In what’s turning out to be a highly followed statement, Denver based sometime homeless advocate Regan Benson announced that she planned to leave the Denver area in the near future and may only return to the area to visit her children and grandchildren and attend her appeal of her conviction for doxing Denver police commander Joel Bell.
Fans were slightly surprised Tuesday night when the YouTuber made her tentative announcement while attending the National Night Out event in Denver’s District 3. Benson had made tentative statements about relocating over the past few weeks, but this was her first actual declaration that she intended to leave the Denver area.
Benson blamed the corrupt state for her leaving. She said that she would likely be killed while in jail if she lost her appeal as she had cut back on her activism and less people would care in the future if she returned to the area without her reputation as an activist to save her.
As far as locations to move, Benson was coy, stating that she could easily live in her car if she needed to and that she was currently living in a “tiny house” scenario. She teased moving outside of the United States but would not disclose the destination she had in mind.
Benson said that moving away from Colorado would mean moving away from her children and grandchildren but reaffirmed her belief that things had become so corrupt in the Denver area that she could not effectively do homeless outreach without being in danger.
The YouTuber claimed she would also have to wait until her criminal charges of trespassing at the city council meeting in Englewood, Colorado, were resolved before making the move.
For long time Benson followers, the announcement of leaving the state was nothing new as she has previously announced short lived “retirements” due to her percieved dangers in Denver or her health issues. Neither result in her long-term absence from homeless outreach as she always finds a new case to champion and return to her former glory.
Benson blamed her ban on having firearms due to a protective order in place by Commander Bell for part of her worries about the area. She mentioned losing those rights on the livestream, continuing a pattern of mentioning the loss on recent livestreams.
The free-range grandmother visited multiple booths and activities while she walked around the event, jokingly asking herself if the police had baby pigs at the petting zoo display (the did not). She then spent some time with the police mounted unit, admiring the horses and expressing outrage that the unit is down to three officers.
Finally, Benson spent time around Denver Police’s Air One helicopter. For those who remember Benson’s blow up earlier this year, Benson has been fixated on the police helicopter, which was sparked by a former police officer receiving a ride in the helicopter for his birthday from his son, who is a Denver police officer.
That former officer had a Facebook spat with Benson, which resulted in a week of blowups on the popular social media platform earlier in the year. Benson has been investigating the helicopter and the program since then.
Benson also revealed Tuesday night that she believed that the helicopter had been used to spy on her the night she was chalking out of the Denver District 3 police precinct where she doxxed Commander Bell.
For the first time, Benson admitted to seeking and being denied records relating to Air One, as she wanted to know who was on board the unit the night she doxed commander Bell.
Benson briefly interviewed the pilot of Air one, who admitted that he was the only active pilot on staff. He declined to give Benson a “ride along” as he said that she could get a better experience touring Denver through commercial helicopter tours.
The free-range grandmother and sometime advocate for the homeless is expected to go live again later this week.
