Activist for the homeless Regan Benson was assaulted Wednesday night by an apparently drunk woman while livestreaming coverage of an anti-Trump protest in downtown Englewood, Colorado.
Benson started her livestream by getting out of her car and walking her diminutive dog Slabby over to a family protesting at an intersection in downtown Englewood. The YouTuber noted that it was “another anti-Trump” thing and engaged with the family in an initially mocking tone.
As the trio of protesters, two older parents and a teenager, engaged Benson, she said she had no problems with what they were doing as Benson is nearly entirely anti-government. She, however, wondered where the trio was months ago when the Biden administration was in power.
Her typical provocation did not turn into a typical escalation and the family seemed to be innocent enough to leave alone as Benson ended up commending them for their time protesting and moved up the street to the next group of protestors.
Benson heard shouting as she crossed the street and moved towards the group of protestors. A young blonde woman was screaming, “He’s going to ruin your life!” at the group.
It was determined by Benson that the woman was a pro-Trump counter protestor who was aggressively engaging the “old ladies” and Benson stepped up when the blonde woman targeted her with insults.
Not one to back down, Benson asked one of the anti-Trump protestors to hold Slabby’s leash, then approached the Trump supporter and tried to record the woman’s face. Harsh words were exchanged and the blonde woman attempted to strike the phone out of Benson’s hand, followed by a strike towards Benson’s face that failed to connect.
Having missed, the woman went to her car, but was initially blocked from leaving by Benson, who recorded her license plate and the passengers in the car.
After retrieving her dog and almost getting in another altercation with an anti-Trump protestor who expressed loudly her desire not to be filmed, Benson left the area, returning to the family she had previously encountered.
She then flagged down an Englewood police cruiser and asked to start a report with the officers. Benson seemed surprised when the officers did not recognize her or her name and refused to stop her live stream to rewind and show the officers the incident that she had filmed.
Benson gave the officers a description of the vehicle and the woman and claimed that the woman was clearly inebriated and a danger to other citizens. She promised that she would follow up after the livestream by e-mailing the officers a copy of her video of the incident along with the license plate number from the vehicle the woman was driving.
The YouTuber has not posted an update on her YouTube channel since the incident. We will continue to monitor her social media for updates as they happen.
