Town employee charged after swatting YouTuber with file folder, first selectman says
RIDGEFIELD — A town employee has been charged with disorderly conduct after swatting a YouTuber with a file folder on Thursday, First Selectman Rudy Marconi says.
According to Marconi, the female employee was being recorded by two men who said they belong to Accountability For All, a group that records videos — typically of public officials in their work settings — and uploads them to YouTube. The group calls themselves auditors of the First Amendment.
On Thursday around 2:30 p.m., Marconi said, the two men wandered around Town Hall asking people questions and recording them with cellphone videocameras. The pair questioned people on the ground floor before ascending to the second floor, hitting “every office” on that level and recording everybody they saw, Marconi said.
The two men proceeded up to the accounting department on the third floor where “the public seldom ever goes” and started to record a woman sitting in her office, Marconi said.
“She asked them to please stop videoing and they wouldn’t,” Marconi said. “She said, ‘Please, I asked you once. Please stop videoing me — I don’t like it.’ ”
When the men refused to turn off their cameras, Marconi said, the woman became upset and lost her temper, causing her to “march out” of her office and swat one of the men’s phones with a file folder.
The phone, in turn, allegedly struck the man in the upper lip, prompting him to file charges against the employee, who is now on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, according to Marconi.
Marconi said the men’s behavior was “intimidating” but acknowledged that they didn’t break any rules with their antics.
“If people walk around just videoing you, following you, would that upset you? I think some people would be upset,” he said.
“But is it against the law? I don’t believe so.”