A social media influencer with 200,000 followers on Instagram was arrested by police during the riots and looting in Philadelphia early Tuesday morning.
Dayjia Blackwell, a 21-year-old Instagram influencer, was arrested by police and accused of leading a “caravan of looters from store to store.”
Blackwell, who goes by the name “Meatball,” could be seen in the video screaming “Everyone must eat” and “Free iPhones!.”
Dayjia Blackwell, aka known as "Meatball," posted livestream videos inciting #BLM rioting and looting in Philadelphia. She was one of the approximately 20 who was arrested following mass looting targeting a liquor store, Lululemon, Footlocker, Apple and others. https://t.co/Avrtbe5Rnx pic.twitter.com/C68OpSThKt
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 27, 2023
Police picked her up mid-rant later that evening.
“I just want to say thanks to everybody that, ya know, cared for me. Ain’t nothing never been nothing,” Blackwell said in an Instagram story. “I ain’t done anything like this in my life.”
Maybe not, but Meatball learned the language of victimhood very easily.
“I can’t believe this I’m traumatized the way they treated me in the jails wow this what these people do to us black people 60!” Blackwell wrote on Instagram. “Whatever I gotta do to remain humble and live a better life I will! I will never see jail again. I felt like I did years.”
Six businesses in a single retail corridor of North Philadelphia were looted, including three pharmacies, a hair salon, a tax preparation company and a cellphone store, according to the North 22nd Street Business Corridor, a business group.
Photos of the destructive wake show a sporting goods store at a mall with mannequins and sneakers scattered about; an Apple Store and a T-Mobile store with phones and accessories toppled over; and several businesses with shattered glass windows and smashed metal door gates.
Authorities made more than 50 arrests, including one burglary suspect who was out on bail for a major murder case from last year.
Related: How Bad Is Crime in Philadelphia? Bad Enough for a Cheesesteak Joint to Hire Armed Security
Meatball, inadvertently — or, perhaps, accidentally — let slip the notion that looting was justified because the protests over a Philadelphia police officer who shot a Hispanic man in his car after he threatened the officer with a knife were righteous — despite a judge bravely tossing the murder charges brought by the city’s resident Soros-backed prosecutor, Larry Krasner.
“This is what happens when we don’t get justice in this city,” announced Instagram and TikTok influencer Dayjia Blackwell, a k a Meatball, in one of her posts as she joined in the “Free iPhones!” fun.
Yes, she’s an absolute meathead: She and some of her heroes got nabbed by police because of her cheering livestream, as they used her Instagram Stories feed to track down the goons’ exact position amid the chaos.
Now her video and photos — depicting the mass plunder of an Apple store, a Foot Locker, a Lululemon and a liquor store (of course) — can be evidence.
That the woman had no idea of the consequences of her actions is astonishing. Because of that, I doubt very much if this is the last time we see Meathead out in front of a “social justice” riot.
She just had too much fun.
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