YouTuber Johnny Somali has been taken into custody by South Korean police for his own protection after angering locals with his controversial videos.
On Sunday, the 24-year-old Arizona native’s live stream showed him being physically assaulted by an unknown masked individual, who was later arrested. Later videos showed Somali – real name Ramsey Khalid Ismael – in the back of a police car. He can be seen drinking Soju, being disrespectful to officials and antagonising Korean citizens in clips shared to social media. “Americans have way more freedom here. These n****s protecting us, we in the back of a police car. Come and get us! Come get us!” he can be seen saying.
Since then his YouTube Channel – where he had nearly 19,000 subscribers – appears to have been taken down.
But this isn’t the first time the live streamer has angered locals with his antics. Keep reading to learn about more of his controversial moments.
Kissing comfort women statue in Seoul
Ismael has repeatedly offended South Koreans both before and during his visit to the country in October. In a now-deleted tweet from March announcing the trip, he said he planned to “slap the sh*t out of a BTS member for no reason”.
Upon arriving in the country, a live stream showed Ismael kissing and twerking on a statue representing comfort women, who were the women and girls forced to become military sex slaves by Japanese armed forces during World War II. His actions have had consequences, though. In a later stream after the incident, a passerby can be seen punching Somali in the face before grabbing his phone and throwing it into the distance.
One of Ismael’s signature shock tactics in his videos is causing public disturbances. Other videos from his trip show him playing loud, explicit sounds on public transport and getting kicked off a bus for playing North Korean music loudly.
Shouting ‘Fukushima’ at construction site workers in Osaka
South Korea isn’t the only country where the live streamer has made racially insensitive comments and upset locals. During a trip to Japan last summer, a masked Ismael and another man entered the construction site of a hotel in Osaka and filmed themselves shouting “Fukushima” – referencing the 2011 nuclear power plant disaster – at workers.
Ismael was arrested, released and then arrested again a month later for disrupting a restaurant with loud noises on his phone. Although the charges of trespassing on the construction site were dropped, the court found him guilty of obstructing a business and fined him ¥200,000 (around £1,000) before kicking him out of the country.
Atomic bomb comments in Japan
This wasn’t his only scandal during his Japan visit. His streams in the country often depicted him taunting locals in public by repeating phrases like Hiroshima and Nagasaki at them and loudly threatening to bomb the country (resulting in him being physically assaulted on the street, again).
During a visit to Tokyo Disney Resort in June 2023, Ismael recorded visitors’ reactions (without obtaining their consent) as he played offensive music referencing atomic bombs via a speaker.
Ismael’s offensiveness isn’t confined only to Asian countries. This year he received a 50-day ban from Jerusalem after pinning printed photographs of Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Jewish streamer Adin Ross to the Western Wall, a Jewish shrine. He was banned from streaming platform Kick earlier in his trip for “promoting violent behaviour” including death threats during his live streams.
Harassing a female police officer in Tel Aviv
Adding to the growing list of his arrests, Ismael was apprehended yet again in April for sexually harassing a female police officer at an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv. A video shows him making lewd and offensive comments to the officer, calling her a “b*tch” and telling her he’ll “slap that ass”. “I’ll grab it too. Donald Trump told me to grab it by the p*ssy. I’ll grab that too,” he said.
Ismael has been permanently banned from streaming platform Twitch, but has moved on to streaming other platforms including Rumble and Kick. The latter, however, has placed him under temporary bans several times due to his offensive behaviour.