The victim tells The Blotter she was propositioned by two influencer wannabes who hurled N-word

A New York City woman who was taunted, terrorized and harassed by two twisted video pranksters last week has spoken exclusively to The Blotter about the vile provocateurs she bravely repelled. Her alleged assailants were arrested on Thursday.

Derisha Boothe, who is black, was walking in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood when she was targeted by two young pranksters, who dress as MAGA supporters and livestream themselves behaving offensively in decidedly anti-MAGA Manhattan for their YouTube channel, @scrubsnyc.  

One of the men, wearing a red MAGA cap, launched a lascivious word salad, allegedly laced with the N-word, and made various sleazy advances at Ms. Boothe (such as suggesting she become his “slave” so she could perform sexual acts on him) — before getting down on the ground and trying to burn her boot with a lighter.

“He told me, ‘If you were my slave, I could kiss you,’” Ms. Boothe recounted to The Blotter on the day of her attackers’ arrest. 

She was reflecting on the despicable verbal and physical ordeal she endured when she was on her way to pick up her birthday cake from a baker pal (she turned 54 the day before). 

While heading down West 26th Street near Seventh Avenue at around 3 p.m. on February 19, Ms. Boothe said the two numskulls — identified later by cops as Michael Santiago, 31, and Michael James, 33 (who share an apartment on the Upper East Side) — pointed a camera in her face and shouted all kinds of racist and sexually-charged innuendos. 

The man in the MAGA hat approached her and told her, “You're a beautiful. Give me a kiss.”

Without her being able to answer, Ms. Boothe said he “walked all the way up to me and attempted to kiss me.”

But she forcefully demurred. 

“I pushed him,” she said. 

After shooting down his advances, Ms. Boothe said she told him she “didn’t owe you a kiss”. 

Ms. Boothe remembers shoving the fiend away, and shrieking, "Excuse me!  me! Wow!”

In their public statement released on Wednesday, New York Police Department officers, who were seeking to find and arrest the two men, described how Ms. Boothe tried to get away from her harassers, but they allegedly “prevented her from leaving”. 

Indeed, the sickos stayed put and remained undaunted, and then turned more aggressive. 

Ms. Boothe claims one of the men got extremely close to her face as he proposed she become his sex slave. 

“I told him, ‘I’m never gonna be your slave or whatever,’” she explained. 

But the maniac persisted, according to Ms. Boothe. 

“He went on to be more derogatory,” she said, describing how he proposed she perform on him a vile sexual act.

“And if I was a slave I’d suck his penis, and how I'm a N—--, I'm a bitch.”

After the smooch-stealing attempts failed, the pervert in the MAGA costume could be seen sinking to his knees on the sidewalk and holding up a lighter, lightly searing the woman’s black boots (cops reported the boots cost $89).

Police confirmed the suspect “set her boots on fire”. 

The violated woman then took out her cell phone and started documenting the twisted tag team’s antics – even as they were documenting their outrageous actions with their own camera. 

Ms. Boothe says that she provided detectives with the footage.

It apparently spawned a citywide manhunt to collar the two unsavories. 

And on Thursday, both Mr. Santiago and Mr. James were corralled and formally brought up on arson, attempted assault, criminal mischief, menacing as hate crimes, criminal mischief and criminal tampering raps. 

For Ms. Boothe, her recording likely aided in bringing the deviants into custody to get a taste of justice. 

“My videos were the ones that the cops used to catch them,” she said with a small hint of satisfaction. 

But the menaces didn’t make it hard to find them. 

They splashed the reprehensible exploits in real-time on the duo’s “scrubsnyc” YouTube page. A page that boasts about 1,670 subscribers. They also have an Instagram page with 297 followers. 

She continued: “I'm like, ‘No, I don’t owe you anything; I'm gonna never kiss you.”

The YouTube channel and Instagram page, which use a red hammer and sickle as an avatar, positions Mr. Santiago and Mr. James as artists creating video content. The two lowlifes refer to themselves as “IP2” and profess to make video art in the spirit of a 1960s Italian crude performance art movement known as “Arte Povera” (translated to mean “poor art” given its reliance on minimal materials like twigs, rags, and rocks).

