"First Amendment auditor" Richard Maza gets arrested and now faces a lawsuit for pepper-spraying a man.
In Southern California, Richard Maza was arrested for spraying pepper-spray at a man in a Mountain View’s Costco parking lot to generate views. The victim is now preparing for a lawsuit that could exceed $1 million.
First Amendment
Richard Maza is a 51-year-old YouTuber with a channel called "Freedom of the Press". On it, he repeatedly films and provokes people in public spaces and in many videos, he uses pepper spray. He is part of a group of people calling themselves "First Amendment auditors," whose whole content consists of filming people in public and uploading the footage to YouTube.
The First Amendment generally allows filming in public places where people don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy. These "auditors" exploit this right to harass people and provoke reactions for content and clicks.
The Pepper-Spray Incident
On March 28, Maza and his group of "auditors" (YouTuber Richard Troyan, whose channel is True North Transparency, and Conrad Rankin and his son Nick Rankin, who run iiMPACT MEDIA) were outside Mountain View’s Costco going about their usual business filming people and creating their content. Because they were being obnoxious, harassing and provoking random shoppers, police received several calls about them but could not do anything about it because of the first amendment – just what Maza and his crew take advantage of.
Then, however, it escalated as the group approached a man loading his groceries. The man questioned why he was being filmed whereafter the "auditors" began mocking and insulting him. The victim claimed he “flinched” to try to get the harassers to back off, which the group then claimed was assault, Mountain View Voice passes on from the police report. The man then got into his car when Maza held his camera though the window. The victim describes himself striking the camera in fear, to which Maza reacted by spraying his pepper-spray into the vehicle and in the man's face.
Maza, of course, claims his actions were in self defense because the man struck out on him, but investigators believe the confrontation was intentionally brought about. The police report states the YouTuber “deliberately provoked” people to create viral content, so the attack can not be justified as self defense.
Mountain View police officer Andrew Wong told Mountain View Voice that he saw that the videos on Maza's channel that contained pepper-spraying were getting significantly more views. Wong also claims that the group's behavior, mocking and then not backing away, was "not typical of victims who are truly defending themselves." In his report, the officer writes:
Maza and his group were not merely filming people; they were saying things in an attempt to get them angry by using personal attacks. It appears that they were being so confrontational with people in an attempt to get people angry enough to cause them to attack the group.
So the group deliberately provoked people so they would lash out to be able to pepper-spray them and then claim self defense only for content and views. This is Maza's whole shtick – only this time, the victim spoke out.
(The victim) was confined to his vehicle and made no gesture to suggest he was going to get out of his car. Had Maza felt legitimately threatened, he could have simply walked away in any direction,
Wong wrote.
Maza was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and felony use of tear gas. By searching his vehicle, officers found three canisters of pepper spray. After his arraignment on April 2, Maza was released without needing to post bail but was ordered to stay at least 50 yards away from the Costco in Mountain View.
Lawsuit
The man who got pepper-sprayed initially declined medical attention but later suffered serious symptoms like severe vision impairment that might be permanent.
The attorney Andrew Watters is representing the victim and plans to file a lawsuit against Maza. The lawsuit is expected to seek damages that could exceed $1 million. The attorney wants to sue for racketeering and injury, proclaiming that his client may be unable to work if his vision impairment really turns out to be permanent.
The next hearing for the case is scheduled to be on May 19 in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
