Friday brought another personal victory for YouTuber and activist Regan Benson when the efforts by Sgt. Brian O’Neill of the Denver Metropolitan Police Department to receive a permanent protective order against the YouTuber was denied.
Benson’s on-going story picked up on Thursday as she paid a visit to the Douglas County, Colorado, sheriff’s office. She was there under the guise of getting information about severe weather sheltering for the homeless and getting her 501(c)(3) organization, Helping Hands for Dignity Coalition, added to the list of trusted organizations in the county.
The YouTuber had previously rallied against Douglas County as she said that it had claimed to have “solved” homelessness by asking its citizens to refuse to pay panhandlers directly and by shipping its homeless individuals to Denver.
Benson started her livestream in the parking lot and immediately zeroed in on a FLOCK license plate-reading camera that was installed in the lot. She said there was a second one installed in the parking lot of the park and ride across the way from the building.
Entering the building, she was greeted by a police officer working security, who raised her ire as he was directing traffic at the office in the place of any sort of centralized receptionist. Once past the officer, she was greeted warmly by a front desk worker.
She asked for someone who oversaw the subject of homelessness and the worker went to retrieve the sergeant in charge of the Homeless Engagement and Resource Team (HEART).
A short time later, the worker returned as sergeant was not in her office, giving Benson the sergeant’s contact information. As she spoke with the worker, the Chief of the building walked by and Regan prompted the worker to get him to talk with her.
Instead of peppering the Chief with questions about homeless resources, Benson instead focused on the FLOCK cameras and was not swayed by the Chief’s claim that he wasn’t aware that there was one in his parking lot.
He would later justify the FLOCK camera as the Sherrif’s department provided a safe drop off in custody issues and for Facebook marketplace. After finishing with the Chief, she went outside and asserted that the man was lying to her while expounding on the horrors of government surveillance before ending the stream.
Benson livestreamed twice on Friday, with news that her long-time nemesis, Judge Barry Schwartz, who had written warrants for her arrest in the past, had been temporarily removed from the bench due to an act of kindness in August.
Schwartz issued a $1.00 bond for a woman who was facing hardships in her life and when the woman didn’t have the money to pay that bond, he took out a $1.00 bill and paid it himself.
The Judge has been removed from the bench while an investigation into the incident is underway, doing clerical and other office duties with pay, including issuing warrants at the request of police.
Benson then revealed that she had just come from a hearing to quash a new arrest warrant for violating a temporary protective order taken out against her by Sgt. Brian O’Neill of Denver’s District 3.
The warrant said that she had called O’Neill a “bitch” and a “little bitch” on a livestream, which supposedly violated the protective agreement. Benson said that while the hearing on the motion to quash was carried over until Monday, she was confident that she had beat the warrant.
Before ending the stream, she revealed that she was on the way to a second hearing, this time for a hearing where O’Neill was seeking to turn the temporary protection order into a permanent one.
Benson proved victorious in her second stream, as, according to her account, O’Neill did not show to the judge that Benson posed a threat to the officer or his family. She promised that she would be suing O’Neill in the near future for harassment.
The YouTuber is still facing the motion to quash hearing on Monday but has promised victory to her loyal fans.