Why was Ms. Boothe, beyond being black, selected to be the subject of these two punks’ racist prank on that day?

She remains lost as to their motives. 

“I don't know anything about these people,” she said. “I never saw them before this incident. “I never –
I was not familiar with these people at all.

“I was just walking and they picked me. They were just two strange men who walked up to me. And attempted to touch me.”

A HUNGRY DINER took a posh eatery for a hearty supper that ran up a costly stag tab. 

The 38-year-old greedy gourmand was allegedly indulging on several boozy libations and chowing down on a hamburger at Latitude 39 back at around 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 26. (The eatery’s the kind of place where its New York Burger costs $22 and a Guinness pint sets thirsty customers back $10). 

Once done, she was served the $79.06 bill, according to the criminal complaint.

But the woman protested and informed the waitstaff she was broke and couldn’t pay. 

The restaurant manager rang the authorities. 

Officers came to the rescue and took the dine-and-dasher into custody. While frisking her, they discovered she had a quantity of crack. 

She was taken away and dealt failure to pay based on stealth as well as drug possession raps.

SHE HAD A freakout at Yankees Stadium subway station. 

The 46-year-old was having a cow inside the transit stop located on East 161st Street and River Avenue where the B and D lines run back on the night of Dec. 5. 

She allegedly had a bone to pick with the cops who grew in numbers, including higher-ranked white shirts, attempting to stand her down. 

But the woman was especially discontent, repeatedly roaring, “Fuck you pussy!”

The officers moved to bring the loudmouth into custody and she allegedly resisted by tensing her body and attempting to move her arms to avoid getting handcuffed. 

She was then stripped of her subway privileges and faces resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

A CASH-STRAPPED SCAMP and his pirate pal snatched a purse from a lady. 

They allegedly stepped to a woman walking along Mujer Street and Union Avenue back at around 2 a.m. on Aug. 31. 

There, the suspects — one of them 41 and holding a blade — demanded the ganged-up woman fork over her purse. 

“Move and I will cut you,” he allegedly hissed. 

 She allegedly stayed still and they took off with her purse. 

In it, the thieves scored a wallet with a driver’s license, an insurance card, an EBT card, a metro card, and $640. 

Cops ultimately caught up to the suspects and on Jan. 1 took them into custody. 

Each faces helpings of charges for the stickup including robbery (with a dangerous instrument), grand larceny (for a person) assault, menacing, and criminal possession of stolen property.

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A LOOSE CANNON was apparently ready to single-handedly raze a residential building by turning it into ash. 

At around 1 p.m. on Jan. 7, a 62-year-old man going mental had allegedly smashed a window at the building located on Queens Boulevard and 86th Avenue. 

The goon then destroyed a door hinge and disassembled a scan code panel. 

And while engaged in the targeting of the edifice and its tech and window panes — the suspect allegedly announced he would “burn down the building”. 

Authorities took the building pest into custody and he was arraigned on criminal mischief (damage property), disorderly conduct (fighting), and harassment.

A SQUABBLE BETWEEN an FDNY captain, boasting over four decades on the job, and his sister exploded, drawing the fuzz. 

The 62-year-old Bravest brass was at his sister’s home on Wednesday when tempers flared and he allegedly broke the home’s door lock. 

Cops swooped in to quell the sibling fracas and they took the civil servant away.

He was charged with criminal mischief and harassment. 

It is unclear what provoked the firefighter’s suspected fit. 

The accused has been with the FDNY for 42 years and is a few months away from reaching the city’s mandatory retirement age.

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*When perusing The Blotter, know that arrests do not constitute guilt, and all suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, the reported items are merely a snapshot of a criminal matter – what is known at the time of publishing. In most cases, the persons arrested for breaking the law haven’t been convicted (yet). It’s also possible that the charges brought against them may be reduced or even withdrawn.

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