MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: Several people were detained by the Montgomery authorities after a brawl broke out on Saturday, August 5, at the city’s popular Riverfront Park. The incident stemmed from an attack on a security guard by a group of boaters, The New York Times reported.
The videos related to the incident, which is now known as Alabama brawl, have since gone viral on multiple social media platforms where many people can be seen throwing punches on the dock. However, among them, one individual identified as Reggie Gray, is becoming the center of attention following his unique fighting skills while wielding a folding chair as a weapon to defend themselves.
Who is Reggie Gray?
Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert listed the names of the White suspects and charges in the riverboat fight when the authorities addressed the incident. They asked the Black male who was wielding the folding chair “contact the Montgomery Police Department for further interviews and as part of this investigation.”
The Montgomery Police Department said they "acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job," and that "warrants have been signed and justice will be served."
The folding chair meme has gone viral
The footage of the brawl prompted Twitter users, (now known as X), to memefy it and term it the 'folding chair meme'. As per police and multiple videos of the incident, the boat, Harriott II, was attempting to dock in its usual spot along the city’s Riverfront Park but was suddenly blocked by a pontoon filled with boaters.
After failing to get the pontoon to move for almost an hour, the owner of the boat, Damien Pickett, took a small boat to the dock to speak with the boaters. The 'hostile' group then started to attack Pickett, the police department noted in the press conference.
However, Pickett who is Black, began the fight outnumbered by the largely White boaters. Many Black bystanders came to his aid eventually turning the fight into an all-out battle. The clip that seems to have grasped the attention of most people is footage of the older Black man named Gray, indiscriminately hitting the White assailants over the head with a simple folding chair.
Twitter users reacted to the incident
One user tweeted, "I’m so late to this but I could watch that man BONK that white b***h over the head with that folding chair all day." Another wrote, "Oh. its the White supremacists coming to have a revolution and make America great again. Couldn't get past an old guy with a folding chair and a WWE instruction booklet." "Why did my brain see those candles as white folding chairs at first", asked one user while another tweeted, "We cannot forget, this is not about race. We are failing to notice that the folding chair was white." "Somebody bring me a white folding chair, I’m on a mission this weekend", wrote one.