Rantz: Black Lives Matter activists go berserk at passerby filming

A small Black Lives Matter protest outside of Seattle got real aggressive, real fast. When a man was walking by to film the activism, a group of young activists immediately got enraged, cursing and trying to block him from filming.

Brian O’Kelly is a podcaster who stopped to talk with conservative protesters and progressive counter-protesters in Woodinville near Molbak’s Garden and Home on Wednesday. He had just finished some interviews when he decided to approach the counter-protesters. They weren’t having it.

Black Lives Matter protesters lose it

When O’Kelly started filming, a young girl immediately tried to block him.

“Here I am, I’m blocking everyone else,” the young girl militantly said to the camera. O’Kelly just moved the camera slightly higher, easily able to record over her short stature.

She turned to her three activist friends and declared, “I’m short. I need someone tall!”

At that point, a young man came over with a Black Lives Matter sign he uses to try to block O’Kelly from filming. While the girl yelled that O’Kelly didn’t have their consent to film, the podcaster informed them that he doesn’t need consent. The young man responds, “Yeah, you do!” while ironically attempting to use his own cell phone to record the interaction.

“I wanted to find out why they were there,” O’Kelly tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “A young woman told me that she saw the Trump signs and had to stop and get her BLM sign out.”

Earlier tonight some Trump and Back the Blue folks showed up in my little town of Woodinville.
I stopped and talked with them and then some of the counter protesters. Here is a small bit of the unhinged kids.

Get tomorrow’s podcast for the rest.@jasonrantz @toddeherman pic.twitter.com/bz7NdyfXor

— Brian O’Kelly – Host of Republic Keeper (@brianyourbro) July 16, 2020

‘It’s literally illegal’

A third protester, another young woman, joined the commotion to inform O’Kelly that he cannot legally record the protest on the street corner.

“It’s literally illegal if you knew how the [expletive] America works, you would know,” she yelled.

Soon, an adult runs from across the street with a large sign to block O’Kelly and ask he not film. He continued, before eventually walking across the street and leaving the scene.

Though laws covering video and audio consent vary from state to state, the ACLU notes, “When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police.”

Generally speaking, in public, it’s legal to record if there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy. It’s also important to note no one’s faces were even visible. Each protester was dutifully wearing a mask.

It’s not clear why they were so upset given the very reason they’re publicly holding signs on street corners is to get the public’s attention. That’s literally the point of a public protest: to be seen and heard. Would you stop filming if teen protesters asked? Weigh in on the Facebook or Twitter link below.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter and Instagram or like me on Facebook. 

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