Two men who live in the same Upper East Side building have been arrested and charged with hate crimes after allegedly hurling racist insults at a Black woman and setting her boots on fire in Chelsea last week, police said.
Michael Santiago, 31, and Michael James, 33 — who both live in a rental building on East 94th Street near Second Avenue — were arrested Thursday and hit with a litany of charges including attempted assault as a hate crime, criminal mischief as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime, aggravated harassment (three counts each), arson, and criminal tampering.
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The two are known online as “ScrubsNYC,” a YouTube streaming account where they post videos of themselves provoking strangers on city streets. According to the New York Post, they were live-streaming their reaction to media coverage of the incident when police took them into custody.The confrontation took place on February 19 at around 2:50 p.m. near West 26th Street and 7th Avenue. According to police, one of the men approached the 54-year-old victim and tried to kiss her. When she pushed him away, he began making anti-Black statements while his companion recorded with a smartphone on a tripod.
As the woman attempted to leave, the two men blocked her path, police said. One of them then produced a lighter and set her boots on fire. The victim fled the scene and later reported the incident to police. No injuries were reported, and the damaged boots were valued at approximately $89.
@ScrubsNYC
Video of the encounter, which circulated widely online, shows one of the suspects — wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat — directing explicit and racist language at the woman. The victim recorded the exchange on her own phone and provided the images to police.
“This video does not represent who my brother is as a person,” Michael James’ brother, Matthew, told the New York Times in an interview, confirming that it was in fact his brother in the video. “My brother obviously was unwell at the time of this incident.”
The ScrubsNYC YouTube page, which has less than 1,700 subscribers (they’ve been at this for years), describes the pair as “IP2” streamers and references Arte Povera, an Italian avant-garde art movement from the 1960s. Their videos show a pattern of confrontational behavior, including lying in traffic, entering businesses uninvited, and making provocative comments to passersby.
Their arraignments were pending in Manhattan Criminal Court as of Thursday afternoon.
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