BTS cancels hi-touch for New York City following threats against Rap Monster’s life

[slowitdownbaby.livejournal.com]

If you think it's funny and call this a joke, this totally ain't funny at all. What has life done to you? #TRBinNYC pic.twitter.com/lq7iWlWPPV

— BTS A.R.M.Y (@BTS_ARMY) July 17, 2015

On July 16th, it was announced that BTS has cancelled their hi-touch event for New York City on their The Red Bullet US nationwide tour.

According to various fan accounts, the hi-touch and photo-op events of their New York City concert were cancelled after threats were made against Rap Monster’s life through SNS. Many speculate that the posts originated from a recent controversial interview that the group had in Australia.

In said interview, some felt that Rap Monster made a colorist statement when talking about the first impressions he had of his fellow members. He shared, “Well, when I first saw V and J-Hope I couldn’t see them because they were too black. So…yeah, when the nights get dark, I couldn’t find them.”

A post made by a user on Twitter has especially gone viral as the Tweet includes the photo of a toy gun as well as the message, “Just brought my gun it’s about to go down RIP namjoon.” This user has since then deactivated the account.

Fans have captured footage of city police arriving at the scene and accounts note that the concert was cut short as well.

No official statements have yet been made on the hi-touch events of following events and BTS’ Twitter has posted a message thanking their fans in New York but remained silent on the cancellations.



Source: Koreaboo, Twitter

Comments

SMH

[slowitdownbaby.livejournal.com]

Re: SMH

[keyutie.livejournal.com]

this idiot tweets about how she got hacked then a tweet later "I was just joking, I googled the photo"

such an asshole. she ruined so many people's night.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

ooooohhh boy, why do people have to take things too far

[chasing-thewind.livejournal.com]

Hmm... toy gun or not, those kind of statements aren't funny. That kind of hostility sends the wrong message as it doesn't get across WHY Rapmon was wrong and only focuses on drawing attention to, imo, really over the top actions. I feel as though things like this only shut idols off from wanting to learn more as any good, well-meaning, and educated comments are lost in the shadow of incidents like this. It's a pity, but hope that Rapmon was able to understand the insensitivity of his comment and not be too upset over this to learn... Joking about killing someone is never amusing.

[kiki3291.livejournal.com]

I feel for the fans and hope they get full refunds and hopefully another show here in the future. :/

I feel for the guys and hope they are okay. Death threats are never okay. This is just not something you can ever joke about. Especially not here in NYC.

[keyutie.livejournal.com]

I heard they're not giving out refunds. =\

[shintotchi.livejournal.com]

I just saw this on my tlist a few hours ago (the threat), and now I see the cancellation. I will lose my freaking shit if they cancel hi-touch and cut the concert short for Dallas. Who thinks this is funny? Why the heck would you do that!?!

I totally understand them protecting BTS, but at the same time, I hope they give some kind of refund to the fans who paid so much for VIP, and got the short end of the stick. Here's to hoping I'm not about to be one of them.

I'm really shocked though. The first time BTS come over here for a full concert, and just because one member says something you don't like, you make a threat? And you know, I don't even think it was legit or serious, but that shit was so idiotic that it's giving me a headache to think about how badly it could screw up this whole tour and any future events in the US. I'm just pissed.

[kar0n.livejournal.com]

I've seen some reports saying the hi-touch is cancelled for all cities :(

[donutism.livejournal.com]

When will people stop using death threats as a joke. Poor fans and bts :(

[keyutie.livejournal.com]

I'm so mad for the people that were at the show. They paid good money to watch it and they didn't even get the full experience because of some dumbass who decided to tweet a 'joke'.

Death threats are not funny. I hope she gets sued.

[stellar-13.livejournal.com]

Death threats are never funny. I hope they take some sort of action too.

[pippopippo.livejournal.com]

all the future hitouch events are cancelled too.

afaik that's not confirmed yet, but I really hope not. :(

[UPDATE] No decision made yet on hi-touches in other cities on #TRBinUSA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/TRBinUSA?src=hash). Details are still being figured out.... (cont)

— moonROK (@moonROKnews) July 17, 2015 (https://twitter.com/moonROKnews/status/621894459362381824)

[UPDATE cont.] we apologize to @SubKultureEnt (https://twitter.com/SubKultureEnt) and #BTS (https://twitter.com/hashtag/BTS?src=hash) fans for the mis-info earlier. Again, no decision on future #BTSinUSA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/BTSinUSA?src=hash) hi-touches yet.

— moonROK (@moonROKnews) July 17, 2015 (https://twitter.com/moonROKnews/status/621895028898553856)

[tterriffic.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what to say. This is terrible both for the group and the fans.

[stellar-13.livejournal.com]

Well they are never coming here again...

