It began with a tweet.
Bryan Betancur had done something creepy again. For those of us who keep track of January 6th rioters, this was no surprise. He has a lengthy criminal record, both before and after J6.
But he specializes in stalking women, including people I know. My friend Anarchy Princess recently got a five-year Anti-Stalking Order against him. It took an enormous amount of work on her part to achieve this and he immediately violated it by talking about her online.
Other victims of his terror, such as journalist Amanda Moore, haven’t bothered since the system is useless, even though he has threatened to rape and murder her.
Last weekend, he filmed himself touching women’s hair on the Metro. Creepy, but he’s done far worse, including posing with weapons, idolizing mass shooters and threatening to kidnap Stephen Colbert’s daughters (he’s still mad about a joke the comedian made about him).
Yet, this was the moment that went viral and forced the authorities to perhaps, finally, meaningfully confront this menace.
Bryan Betancur: Years of Stalking
Betancur knew that he was being watched. His online threats had been used against him in court.
For her case, Anarchy Princess had assembled dozens of exhibits, including videos and social media screenshots, showing how he had violated the court’s orders. He’s been stalking her for years, ever since he got mad that she was trolling the 1776 Restoration Movement, a group of MAGA chuds who camped out on the Mall for “freedom” in 2022.
He knows me through my association with her. In 2024, he got thrown out of Artomatic, the DC art show, when he violated an earlier anti-stalking order to harass her. On another occasion, I yelled at him outside the Supreme Court when he was creeping around. At Jake Lang’s so-called Crusader March last month, I watched in amusement at Patricia Eguino mocked him and the rest of the incel gang. She’s another woman that he’s stalked.
I know he followed me on Twitter, since he tore down Kid Cudi posters after I posted pictures of them. He filmed himself doing it.
Last month, I saw him at the January 6th Reunion March, parading around with a framed copy of Trump’s pardon. Online, he bragged that he beat “antifa” and was untouchable. This was just a couple months after he got out of jail for stalking Anarchy Princess.
Photographer Cory Cullington made a bet with him that he would catch charges in 2026.
Metro Hair Perv
All of this was a game to him, I guess.
He filmed himself touching multiple women’s hair on the Metro and livestreamed it on X, knowing that people would see it. These were liberal women who deserved a strange man touching them.
The clip went viral, following the same path as my Red Bike Guy story, going from Twitter to Reddit to Washingtonian Problems (a huge Instagram account in DC) to local papers to the national news.
“Metro Hair Perv” blew up because it was freaky and relatable. Thousands of people ride Metro every day. The idea that a pardoned January 6th terrorist was going around filming them surreptitiously as he stroked their hair triggered a massive “ick” response.
On Monday, Betancur went trending on Twitter. People demanded that the Metro and the authorities do something.
And to my surprise, they did! Arlington County put out an arrest warrant with charges of Assault and Battery. Metro Transit Police issued a BOLO for him.
Within hours, he was arrested. Maybe the system did work, at least against criminals that went viral with such force that the authorities were forced to respond. Go viral, get justice.
System Failure
Arlington County let him out on bail within hours. $2500 bond for a convicted criminal who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and threatened to rape and murder women.
The system has failed again. It failed on January 6th when the police didn’t shoot the rioters. It failed when it let all the rioters go home. It failed to impeach Trump. It failed to prosecute Trump. It failed when it jailed only a tiny fraction of the J6ers. It failed with Trump’s election in 2024, on a massive, nation-ending scale. It failed with Trump’s pardon of January 6th rioters, including Bryan Betancur. And it failed for years, across multiple cases, across multiple jurisdictions, with multiple victims, as it allowed Betancur to keep on stalking and harassing women.
This is the part where I find some slim reed of hope to lean on. But there isn’t one. America has failed and nothing but total change will fix it.
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