The first amendment auditing community split down traditional lines on Sunday as the first amendment auditor known as the First Amendment Protection Agency (FAPA) released highly edited footage of his Friday arrest for pepper spraying a senior citizen.
FAPA was arrested on Friday after an altercation outside of the Gage Cannabis Co. dispensary in Ayers, Massachusetts. The auditor was standing on the snow-covered easement near the parking lot to the dispensary while filming shoppers entering and exiting the shop.
FAPA briefly interacted twice with a worker from the dispensary, who expressed his concern about FAPA standing on the easement inches away from on-coming traffic. He gave FAPA two small bottles of water and suggested he move across the street for his own safety. FAPA refused but stopped giving the man attitude when he said he wasn’t going to call the police on the YouTuber.
After a few jump cuts in the video FAPA released of the incident Sunday morning a dark colored Toyota Tacoma drove into the dispensary’s parking lot and an older man marched out of his car, out of the parking lot and approached FAPA at a menacing pace.
FAPA began to back up and almost immediately pepper sprayed the man multiple times as the man put his hand up to block the spray. Both FAPA and the man circled each other as they were now standing in the middle of the road blocking traffic, and the man began muttering that he’d kill FAPA.
The pair continued to bicker as the man left the scene, walking into the dispensary and presumably calling the police.
More jump cuts and police arrived on the scene, approaching FAPA with a story that he matched a description of a person who pepper sprayed a man outside of the dispensary. FAPA refused to talk to the police, and they took him into custody.
FAPA was eventually placed under arrest, and he offered to show them the footage from his camera to prove his innocence. The footage ended there as FAPA was eventually taken to the police station where he was arrested for assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a person over 60.
The YouTuber is facing up to 3 years in prison and a $1,000 fine for the assault on a person over 60 charge, up to 2.5 years in prison and up to a $1,000.00 fine for the assault and battery charge, and up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000.00 fine for the assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charge.
The Ayers, Massachusetts, police force do not have bodycams nor do they have cameras mounted on their police cars.
FAPA was released on a personal recognizance bond and has court Monday morning.
Those were the basic facts from the edited video that FAPA released on Sunday. Missing from his own account on his Friday video was his claim that the man had already attacked him by grabbing his camera when the man was pepper sprayed.
Nearly every first amendment reaction channel released videos announcing FAPA’s arrest on Saturday, a few waited for his release of his own version of the video from the incident. All of the reaction videos are pretty much unified in portraying FAPA in a negative light, as FAPA has previously attacked other unarmed citizens with the excuse that he was in fear for his life.
FAPA countered this by claiming that he was an innocent victim in the case. He said that the police improperly arrested him based on the description given of him by whomever called the police. He complained bitterly that he was arrested without the officers confirming the story and his identity from the witness to the events.
Also questioned by FAPA was the denial of the police to let him talk to a supervisor. The officers on duty claimed that they were the highest-ranking officers on duty at the time of his arrest.
The only videos we could find coming to the defense of FAPA were live streams by Basil “BZWatchDog” Zangare and John Filax. Both claimed that FAPA was an innocent victim n the case and questioned why the man who had been pepper sprayed was not taken into custody for aggressively charging at FAPA.
FAPA is due in court on Monday, February 24, 2025. We’ll provide updates as we receive them.