[sundaetea.livejournal.com]

well that escalated pretty quickly.

[punkylana.livejournal.com]

that was so fucked up, poor fans and bts

[yw7.livejournal.com]

yikes!

[derpdotjpg.livejournal.com]

rap mon made a mistake but threatening to kill him + throwing things at bangtan isn't the way to let them know what was the mistake they've made. this is honestly so scary and to see bangtan posting on twitter after the concert like nothing happened is just.....

death threats was never a joke. posting death threats and nsfw tweets are considered as social media bullying/harassment. i have no idea how people think that things like these are funny.

this experience just shuts everything off. all along, bangtan's one of the idol group that has a nice bond between k-fans and international fans. just watch this bond between international fans slowly fade away...

i'm not surprised if k-armys/fans officially go furious over this incident and "whitewashing" vs "blackwashing" on tumblr as well.

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

+ throwing things at bangtan isn't the way to let them know what was the mistake they've made

Wait, what?!
Ppl were throwing things at them?

[madielou.livejournal.com]

this is so upsetting.

the person behind the threats was white/not american/not even fans of bts
but im positive all the blame is going to go to poc fans. and that they shouldn't have been mad at rapmon for not apologizing.

my race is always going to get a free pass no matter what fucked up shit we do.


anyway, this is draining. i just really hope they don't think bad of us. the amount of trust lost between one another has got to be something :(

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

it already has gone to poc fans. I was ready to explode reading my t/l. intl fans were blaming American poc for being too sensitive in response to rapmon's original statement. I have a hard time articulating myself when im mad so I just started muting folks left and right.

[kjc48.livejournal.com]

this group is a mess, their fans are a mess, it's all a mess.
This better not stop 2pm from having US dates this year, please and thank you.

[ultimaaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really wondering how this might affect future touring from other groups, especially if it makes mainstream Korean news. :T

[x3raindropsx3.livejournal.com]

this entire thing is waaaay out of control. i'm going to their dallas show so let's see what they'll do regarding security

[herocountry.livejournal.com]

this is fucking disgusting, i'm so sorry for bangtan

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

I cant imagine how traumatized the members, specifically rapmon must be. I don't want to sound heartless but I hope this motivates rap to be a lot more careful with his words.

I also hope something happens to the person that made those threats. I'm not even going to call it a joke.

[jaelissi.livejournal.com]

I don't think what anyone wants is for Namjoon to censor himself out of fear. Mad as people want to be at Namjoon, the reason this blew up - when colorist statements usually don't - is because fans think he could actually understand the issue. People who try to educate with fear are scum themselves.

[whysojaelous.livejournal.com]

This girl and all her other friends who "joked" around tweeting death threats and gun pictures are grade A assholes. Not only did she not own up to her mistake, instead she decides to blame it on the fans because they took it seriously when it was "obviously a joke". Making a threat and tweeting a picture of a gun especially in the US?? Of course she doesn't understand why people (especially here) are so sensitive when it comes to gun threats since she lacks any form of common sense. Also, why is it so hard to educate your problematic favs instead of harassing them?? What's so hard about that???

I hope this teaches people that death threats are not funny at all (I can't believe this is even a lesson????). It's funny how international fans seem to think they can get away with running their mouths just because they don't live/speak the same country/language as oppa.

[kashchanocchi.livejournal.com]

mte

[leopolitan.livejournal.com]

i wonder if that fan realizes they just guaranteed that rapmon wont apologize and no one will take colourism/racism complaints seriously ever again

[boxcuttergirl.livejournal.com]

the person who made that threat wasn't even a bts fan so i doubt they'd care tbh

[facedancers.livejournal.com]

Apparently there were multiple 2 threats?

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

can you fill me in what did Rapmon say ro offend poc fan?

[ketchum.livejournal.com]

i feel so sorry for bangtan and the fans at the nyc show, but the fans at the other trb stops will definitely be extra supportive and warm and loving and loud and hopefully make up for part of this experience :(

honestly fuck the person who made that tweet. distinguish between what's a joke/appropriate and what's not

[pandamanic.livejournal.com]

i just came from this debacle of a show. the boys were amazing and energetic and totally worth seeing.

my problem is with subkulture. they made us line up for the hi touch and wait 45 mins before any announcement was made. i totally get why they did it because the member's safety is of the utmost importance but the ceo of subkulture, who was there, made it seem like people paying 205+ for something they aren't getting was something trivial. and his answer to people's legit questions were messy and his only response was saying that he would find a way to make it up to everyone somehow.

[exeuntpbabear.livejournal.com]

and let's not forget that small handful of fans who blamed the other people in the audience for all the horrible shit that happened all day and made it clear that they thought we deserved this cancelation. :/