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Is Epic Beard Man a villain?

That's one view of the older white man who beat up a middle-aged black man on a bus after a racially charged argument, and it's supported by these two facts:

  • Epic Beard Man -- Thomas Bruso, or Tom Slick -- told a TV news interviewer that the man he beat up was a known murderer who is now "off the streets."
  • Soon after, the other guy -- known only as Michael -- appeared for a radio interview on WILD 94.9. He denied the murderer rumor, and seeing as he's free to walk into a publicized radio interview, he is most certainly not in prison or being pursued by the police.

Most of the post-fight coverage is revealing clues like this, indicating that Tom Bruso (who also claimed Michael had a knife and landed three punches on Tom, none of which shows up in the video) likely instigated a fight on a bus, left a man bleeding, and for a brief moment became an undeserved hero while slandering his victim as a murderer.

But what if we aren't getting the whole story? What if the real villain is, well, everyone?
This has been a racial story from Day 1. The first words we hear on the original video -- now viewed at least five million times, counting copies -- are "Let's get back to business. How much you charge me for a spit-shine?" This is likely a racial reference, since Michael takes offense, although we don't know if Michael started the argument by offering a spit-shine (presumably with the same racial undertone). That's what Tom claims and Michael denies. Later, Tom calls himself a "white boy." They're on a bus in a racially charged city in a largely segregated area. Remember this as you read on.

Again, we don't know what happened just before the fight. Lyanna Washington, the lady who shot the original video, later defended Michael and herself. If you take her word for it, Tom started the fight. Of course, it's just as easy to say that Lyanna, who egged Michael on in the video and joked about stealing Tom's bag afterward, would naturally not reveal damaging evidence about the man she favored in the fight.

We're mostly left to judge these two men based on their reputations and their post-fight PR. And we know a lot more about Tom than about Michael.

Tom is a known San Francisco Bay Area character. Many commenters on Urlesque's last Epic Beard Man post told stories about seeing Tom around town in SF or Oakland. He's also fought with police at a baseball game. Basically he's the sort of transient character that populates most major cities, especially the temperate and tolerant Bay Area. This makes him suspect -- this is, we assume, the sort of guy who spouts off anything that manipulates his listeners' emotions -- but doesn't actually prove him wrong.


Michael, on the other hand, manages to look like a usually upstanding citizen in his radio interview. He speaks carefully, apologizes to Tom and all war vets, and clearly strives to present himself as a sane and good man who regrets an out-of-character drunken fight. He makes no disparaging remarks about Tom and turns down a half-joking offer from his interviewer for an arranged fight. He also points out that he's not so young -- so the angle of "old guy punishes young upstart" isn't true.

Is Michael spinning this story, or does he mean everything he says here? I really don't know.


Tom wants to fight. He loves the attention. And it seems like every Bay Area resident with a video camera loves to give it to him. He's asking Michael for his rematch -- if the winner of the first fight can even technically call for a rematch.


What fascinates me is the overwhelming influence on this story of homemade videos vs. mainstream media and authorities. Some time near the bus fight, Lyanna shot Tom and Michael pacing around each other in the street, Tom threatening to hit Michael, but no one coming to blows. Lyanna told CBS 5 News that Tom later let the police arrest him, but we don't know what other legal repercussions he or Michael faced.

All we learn about these two is coming from on-the-street interviews. Even the traditional news outlets covering this story are getting most of their national exposure on YouTube. Plenty of the people publicizing this story aren't making a dime off it. They're doing this just for fun. And all they want is more posturing and more violence.

The message boards resound with accusations and racist hatred, mostly against one man who may have been the victim of a known potentially violent antagonist who's still walking free. That antagonist, of course, is likely a mentally disturbed man who's not getting the treatment he needs to become a better-adjusted citizen.

Okay, this isn't the beginning of the end, the point when America gave into its bloodlust and started openly goading its disaffected poor into public fights for our amusement, turning real people into our unpaid gladiators in a mockery of a free and safe society while the police and government did nothing. While it's a scary look at how our love for drama and conflict can escalate arguments into physical fights, it's also an opportunity to expose the social problems that lead to two men punching each other on a public bus while the other passengers cheer them on, and to maybe find a solution.

Anyone got an idea what that solution is?