"First Amendment Auditors" online trend causing increasing escalations...

[ThatRobGuy]

'First Amendment Auditors' near Cottage Hospital Harass and Film Patients and Customers

Wednesday morning, on the sidewalks around Cottage Hospital, three men dressed in dark clothing, armed with tripods and cameras, were reportedly harassing people by recording videos, shouting profanity, and threatening identity theft, according to sources at the scene.

www.independent.com

Encounters with First Amendment auditors concern some residents in Pismo Beach

Pismo Beach police say they received a large number of calls on Monday about several individuals filming people going in and out of the post office.

www.ksby.com

There other other such recent stories, and several viral clips circulating around showing the M.O. of these self-proclaimed "auditors"

While stating that they have the goal of holding public officials accountable... what they actually do is harass regular citizens (in hopes they'll call the cops so that they'll have a police interaction to film). If they're not getting enough of a reaction from a person, they'll hold the camera about 2 inches from the person's face while yelling "I'm allowed to film in public places" at them to goad them into pushing their camera away, at which point they'll reach for the pepper spray and claim it's "self defense"

I can't link the video due to bad language, but this still gives a rough idea

The guy was putting his camera right in the face of the store owner (who asked him "please move back so you're not blocking the door to my store") and after asking 3 times for him to not shove the camera in his face, the guy pushed the camera, and the "auditor" already had the pepper spray out and ready to go.

 

[Chesterton]

What you describe it not true of all auditors. While some of them are real jerks, there are a few who do their homework and are well-versed in the relevant laws, and I believe do a good service in educating the public and public officials about the First Amendment. Most auditors focus on public officials.

Would I like to be videoed while out in public? No, but I pretty much am anyway by surveillance cameras almost everywhere I go. Courts have generally ruled that that's legal, and for better or worse that's a condition of the modern world.

 

[BCP1928]

'First Amendment Auditors' near Cottage Hospital Harass and Film Patients and Customers

Wednesday morning, on the sidewalks around Cottage Hospital, three men dressed in dark clothing, armed with tripods and cameras, were reportedly harassing people by recording videos, shouting profanity, and threatening identity theft, according to sources at the scene.

www.independent.com

Encounters with First Amendment auditors concern some residents in Pismo Beach

Pismo Beach police say they received a large number of calls on Monday about several individuals filming people going in and out of the post office.

www.ksby.com

There other other such recent stories, and several viral clips circulating around showing the M.O. of these self-proclaimed "auditors"

While stating that they have the goal of holding public officials accountable... what they actually do is harass regular citizens (in hopes they'll call the cops so that they'll have a police interaction to film). If they're not getting enough of a reaction from a person, they'll hold the camera about 2 inches from the person's face while yelling "I'm allowed to film in public places" at them to goad them into pushing their camera away, at which point they'll reach for the pepper spray and claim it's "self defense"

I can't link the video due to bad language, but this still gives a rough idea

View attachment 367493


The guy was putting his camera right in the face of the store owner (who asked him "please move back so you're not blocking the door to my store") and after asking 3 times for him to not shove the camera in his face, the guy pushed the camera, and the "auditor" already had the pepper spray out and ready to go.

They need to be careful. Many urban store owners have people they can call on to help them out in situations like that.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

What you describe it not true of all auditors. While some of them are real jerks, there are a few who do their homework and are well-versed in the relevant laws, and I believe do a good service in educating the public and public officials about the First Amendment. Most auditors focus on public officials.

Would I like to be videoed while out in public? No, but I pretty much am anyway by surveillance cameras almost everywhere I go. Courts have generally ruled that that's legal, and for better or worse that's a condition of the modern world.

The current trend is people "doing it for the views"

Basically going out of their way to harass people so they can cut up the video and post it on their social media with some title like
"Entitled Karen flips out over being filmed"

Or their other "gets the sauce" videos ("getting the sauce" is their nomenclature for pepper spraying someone)

There are videos where there are 2 or 3 of guys shoving cameras in the faces of older women and refusing to cease when asked, and when when the woman slaps their hand away, they'll pepper spray her.

There have been exchanged where they've gotten guns pulled on them...once such incident was when they were following a woman around and refused to stop filming, and she went back to her car where her husband was waiting, and he had something a little more effective than their pepper spray (and of course, they pretend to be the victims with the "we're just asserting our rights to film in public" schtick when the police arrive)


Or, incidents like this one, where one of these "auditor" picked the wrong guy

He did the usual routine, however, this gentleman didn't end up being too phased by the pepper spray, and the "auditor" ended up needing stitches and staples

 

[ThatRobGuy]

They need to be careful. Many urban store owners have people they can call on to help them out in situations like that.

