Last week on Tuesday, a Raging White Man In Flip Flops stopped his light olive four-door TRO Toyota pickup truck on Main Street outside of the old Rite Aid to yell at the chalk artist, Ryan Austin Manzi, who was drawing “Free Palestine” with the Palestinian flag in between in chalk on the Sun River Health building at 341 Main Street. Several questions have come in to A Little Beacon Blog about this incident. Those questions are answered below.

What Happened?!?

While Ryan, who currently goes by his middle name of Austin, was drawing the Palestinian flag in between the phrase in all caps “FREE PALESTINE,” the man, who ALBB has not independently verified, stopped his truck to yell at Austin. The video that Austin recorded and published on his Facebook page starts at the point were two children who were also walking on the sidewalk turn around to respond to the man yelling from his newish looking, light olive, shiny Toyota truck, to say to him: “You’re the asshole!” while both children flipped him the bird as they kept on walking to their errands.

Austin responded to the children: “Thank you, yeah!”

The man responded by saying what sounded like “…this fucking town.” To which Austin responded: “Get a fucking job, you fucking white supremacist piece of shit.”

“I have a fucking job, you asshole!” the man yelled back while moving his hands from his steering wheel to his lap several times.

“Yeah, so keep fucking driving to it you dumb fuck!” Austin yelled.

This conversation is a classic exchange straight out of Facebook comments, except this was in real life on Main Street in Beacon. People who don’t like the word “white supremacist” anywhere near them, or if they are artists or writers, often tell people to “get a job.” But this time, it was Austin turning it around, doing the demanding.

After being told to get a job, the man put his car in park, presumably took off his seat belt if he was wearing it, and exited his vehicle. Austin remained at his chalking position at the Sun River Health building the entire time, while exclaiming: “Fuck, you mad about this shit?” referring to the chalk art.

The man exited his truck, walked around the back of his vehicle and headed for Austin on the sidewalk, demanding: “Who the fuck to you think you are to put that on that fucking wall.” The man stepped his flip flopped feet onto the curb of the sidewalk, balancing like on a balance beam. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” he continued.

“I think I’m an American,” Austin answered. “That’s what I think I am.”

The man didn’t accept Austin’s answer. “You ain’t no fucking American,” the man insisted. “I grew up in this fucking town 65 years.”

Austin cut him off. “Me too - 34 years, you dumb white prick.”

“Bullshit,” the man screamed. Little does the man know, or maybe he does, Ryan Austin Manzi was born in Beacon, and is in fact the nephew of Michael (Micki) Manzi, Beacon’s current Superintendent of Streets. Though the two do not speak to each other out for personal reasons out of mutual decision from many years ago. Austin’s mother is white and his father is African American.

The man persisted: “Who - That’s not your fucking wall!” His flip flops inched closer to the wall, his toes gripping the edge of the tree plot in the sidewalk as he stepped in time with his yelling.

Austin responded: “Guess what? It’s not yours either! So stop fucking spittin’ to keep…”

But the man would not stop. “And I’m not drawing on it, you asshole!” the man said. As he said those words, the man’s right hand, which was empty and had been flexed into different pointing positions during his verbal expressions, balled up into the position of a hand that was gripping a pencil, then seemed to tremble back and forth. But the trembling was him making the motion of etching something onto an artist pad.

The man continued, and this time, charged at Austin, while Austin remained at the wall. Austin told the man: “So mind your fucking business.” But the man continued in what at this point sounded like a gurgle from his throat because he was so angry: “I’m not fucking drawing -” as he pointed viciously at his own neck.

As he got up close to Austin’s face, Austin stopped the man right there. Austin pushed the man away from him. The man fell to the ground and rolled to the edge of the sidewalk, near a parked car.

From the ground, the man said: “You mother fucker.” He got up to return to Austin again.

Now, many locals in Beacon who know Austin know that Austin is in and out of jail, and has been in fist fights on Beacon’s sidewalks over the years. He was recently released from jail, and has been out for two months. This time in jail was for various charges that Austin usually fights on his own, being granted documentation, street camera footage and Police body camera footage to analyze and use to defend himself in court.

As the man charged at him again, Austin said firmly: “Back up.”

“You mother fucker,” the man insisted, and got up into Austin’s personal space. From the video, it appears Austin swung, and then the camera falls to the ground. The two “tangled” or “locked up” on the sidewalk.

The man continued in a muffled voice. “You asshole…You fucking asshole.”

“Get the fuck off me,” Austin told him.

“I’m not drawing on it,” the man continued. “I’m not fucking drawing on it.”

More rumbling can be heard in the video, then the man exclaims: “Oh, you’re getting it. Cops are coming right now you asshole.” Austin can be seen walking back to his position on the wall, as a woman yells to the man: “Stay right there.” Austin echos her, and says: “Yeah, you stay right there you fucking prick. Don’t go anywhere.”

The woman continued to yell at the man: “…in front of my five year old.” The man, who was walking away, responded to the woman: “Who does he think he is?”

Austin responded: “Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you, [N-word]!”

Austin took a few breaths, and then continued to the camera: “I just got attacked by a white supremacist in a fucking pickup truck, yup.”

While the Beacon Police responded, the man got back into his pickup truck and drove away. He was not identified that day, though the woman who was yelling at him had gotten his license plate number.

That man is lucky that he did not have his flip flop handed to him.

Was This The First Time Ryan Austin Chalked Free Palestine On This Wall?

No. This is the 3rd time Austin chalked “Free Palestine” on this wall. The first time was with a grouping of other chalk art, namely Scooby-Doo and bunnies for Easter. It was in March 2024 and people were getting ready for Easter in Beacon. Israel’s genocide of Palestine was in full force, and people were seeing violence committed on people that had never been witnessed before so easily - live streaming mass murder on social media.

