Elon Musk responds to videos of fight in downtown Cincinnati
This story has been updated with new information.
A fight in the streets of Cincinnati that went viral this weekend has caught the attention of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who took to his own platform, X, to comment on the brutality of the attack.
The brawl involving multiple people took place seemingly late Friday night near the corner of Fourth and Elm streets. Downtown was teeming with people attending the Cincinnati Music Festival at Paycor Stadium.
Multiple fights broke out after two men had what police called a “verbal altercation.” A woman could be seen in videos of the incident knocked to the ground, possibly unconscious.
More: Cincinnati city, law enforcement leaders react to video of Downtown fight
The incident was seized upon by those who argue the current city administration, including the police chief, are not doing enough to combat crime in the city’s urban core.
Musk retweeted an End Wokeness post about the fight and commented on a Libs of TikTok post. The Libs of TikTok post emphasized the race of those of those involved, which sparked a racially charged discourse in the replies.
“That guy almost killed this woman. Aggravated assault,” Musk replied to the post.
The End Wokeness post commented on the lack of national media coverage. Musk retweeted that post, saying, “Why zero stories?”
Both Libs of TikTok and End Wokeness have a large following with 4.3 million and 3.8 million followers, respectively.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge called the behavior “cruel and absolutely unacceptable.” She said her investigators are working diligently to identify and arrest those responsible.
In a retweet of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno’s X post, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said: “Our federal hate crimes laws apply to ALL Americans” and that the division will monitor how local authorities handle this incident.
“Nobody in our great nation should be the victim of such a crime, and where race is a motivation, federal law may apply,” she added.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Elon Musk reacts to videos of fight in downtown Cincinnati on X