There already have been such incidents like that (I believe this one was in Detroit)...in this one, there was a warehouse, where 2 "auditors" were wandering around and filming people, and taking pictures of license plates on cars. The owner told them to stop, they refused and started doing their usual routine.

And what started off as them thinking they had a 2 on 1 advantage over the owner, changed very quickly when the owner called some of his crew out...

What you're seeing in this picture is about 6 or 7 guys pinning the one "auditor" up against a car and busting up his phone and camcorder and tuning him up a bit...while another employee is staring down the 2nd auditor, daring him to do something about it.

I believe what he said in the video "keep it up <expletive>...you wanna go next?"

 

[Chesterton]

The current trend is people "doing it for the views"

Sure, they're doing it for the views. They also do it in hopes of getting arrested so they can get some cash from a civil rights lawsuit, which has worked occasionally. Some cop-haters do it because they like insulting cops to their faces. Then there may be others who just think it's fun to be a jerk and bother people.

There are other forms of auditing. There's this guy (can't remember his YouTube channel name) who dresses a bit raggedy and stands in public, usually in front of government buildings, with a crudely written cardboard sign that says "God bless the homeless vets". People assume he's panhandling but he's not. He doesn't ask for money, and doesn't accept money if offered. Even if he were panhandling in public, the Supreme Court has said that's legal. But eventually the cops get called. Over nothing. A guy holding an inoffensive sign.

Basically going out of their way to harass people so they can cut up the video and post it on their social media with some title like
"Entitled Karen flips out over being filmed"

Or their other "gets the sauce" videos ("getting the sauce" is their nomenclature for pepper spraying someone)

There are videos where there are 2 or 3 of guys shoving cameras in the faces of older women and refusing to cease when asked, and when when the woman slaps their hand away, they'll pepper spray her.

There have been exchanged where they've gotten guns pulled on them...once such incident was when they were following a woman around and refused to stop filming, and she went back to her car where her husband was waiting, and he had something a little more effective than their pepper spray (and of course, they pretend to be the victims with the "we're just asserting our rights to film in public" schtick when the police arrive)


Or, incidents like this one, where one of these "auditor" picked the wrong guy
View attachment 367509

He did the usual routine, however, this gentleman didn't end up being too phased by the pepper spray, and the "auditor" ended up needing stitches and staples

You've apparently seen different types of "auditing" than I have. I haven't seen anyone putting cameras in people's faces. I haven't seen anyone "targeting" civilians, except when they happen to be inside government buildings.

I think auditing will eventually die out due it's success. I've seen videos where a guy starts filming in a county courthouse or city hall, and everyone just ignores him or is friendly with him. Very boring video, and the reason the auditor posted it was to praise the people for knowing the law as well as the Supreme Court does.

My advice to anyone would be to ignore these weirdos. If you get the guy arrested, or beat him up, you're providing a more entertaining video and increasing his viewership.

 

[Chesterton]

...and taking pictures of license plates on cars.

License plates are publicly visible. You can memorize one, or jot the numbers down with pen and paper. Really no different from taking a picture. As I said, the best answer is to ignore.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

License plates are publicly visible. You can memorize one, or jot the numbers down with pen and paper. Really no different from taking a picture. As I said, the best answer is to ignore.

if two full grown men are holding a camara 2 inches from the face of someone's wife or daughter, that's going to lead to some escalations.

A few of these exchanges are happening in venues like people dining on the patio of a restaurant trying to enjoy their meal, and 2 guys with camera phones are right on the other other side of the gate holding the camera inches from their faces while obnoxiously saying "I have a right to film you, I'm educating people on my rights"

If anything, they're just going to make people oppose their supposed cause.

 

[Chesterton]

if two full grown men are holding a camara 2 inches from the face of someone's wife or daughter, that's going to lead to some escalations.

A few of these exchanges are happening in venues like people dining on the patio of a restaurant trying to enjoy their meal, and 2 guys with camera phones are right on the other other side of the gate holding the camera inches from their faces while obnoxiously saying "I have a right to film you, I'm educating people on my rights"

If anything, they're just going to make people oppose their supposed cause.

I agree with you, it will cause problems. Just because you have a legal right to do something doesn't mean it's morally right to do it. Adultery is legal but it's wrong. But as I said, I haven't seen the type of videos you're talking about.