A wannabe social media influencer went viral this week when he handed out 18-inch machetes and booze to homeless folks in Austin and New Orleans in a weird stunt he insisted was for his or her profit.
Keith Castillo — who goes by “povwolfy” — posted a video on Thanksgiving to TikTok and Instagram that garnered greater than 14 million views.
“Right here, need one in every of these?” Castillo says as he distributed the possibly lethal weapons.
“Hell yeah, man,” one man responds as he accepts the free blade.
One lady asks for “another.”
A caption reads, “Retaining the homeless within the streets,” apparently mocking the plight of these with no place to name their very own.
The stainless-steel Gordon-brand machetes had been nonetheless wrapped in packaging. Castillo instructed The Submit he bought them in bulk from on-line retailer Harbor Freight for much less then $5 every.
In one other video posted on Nov. 22, Castillo fingers out 4 unwrapped machetes alongside handles of vodka to folks on an unidentified Massive Straightforward again street.
distributes an unsheathed machete and a deal with of vodka. povkarson/instagram
In a Nov. 20 submit, the influencer distributed seven machetes that he termed “massive ass swords” in what he claimed was an effort to maintain homeless of us secure. Critics didn’t react kindly.
“Retaining them secure [no], making them harmful [yes],” Instagram consumer “xraydepartment254” commented.
The 29-year-old instructed The Submit he was on a nationwide tour which started in October, and is at present in Little Rock, Ark., the place he’s as soon as once more “handing out alcohol and machetes to the homeless.”
“I’ve like 30 machetes in my automobile proper now,” he stated with amusing. “Dude, they’re low-cost.”
“I journey round, bulk file in a single metropolis after which for my security go to a different metropolis, do the identical factor there for like two weeks and type of like journey round,” Castillo stated.
To date, he’s armed homeless of us in Austin, New Orleans, and Little Rock — however he has his sights set on bigger skylines.
“I’ve plans to go to Vegas, Skid Row [in L.A.] quickly,” Castillo stated.
“I needs to be in New York in January, I’ve a whole lot of associates on the market,” he stated. “Go hand out a bunch of machetes and fireballs there, too.” The fireballs he referred to are one-ounce bottles of 66-proof Cinnamon whisky.
something unlawful. povkarson/instagram
The Corpus Christi, Texas, native stated he spoke to police about handing out machetes and was assured he wasn’t doing something unlawful.
Castillo additionally doesn’t suppose he’s doing something immoral and believes the homeless folks won’t use the blades to harm him or anybody else.
“These are for, like, software functions. They’ve zero intent for what persons are claiming they need to do with the [machetes],” Castillo stated.
He expressed no second ideas on handing out alcohol to potential substance abusers.
“Truthfully I actually don’t care bro, it’s good for the clicks and views, you already know,” Castillo stated. “Gotta do what we’ve got to take action we eat.”
The NYPD didn’t touch upon the approaching stunt or its legality. However regulation enforcement consultants had been aghast.
“That feels like a cocktail for catastrophe — alcohol and machetes. Might we get any dumber?” stated retired NYPD Sgt. and John Jay School of Legal Justice professor Joseph Giacalone, who added that “possession of a machete isn’t towards the regulation.”
The movies posted to Castillo’s unique “povwolfy” Instagram account every have lengthy, pro-forma ads for betting firm Stake of their caption part.
Stake, the Austin Police Division, the Little Rock Police Division, and the New Orleans Police Division didn’t reply to requests for remark.
