Here's what you need to know about the Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront brawl

• A fight broke out in Montgomery, Alabama, after a group of white people punched a Black dock worker.

• Montgomery police have charged three people with assaulting the dock worker and another employee.

• A video of the incident that was shared on social media went viral and sparked a boatload of memes.

The internet is ablaze after a Saturday brawl in Montgomery, Alabama, that began after an unnamed Black worker reportedly asked a group of white people to move their pontoon boat to make way for a large riverboat trying to dock.

Where did the incident occur?

The Montgomery Police Department told Insider that the incident occurred near Montgomery Riverfront Park on the 200 block of Coosa Street.

Who has been charged so far?

Darryl J. Albert, the chief of the Montgomery Police Department, said in a Tuesday press conference that three white men connected to the pontoon boat had been charged so far.

Richard Roberts, 48, was charged with two counts of third-degree assault. Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, were charged with one count of third-degree assault, he said.

Albert said that the men had been charged in connection to attacks against the dock worker, who was identified as a cocaptain of the Harriett II riverboat named Damien Pickett, and that Robert "struck" a white 16-year-old boy who worked for the riverboat.

Roberts turned himself in on Tuesday, Albert said, adding that others had been instructed to come forward.

More charges are likely, Albert said. One man, who was seen using a white folding chair against a few people during the brawl, is also being asked to contact the Montgomery Police Department for further interviews as part of the investigation.

Will there be hate-crime charges or charges for inciting a riot?

Albert said that the police department examined whether they could bring hate-crime charges or charges for inciting a riot but that the events didn't "fit the criteria" for such charges based on current evidence.

What is city leadership saying happened that day?

Albert said the incident began when the Harriet II, which was carrying 227 passengers on Saturday, attempted to dock in a space designated for the ship. However, the pontoon was parked in the space.

The captain of the riverboat spent 40 to 45 minutes using a PA system to ask the owners to move their boat out of the way, Albert said. The cocaptain was picked up by a smaller boat and taken to the dock to speak with the pontoon-boat owners when they did not move. Albert said the boat owners "only responded to, what I've seen, gestures, curse words, and taunting."

"The co-captain approached the dock and attempted to peacefully move the boat over just enough so that the Harriett II could park," Albert said. "The owners of the boat confronted him in a very hostile manner. There were words exchanged and then it turned into a physical encounter that you've all seen. The co-captain was doing his job. He was simply trying to move the boat just enough to where the ship can park safely in its identified location."

A spokesperson for the Montgomery Police Department told Insider in a statement that officers responded to the incident at about 7 p.m. local time on Monday.

"At the scene, they located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation. Several subjects have been detained and charges are pending," the spokesperson said.

Albert said officers detained 13 people for questioning on Saturday and later released them.

Steven Reed, the mayor of Montgomery, released a statement following the incident that said officers "acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job."

What do we know so far based on social-media videos?

Most information about the events leading up to the larger brawl, which included dozens of people, has been pieced together with bystander footage.

Online videos showed the Black worker speaking to the group, apparently asking them to move their boat per onlookers narrating the situation, before one of them ran toward him and swung. The initial swing makes contact, the video shows. The worker then threw his hat in the air before fighting back until more people arrived to aid the white man and began attacking, videos showed.

In the clips, onlookers could be heard shouting requests to help the dock worker before others began running toward the group of white people. One worker, a 16-year-old boy named Aaren who has been called a hero, even swam across the Alabama River to help the man.

The riverboat eventually docked, and additional fights erupted as a group rushed toward the pontoon. One person could be seen using a white folding chair as a weapon.

Police eventually made their way to the scene and began handcuffing individuals, the videos show.

What is the internet's reaction to this?

Although the brawl is over, it lives on as internet legend. Users, many on the side of the dock worker and those who came to defend him, are posting memes about the various characters in the videos, portraying them as superheroes and lionizing the star of the incident: a white folding chair.

Some people have even posed to take photos with the chair and have requested that it be preserved in a museum.

Reenactments have also surfaced, with internet users posting their artistic takes on the punch that set off the brawl.

Users set clips of the brawl to Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" to turn the tables on a tune critics said was a racist dog whistle aimed at Black Americans.

Read the original article on Insider