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Who are BLM protesters Nique Craft and Lorenzo Rulli? Here's why they screamed ‘f**k White people’ in Pittsburgh

According to reports, the group along with a female protester clad in a shirt reading 'Nazi Lives Don’t Matter' approached an older man and woman's table, grabbed their drink and walked away

Are Black Lives Matter protesters harassing and assaulting innocent people? Recently, one such incident came to light when a video went viral with a group of protesters involved in an altercation with a McDonald's restaurant manager and another employee during a demonstration in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A one-minute 29-second cellphone footage on Twitter went viral in no time showing how the protesters got together on a restaurant’s outdoor dining area Saturday, September 5, 2020, in the Steel City.

As per a New York Post report, the group along with a female protester clad in a shirt reading “Nazi Lives Don’t Matter” approached an older man and woman's table, grabbed their drink and walked away. Not just that, the same report also says that the demonstrators smacked a bicyclist. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the protesters had a face-off against police outside the home of Mayor Bill Peduto and no arrests were made during the September 5 protest. A WTAE-TV report claims that cops are investigating the two videos. 

A Facebook post detailed the incident along with the videos.  A woman named Grace Harvey shared it and wrote: “Yesterday I was enjoying a late lunch in Pittsburgh on an outdoor table when a “peaceful” demonstration came though right past us. I was shocked with what I experienced next. We witnessed demonstrators bullying, harassing and physically assaulting random people simply walking past them or quietly enjoying a meal. Drinks were taken out of restaurant patrons hands and drank before throwing to the ground. People were shaken & scared as they ran away from their tables around us.”

(Warning: The language and content in these clips is graphic and contains expletives).

In the video, one demonstrator, identified as Lorenzo Rulli, could be heard saying: “F**k the white people that built the system,” and also said, “F**k 12.” Moreover, one demonstrator yelled at the patrons even as they picked up their belongings and walked away. After the incident became the talk of the town, one protester, Nique Craft — who drank a beverage from one of the tables — narrated his side of the story to Pittsburgh Post Gazette. 

Craft, who identifies as nonbinary, defended the protesters and explained what really happened that day. He went on to narrate how three men from outside the protest were screaming “Blue lives matter” at the protesters. “I just happened to be the loudest person and literally the most colorful in every way imaginable. If you’re gonna chant and wake up buildings, you have to scream and let them know you’re there,” they said in an old interview with Pittsburgh Current, explaining how they have been notorious for screaming.

As per the same story, Craft was adopted by a White woman and learned about racism in kindergarten when a classmate asked them why their skin was a different color than their mother’s. Craft boasts of several tattoos on their body and uses they/them or alien as pronouns and narrates how it was difficult to embrace their Black heritage.

If Craft's version is to be believed, a man grabbed their hair and placed his hand on their chest to stop them from any further engagement with another man. After the feud ended, several people around them condemned the protesters’ actions and that's when a couple offered Craft to grab a beer and talk about the situation. Explaining why they drank the beverage, Craft said, “So, being a theatrical, snarky type of person that I am, I said that I don’t have time to wait for you to order another beer; I will take the one you have.” They then added, “Even though people [at the restaurant] saw that whole thing, they still saw me as an aggressor.”

Supporting Craft, Rulli who was also in the clip clad in a purple outfit and reportedly also flashed the middle finger, also reiterated that the videos showed only one side of the story and said the protesters were harassed by several agitators, as per the same report. 

“We don’t target businesses,” Rulli told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Our restaurant industry in the city supports us very much. We were talking to people that were talking to us. The beer that was consumed was an offer. The glass that fell was a mistake.” Clarifying what he did, Rulli added, “The reason I engaged the individual man and his wife is because... her husband called me ‘an embarrassment’ and ‘disgusting.’” 

Meanwhile, police spokesperson Cara Cruz wrote in an email: “Police are reviewing video and are encouraging anyone who was impacted or assaulted during Saturday's demonstrations to contact them and file a report,” adding, “An investigation will be conducted to identify the suspects and hold them accountable by filing appropriate criminal charges.” As per the report, both Rulli and Craft were arrested earlier this summer related to other protests even though other activists say those are false charges.

Now the incident has sparked much unrest on social media and people can't decide whose side to take. Many felt it was wrong to target all protesters because of one incident. "This is wrong! A few bad apples don’t represent most of the peaceful protesters," one tweet read and another replied, "Odd. Because the protesters believe that a few bad cops ruin the bunch. Why can't the same rules apply to the protesters. A few bad protesters = all bad protesters. They can't have it both ways." 

Many others slammed the protesters and the BLM movement. "Half of these idiots are the same mob in every Pittsburgh #BLM incident... mentally ill with anarchy on their mind," one tweet read and another said, "I was saying same thing because you can just see the chaos starting to boil in Pittsburgh right now at such a fast pace and our damn Mayor ain't doing nothing about it."