This isn’t something I even knew about until I became aware of a situation occurring in my town. Two men filmed themselves walking around and standing in front of the largest bank in my small town, recording the front of the building and walking around it, even zooming in to film the teller doing a transaction in the drive through and continued filming there until the transaction was finished. They were asked to leave by an employee but refused because they were on public property. They appeared to behave suspiciously, and a woman entering the bank even told them she was afraid of them because she thought they had guns in their hands. I have come to find out their sole purpose was to hang around until someone finally got scared enough to report their activity to the police to see if they would be allowed to continue on with their first amendment “right” to film anything, anywhere. The bank went on lockdown due to these men. They then went to the police department where they filmed. Two women in the station at the time told them they did not want to be filmed and put online, yet they were shown multiple times in the video.

I have looked at a few different channels of these “auditors” and some of them seem to record in town halls, police stations, and they do things in a very respectful and non-confrontational manner. However, in most of the videos I watched the “auditors” avoided questions, acted aggressively, and went straight to name calling and egging on the officers who showed up.

My question is, are these “First Amendment Auditors” really doing a public service? Do you think they’re necessary? Or are they going around stirring up trouble and pushing how far they can go? Is it really okay to film whatever, wherever you want on public property, including people who specifically state they don’t want to be on camera?

I can include a screenshot of the video for people to look up if they want. I only gave the basics here. Their YouTube channel is full of these videos. Word is they came here because while visiting the one man was arrested and put in jail, and his cat died while he was in there. Apparently they were calling and harassing the sheriffs department the entire past week before showing up. The other man with him is a registered sex offender in Hawaii, has past charges of sexual assault, and was also in trouble in Michigan previously for filming these videos while possessing body armor.