New video shows a confrontation that happened when a man was live-streaming as he walked through the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” or “CHOP.”
He said he was threatened and detained by people camping inside the zone at Cal Anderson Park.
Protest leaders denounced Thursday night what happened to the man and said it distracts from the message of the protest.
For several weeks, Shawn Whiting, a downtown video game designer, has been live-streaming the Downtown Seattle and CHOP protests.
Just yesterday while Whiting was live-streaming inside the Chop Zone in an area with tents in Cal Anderson Park, someone asked him not to show people’s faces and the 32-year-old replies he was not showing anyone’s faces.
Then in the video, a man comes up to him and tells him not to film the tents.
Here’s the exchange caught on video:
Camper says: You see this sign?
Shawn says: Right, right. I’m not getting people though. What’s the problem with the tents?
Camper says: This is where I live. It’s our houses.
Shawn says: It’s a tent.
Camper says: Can I come to your house and take photos of your house?
Shawn says: No but my house isn’t a public park.
During the video, the man claimed media isn’t allowed to film there and the man is heard on video telling Whiting not to film, “for his own safety.”
Whiting said when he tried to leave the area, he was detained and forced to delete the video.
You can hear Whiting saying, asking for help while another man is heard saying, “What do you mean help? Who’s going to help you?”
However, Whiting said he didn’t realize someone else was re-streaming his live stream—so it captured the confrontation.
“It was pure terror in the moment of I’m screaming for help and nobody’s coming over to help me they’re coming over to reinforce this guy,” Whiting told KOMO News. “He had a good hold of me from behind and wasn’t letting me leave.
I’ve seen people with weapons. I didn’t know if was going to put a knife in me or put a gun to my head, I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
KOMO News showed one the protest leaders Maurice Cola the video—who denounced it.
“That’s not beneficial and trying to assault people just trying to document is not ok,” said Cola. “This is still a public place and we’re not going to violate anyone for doing and utilizing their rights properly.”
Maurice said it’s hard enough to mobilize a movement while having manage people distracting at protest that’s intended to be peaceful and powerful.
He said protest leaders are trying to coordinate the protest leadership to set some rules for people who are not with the movement and might have another agenda, so their message is unified.
“People’s rights to film publicly, it’s their rights," Cola said. "Walking around with the flag, it’s their right. If we become just like the police, we’re losing all of our focus. We can’t be hypocrites to our own cause, that’s ridiculous.”