An increasingly desperate Glenn Cerio prowled the streets of Washington State in a video posted to YouTube on Friday seeking attention from police that he apparently couldn’t get from friends or family.
The YouTuber came across three King County Metro police vehicles blocking an intersection while a half a dozen officers secured the scene and were searching the belongings of an apparently homeless woman seated at a bus stop.
Cerio approached what could only be described as the tallest and most muscular of the assembled officers and began to negatively provoke the officer. The YouTuber demanded to know if the officer was purposefully blocking his path as he stopped on the sidewalk.
The officer politely said that he had no problem with Cerio filming or walking through the area, but asked if Cerio could avoid the area where they were actively investigating and interacting with the woman.
Cerio immediately escalated his attempts to provoke, stating that he would sue the officers for blocking his path and that he could go anywhere he wanted. He told the officer, “I’m free to do whatever the fuck I want. Walk past you. Brush past you. Knock your hat off…”
At the mention of knocking the hat off, an officer who apparently knew who Glenn was reminded him that knocking someone’s hat off was considered assault and he’d be taken into custody if he did so.
Cerio briefly focused his attention on the man, a Hispanic man who was shorter than Cerio, and peppered him with racial and homophobic slurs. He said that if the officers touched him, he’d touch them in return.
He then recounted a bizarre event where he supposedly “fought off twenty men” before he returned to taunting the tallest of the officers.
Cerio said that the officer had never been in a fight and that he had never had his leg kicked. He threatened that the officer would be in a dark alley at some point when he was out of uniform and then would have to face Cerio in “mutual combat.”
Unimpressed by the threat, the officer looked skeptically at Cerio and asked, “Why would I ever be in a dark alley?” To which, Cerio responded with more homophobic taunts.
The detained woman then pleaded with Cerio to stop taunting the police. He told her to be quiet because she was already in handcuffs and was not important to the situation.
Cerio now challenged all four officers near him to combined mutual combat. He said that he would have an easy time with the Hispanic officer, as he was too short to be a threat. He then stated that the older African American officer would be no problem, as Cerio was twenty years younger than him and the man was clearly disabled.
The YouTuber went on to claim that he may have had a harder time with the two remaining officers, but he was confident that his fighting experience and leg sweeping abilities would see him prevail in the fight.
Washington State allows individuals to engage in mutually agreed upon physical altercations in certain situations without the intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The participants are generally free from assault and battery charges resulting from the incident.
While it’s written as municipal code in Seattle, it is not an actual State law and charges can stem from the activities of the participants, which increase if serious injuries result from the altercation.
Cerio has relied on a “mutual combat” challenge as part of his provocation techniques, though has never carried through with an actual fight.
Friday’s video ended with police releasing the suspect and leaving the scene without incident. After the incident, Cerio criticized the woman who had been detained by police for not standing up to them but was largely ignored by her as the video ended.
The video marks another level to Cerio’s increasingly desperate behavior in recent weeks since returning to police encounters after over a year away from the activity. With his race baiting and homophobic remarks no longer working on police officers, it’s unclear what he’ll do next to get the attention he feels he deserves.
We will continue to monitor Cerio’s activities.
