www.montereycountyweekly.com may 11-17, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 A man walks into Marina City Hall and is greeted politely at the front desk. Things start to get a little uncomfortable when the staff member realizes he is not here to conduct city business—to request a building permit, say, or register for a recreation program. He’s just here to hold a camera and test the limits of the staffer’s comfort with the camera. As she becomes obviously uncomfortable, the visitor says, “It’s just a camera, ma’am.” His narrative continues: “I come in peace, I have no ill will. I’m just a guy with a camera, peacefully exercising my rights.” He then walks into the Finance Department—which is not open to the public, but no locked door or no trespassing signage bars his way. He narrates his ostensible mission, to “make sure there’s no alcohol, contraband, anything of that nature.” There are just cubicles, no contraband (nor any apparent reason why he suspects there might be). When he’s advised that this is an employee-only area, he pushes back: “Watch your tone.” A few minutes later, two Marina police officers arrive. A surprisingly civil conversation follows, and Cmdr. Steve Russo eventually instructs him, firmly but politely, to leave the Finance Department. “You’re interrupting city hall business,” Russo says. “I’m asking you to leave.” Eventually he does, and it becomes part of a video posted on Oct. 15, 2022 to YouTube by a user named “Anthony X.” Anthony X describes himself as a First Amendment auditor, and his hundreds of videos follow a similar arc. Walk into a government building, point cameras at employees, with no agenda other than to test their limits. He posts to Instagram and YouTube, then asks viewers to rate the agency pass or fail. (They’re also invited to give money.) Each video starts and ends with a flourish in which he recites something of a motto: “Remember, noooooo bootlicking!” In one video, from April 6 in Pacific Grove City Hall, a staff member calls the police while being filmed. When they arrive, Anthony X tells officers: “Hopefully she’ll do better next time, because there will be a next time.” On Dec. 29, he told a staff member at the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board office in Salinas: “I’m just a guy with a camera. I’m an independent journalist working on a story…I come in peace, I’m not here to cause trouble.” Anthony X claims he is conducting these audits in the service of the public, testing government agencies’ compliance with the First Amendment. (He also calls himself a journalist, but eschews journalistic ethics.) Not every hallway or office in a public building is open to the public, and public service does not require chatting with people holding a camera in your face for any purpose other than because they can. Anthony X seems to be trying to provoke, and it’s for that reason that he doesn’t announce himself—nor does he share his full name or identity (he wears a face covering in his videos). “They might not like it, but I want to test to see if they honor and respect my rights,” he tells me over the phone. “There’s not a lot of middle ground with what I do, you either love it or hate it.” He declines to give me his full name or share where he lives beyond the tri-county area; he says he works a graveyard shift as a sales manager, and these local government audits have become a side project over the past three years. I would call these “audits” bullying. He thinks the videos, which skirt the edge of confrontation just up to the law, are good for access and transparency. (“In my opinion, there’s no such thing as bad exposure—you can either shine like a star or melt like a snowflake,” he says.) But these antics don’t have the effect of getting agencies to throw open their doors—if anything, they do the opposite, prompting tighter security. Two months after his visit to Marina City Hall, City Council approved $48,000 for design upgrades. “It was a very intimidating, threatening invasion of our City Hall,” Mayor Bruce Delgado said before voting to approve the expenditure. Pacific Grove officials expect a draft proposal this month on proposed security updates. “I owe it to my employees to make sure they come home safe everyday,” City Manager Ben Harvey says. “If there are things I can do to improve that, while ensuring the public has appropriate access, that’s what I should do.” Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com. Cameras Rolling Self-appointed ‘First Amendment auditors’ put local governments on edge. By Sara Rubin Hard Party…Squid normally prefers a Saturday night snuggled up in the lair, but sometimes an invitation to ooze out on the town comes Squid’s way. This time, it’s an invitation—delivered in hard copy, via anemone mail (the underwater equivalent of the terrestrial snail mail)—to attend a benefit for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a Santa Cruz-based nonprofit that supports the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It has a mission that includes protecting Squid’s lair, so Squid’s interest was piqued. The “Sea Stars Celebration,” set for 5-10pm on Saturday, Aug. 5, offers a chance to “celebrate our Sanctuary sea stars” (cute) with dinner and drinks. The price of a ticket is forthcoming. The venue is the Tehama Golf Club in Carmel Valley, described on the invitation as “a private community born from Clint Eastwood’s vision of sustainability.” Huh? Last Squid checked, an 18-hole golf course and 2,000-acre, sprawling, gated, luxury community in the wildland-urban interface is a perfect example of the type of development that is not sustainable. At least if you want to build like that in Squid’s neighborhood in the sanctuary, good luck—even if you have star power. Squid thought the “Sanctuary sea stars” would be stars of environmental protection. Maybe they just mean movie stars. Either way, when Squid thinks of Eastwood and his outsized cultural impact, it has nothing to do with sustainability. So unfortunately, Squid sends Squid’s regrets and will instead look elsewhere. There must be another organization that can go ahead and make Squid’s day. Keeping current…Squid’s jalopy still manages to sputter and wheeze down the road, which is all Squid needs to get to points beyond oozing distance, such as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. While an AM-FM stereo is the extent of technological advancement in the jalopy, Squid finds the new hybrid-power engines in IMSA race cars both futuristic and fascinating—and a bit frightening. Because high-voltage electricity is coursing to the drivetrain, it’s possible for the body of the car to become charged if something goes wrong. An official at Laguna Seca tells Squid’s colleague that warning lights were installed on the new hybrid cars. Green means all is good. Red and it’s fried calamari. If neither color is displayed, it means “we’re not sure.” In Squid’s mind, “not sure” translates as a definite red under the circumstances—unless you just happen to carry a pair of gloves that can withstand a huge zap. Drivers don’t, so they’ve been trained to leap from the car without touching the body and ground at the same time. Squid will keep the jalopy chugging along. There’s no uncertainty between electricity and water. the local spin SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “It was a very intimidating invasion.” Send Squid a tip: squid@mcweekly.com
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