Most people felt - and continue to feel - helpless. Art drawings of Free Palestine began popping up around the region. A giant one appeared in paint on the Dutchess Mall next to Home Depot in Fishkill. It only lasted a few days on that empty building before being painted over. In Beacon, the strip of building that is the back of the Sun River Health building generally feels like an empty strip of storefront on Main Street. It’s like a no-mans land, even though there are vibrant health services being delivered inside. Ever since Pizza ‘n Stuff moved from that wall to across the street and down the block, no one generally gives those bricks a second thought.

Unless they have chalk on them. On March 17, 2024, Austin chalked Free Palestine on this very spot. But a different person came during a more conspicuous time and threw white paint over it. Didn’t throw water on it to wash away the chalk. This person chose paint. Austin returned to the wall to assess what kind of paint it was, in order to help solve the mystery of who would have permanently vandalized the building. Austin told ALBB he was going there, so ALBB met him there to film his action and interview him while he drew Free Palestine again. You can read/watch that interview here.

On March 21, 2024, the Regional Director of Facilities for Sun River Health, Marco P. Faustino, was alerted about the “chalk art and graffiti” on their Beacon location. He was shown pictures of the “white paint splattered on the wall as well as chalk art.” He scheduled a cleaning service to clean off the paint for March 29, 2024.

March 25, 2024, ALBB published an article highlighting Ryan Austin Manzi chalking the Sun River Health building.

On March 28, 2024, the day prior to the cleaning service coming, Beacon’s Building Inspector, Bruce Flower, contacted Marco of Sun River Health “regarding the chalk art and graffiti.” Marco stated that he told Bruce “that graffiti has been an ongoing issue at the Beacon location, at which point he recommended filing a report with the City of Beacon Police.”

When he did that, the Beacon Police said that they had identified the person who did the chalk art as Ryan Manzi, but did not find the person who splattered the paint onto the wall. Prior to the chalk art of Scooby Doo and Easter bunnies, there had been no chalk art done to the front or back of Sun River Health. There had been, and remains, no permanent graffiti markings on either side of the Sun River Health building (6 Henry Street or 341 Main Street). There is one very old graffiti marking on the back of the dry cleaning building next door to the front entrance of Sun River Health. But it has been there before and since this marking, and Building Inspector Bruce Flower appears not to have called the dry cleaner about that marking. Just the splattered paint over the Free Palestine.

Marco did decide to press charges against Ryan Austin Manzi for the chalk art, and admitted that he did not know who splattered the paint. There was no indication in his police report that he or the Beacon Police looked at the camera footage on Main Street at Rite Aid or Sun River Health to see who splattered the paint. Ryan Austin confirms to ALBB that there are cameras there located at the liquor store or former Rite Aid. When ALBB contacted Beacon Police Chief Figlia asking about location of cameras at that location for this article, Chief Figlia did not respond.

Are Beacon Police Bias Toward Ryan Austin?

Yes. ALBB has on two different authorities that the Beacon Police, as of 2024, were actively trying to keep Ryan incarcerated for as long as possible. Any charge that would come his way would be added to his sheet. Once inside, different events can occur to keep a person in jail longer by missing or extending a court date, such as delayed finger printing if the incarcerated person speaks back to an officer during the intake process.

ALBB’s video and article published on March 24, 2024 was used later in a Beacon Police Report dated April 4, 2024 for an unrelated charge by former City Administrator Chris White after Chris allegedly called Ryan Austin a terrorist while leaving Town Hall in his car to drive home while Ryan Austin was on that driveway headed to the train (see how Chris White responded to pro-Palestinian protesters at the Veterans Building in January 2024). Chris denied calling Ryan Austin a terrorist when ALBB contacted him to confirm what Ryan Austin told ALBB (one of the only times Chris responded to ALBB since his city-wide ban of any department head speaking to ALBB), after which Ryan Austin flipped the bird to Chris, and Chris flipped bird back to Ryan Austin, according to Chris’ Police Report filed April 4, 2024.

After that incident, Ryan Austin then approached Chris’ car and hit it with a plastic water bottle, which prompted Chris to call Beacon Police to tell them to arrest Ryan Austin. Then, a take-down of Ryan Austin by the Beacon Police in front of Bank Square Coffee occurred, as they arrested Ryan Austin based on Chris’ demand. The Beacon Police’s handling of Ryan Austin to put him in handcuffs hurt Ryan Austin’s already damaged shoulder from a prior arrest by the Beacon Police, and resulted in his vomiting and urinating while handcuffed during that arrest in April 2024.

Ryan Austin confirmed to ALBB that the charges made by Sun River Health for his original chalk art of Free Palestine were dismissed in 2024 as covered by other charges.

And About That “Poughkeepsie Journal Article”

Before anyone drops the classic comment in here or in socials about “I read in the Poughkeepsie Journal that he is in a gang…” ALBB tells you. ALBB finally read that article, after years of avoiding it, knowing it would be nonsense. And it was nonsense. It was created as a plant to further whatever issue the Beacon Police have or had (depending on who is on the force) with him.

ALBB has interviewed his mother, seeing Police cam videos of other incidents, seen street cam video footage of another incident that was at first denied to exist regarding his case in a sidewalk rumble involving a car driving into his car to pin it there, and listened to a 911 call by a woman who was intent upon insisting that his red bandana had significant meaning (like to a gang).

The amount of face masks and nail polish that Ryan Austin uses don’t by themselves prove that he’s not in an actual gang. But ALBB does have confirmation that that story had no merit and was cobbled together in order to pin charges and brand a fairy tale, which is a very damaging thing to do to anyone.