A Staten Island man was shamed on Facebook this week after a video circulated of him walking down a residential street ripping Blue Lives Matter ribbons off of trees and signposts. The cellphone video, filmed by local Steve Worona, escalates into a shouting match between himself and the man pulling down the ribbons, identified by the Staten Island Advance as one Stephen Varvaro.
Here's a bit of their exchange, punctuated with heavily-accented insults:
Varvaro: Black lives matter! Black lives matter!
Worona: All lives matter! All lives matter! Blue lives save all lives!
Varvaro: Whatever, bro.
Worona: You're disgusting.
Varvaro: You're disgusting.
[....]
Varvaro: All lives are not being prosecuted right now—black lives are.
The video ends with Varvaro ripping off a ribbon, kissing it, and dropping it like he's dropping a mic:
The Advance reports that families of local cops hung the ribbons around the neighborhood shortly after five Dallas police officers were fatally shot in early July. Days previous, three black men had been killed at the hands of police officers, prompting large-scale Black Lives Matter protests in New York City and across the country.
The online response to Varvaro's act was swift and threatening, and came primarily from people who found his actions offensive. Many sent messages to a hair salon where Varvaro apparently used to work.
Varvaro told the Advance today that while the threats are an overreaction, he's sorry for tearing the ribbons.
"What I thought they meant was to hell with Black Lives Matter," he said. "I assumed, I was hasty, I acted in anger. I didn't see blue when I saw the blue ribbons, I saw red and I was angry and I lost control."
