Logan's podcast "Impaulsive." However, while he condemned Jake for going to the event, Logan went on to say that there was no way his brother was looting. He didn't mince words, saying that anyone who thought Jake was stealing from the mall was "a f—ing moron."
Jake Paul faces charges for criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly, which are both misdemeanors. The charges come from him being present in a closed mall, and refusing to leave after a police helicopter ordered the crowd to disperse. Neither charge has any relation to looting or vandalism.