Earlier I wrote a blog post about "five types of First Amendment auditors".
The first type I listed is the best kind of such auditor: They are always polite and respectful, always try to de-escalate, know and respect all the relevant laws, and never actively confront nor make contact with other people unprompted, and they show respect for government officials and people in general if they likewise show respect for them.
The second type I listed is a kind that I don't like very much: They also know the relevant laws and for the most part respect them, but they are always extremely rude and confrontational, provoking people, throwing insults and cursewords, and being extremely disrespectful even when eg. the cops act completely professionally, respectfully and correctly (and don't even do so much as asking for ID).
There is, however, a type of First Amendment auditor that sits somewhere in between those two extremes, which can also be considered its own "auditor type".
And that's the auditor who is much like the first kind, ie. he knows and follows the laws and most of the time is very respectful and does not resort to gratuitous rudeness and insults... but is very opportunistic in his behavior otherwise.
And by that I mean that rather than just minding his own business, filming eg. governmental buildings from a distance or, even if being inside such a building mostly concentrate on filming the premises and eg. stuff on the walls rather than the people inside, this "1.5-type" auditor is explicitly trying to provoke confrontation in how he behaves and what he focuses on with his cameras.
This type of auditor might go to eg. the front of private businesses (like, say, some car repair shops, or stores, or the like), and stand there for an hour directly and visibly filming the private citizens doing their work there, quite clearly trying to provoke a confrontation by their mere persistent presence and very visible camera equipment. Or they might go to eg. a post office, and while technically acting within their legal rights, stay there for literally hours, and they constantly point their cameras at people going in and out, clearly seeking for reactions. Even if they are standing on the street, they often directly point their cameras at people passing by, very directly, visibly and purposefully, clearly waiting for a reaction, for a confrontation. Likewise if they are inside a governmental building, the same pattern repeats: They loiter there for hours and very visibly and purposefully directly film employees and passers-by, provoking some kind of reaction and confrontation.
The vast majority of this kind of "auditor" will wear a face covering of some sort, and often even wear clothes that look unusual for the average person, often something that looks like tactical gear or hunting attire. Something that makes them look like they might be armed with weapons (even if they actually aren't). Wearing a face-covering mask (very "antifa" style) is very deliberate: Obviously their excuse is that it's everybody's right to protect their own privacy, but in actual reality they do so because it more easily makes them look more suspicious and thus provokes a reaction more easily. I believe that they often wear clothes that look like some kind of tactical gear or hunting clothes likewise on purpose: It makes them look more "suspicious", giving people the impression that they might be some kind of radical terrorist or something, which in itself also provokes and elicits more reactions.
In other words, they are a bit like a mix between the first and fifth kind of auditors that I listed (the fifth being the actual fraudsters who artificially fabricate encounters and reactions without revealing this fact to their viewers, making them actual fraudsters.) While these "auditors" might not outright fabricate encounters and reactions, they do everything in their power to semi-passively induce and provoke people into reacting and confronting them, by being as obnoxious as possible with how they use their cameras, and how they make themselves look.
For the most part the genuine first kind of good auditors wear completely normal everyday clothes and very rarely cover their faces, and in general avoid focusing too much on people who are not interacting with them. In contrast, this kind of "polite but opportunistic" auditors deliberately try to create confrontation by what they focus on and how they look.
Unsurprisingly, the fact that this "1.5 type" auditor has been standing at some place for literally hours, very clearly and visibly pointing his cameras at passersby, and wearing unusual suspicious attire, is very rarely if ever depicted in their uploaded videos, which are usually edited to show only the confrontations. In the vast, vast majority of cases they avoid filming themselves and showing it in their uploaded videos.
I don't really like this kind of auditor either. They might avoid insulting and directly provoking people, and most of the time they are nominally polite eg. to cops who act professionally and correctly, but they are opportunistic and their behavior is questionable. They deliberately try to provoke people "passively", for reactions and thus YouTube views. Their videos are often deliberately edited to cut out the most provocative parts and only show people's reactions, giving the impression that people are overreacting.
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