There are some things in life you just can’t stop looking at. Beautiful sunsets. Majestic ocean waves. Amber waves of grain, gently wafting in the breeze. And, of course, the looks of exasperation on the faces of public employees because some mysterious guy with a camera is filming in their office and refuses to leave.

I’ve seen a lot of the latter this week, and it’s all because somebody told me about a YouTube channel called Bay Area Transparency.

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First, fair warning: The Bay Area Transparency Guy (let’s call him TBATG for short) has been in our midst lately, and a lot. There are videos on his YouTube channel showing his visits to city, county, state and federal government offices all over Butte, Glenn, Tehama and Shasta counties in recent weeks.

To say some of the interactions are cringe-worthy might be an insult to all cringe-worthy interactions everywhere. On the other hand, for those of us who view the First Amendment as the lifeblood of our country, we also can’t pause and take note of the fact that TBATG is doing a pretty good job of educating the public about certain rights — rights that more government employees, frankly, should be made aware of in the first place.

We’ll get back to that. Right now, let’s take a look at a typical TBATG interaction.

He’ll walk into a government office (or onto public property such as a parking lot) with a video camera. And he’ll stand there filming. He usually does a little running commentary saying where he is, how many people he sees in the office, what they’re doing, what he sees, etc.

Eventually, an employee will see what he’s doing, and ask if he needs help. He’ll say no.

A few people — and word to the wise, this is the smart thing to do if you don’t want to end up being highlighted for the entertainment of his 171,000 followers — politely say “OK” and go back about their business. And soon enough, he leaves, often thanking the people for their kindness.

Of course, it usually doesn’t go that way, and therein lies the “I simply cannot take my eyes off this even if I tried” factor.

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Employees, understandably curious or concerned about why he’s there, ask who he is and what business he has in that office. Since he’s under no legal obligation to give his name, much less a reason for being in a public space, he never does. But, he will in turn ask the government employee their name. And if they refuse to give it, he’ll pan his camera around and often find a nametag or nameplate or something. After all, it’s public information. Unlike his name.

When pressed, he’ll usually say something like “I’m working on a story” or “just for my own purposes.” When asked who he works for, he’ll say “myself.”

It’s about this time that things generally begin to escalate. Or, depending on your point of view, go downhill.

A crowd gathers. Supervisors are called. Employees ask that he stop filming, sometimes angrily. Sometimes they even reach out and try to swat his camera away, or threaten to have him physically removed from the building. “You don’t have my permission to take my picture or film me,” they’ll say. In many cases, while somebody calls the police, a half-dozen or more government employees will stop working and stand around watching — sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Sometimes they even take out their iPhones and start filming him, perhaps under the mistaken notion it’s going to make him stop.

Stop? You kidding? He’s just getting warmed up, and at this point, he usually makes note of the fact that there sure are a lot of well-paid government employees standing around not doing any work on behalf of the taxpayers. Which, of course, doesn’t exactly lighten the already-tense mood in the office.

“Go ahead and call the police,” he’ll say. “They’ll tell you I’m not doing anything wrong. This is a public space, open to the public. There is no expectation of privacy. That’s the law. I am allowed to be here.”

Of course, there are always a few who are convinced this guy (who, as of this writing, has posted 113 videos of these encounters on his channel) doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So they call a supervisor. Or the police. Or both.

Meanwhile, TBATG is in his element, recording high-drama-gold for viewers to enjoy. If people start threatening or insulting him, he’ll insult them right back. (And trust me, he doesn’t need much prompting.) The longer they engage in the verbal back-and-forth, the longer he’ll stand there and exchange barbs while filming.

Inevitably, usually after the police or a higher-level supervisor intervene, they find out he’s right. And then they go back to work. And then, the guy leaves, having proven his point, again, and completed a video that he’ll post on his channel, for hundreds of thousands of viewers to watch and enjoy.

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He’ll brag about the number of followers he has. He’s not joking. A quick scan of his videos (mostly featuring encounters in the Bay Area) show a few with more than 700,000 views. Some of the encounters from our area are already up around 200,000 views. That’s a whole lot of people, and if only, say, one percent of them follow up with a phone call to an office to complain about the way their man TBATG was treated, that’s 2,000 extra phone calls an office has to deal with.

So, yes, I got hooked watching these this week. It’s got elements of “Candid Camera” and “Impractical Jokers” and if you like those shows, you’ll probably like watching these videos, even if you can’t help but feel sorry for many of the well-intentioned employees who never asked to be put in this situation. (The rude ones? Not so much.)

But, perhaps most importantly, if you’re concerned about public employees not understanding the First Amendment or the rights of citizens to film what they see in public, you’ll like these videos. I must admit, they are educational.

Because, you see — and we run into this all the time — there really is a grotesque misunderstanding in our society about what is legally allowed in terms of people recording events in public places. (Private property, of course, is a different matter.) Through the years, we’ve encountered hundreds of situations at schools and parks and city streets and public government spaces where people angrily approached our reporters and said things like “I did not give you permission to take my picture!” and “If you don’t stop filming me I’ll call the police! And … and … I’ll sue!” We’ve been physically threatened and in some cases even assaulted for merely recording what is happening in a public place — often public spaces that already have security cameras in operation, a bit of irony TBATG also delights in pointing out.

We’ve had these often-heated conversations repeatedly with everyone from private citizens to high school principals to police officers and city and county officials, many of whom remain under the mistaken belief that their self-written “policy” trumps First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And, despite thousands of threats, not once have we been sued or arrested for taking a photograph in a public space.

That’s because we, the people, have rights, and there is no legal expectation of privacy in public. The Supreme Court has never wavered in this interpretation of the law. And an open-to-the-public government office, or an open public parking lot, is a public space, owned by the taxpayers, and thus open to the taxpayers — barring locked doors or fenced-off areas, which, based on what I’ve seen, TBATG does not enter.

Meanwhile, thanks largely to the public’s lack of knowledge about civil liberties, TBATG’s fame is growing. Watch his videos and you’ll see why. I’ll also point out that not all of his encounters are negative; for example, when two Orland police officers responded to a call about him (after a memorable encounter with a postal employee in a parking lot), they told him “you’re allowed to film anything that’s open to the public” and said they’d notified the post office of that as well. He thanked them profusely.

A friend of mine who works for a government office in a neighboring county says they were “warned” a week ago about TBATG and were told that if he shows up filming in their office, just be polite and let him go about his business, and odds are he’ll be polite right back and let you go about yours.

I think we could all probably learn a little something from that concept.

Mike Wolcott is editor of the Enterprise-Record. He can be reached at [email protected].

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