R/I ~ AA
.
CLEARWATER BEACH — Michael Taylor trudged over the crowded sugar sand, between sunbathers on beach towels and water-winged kids digging with plastic shovels. A few people peered at him from behind sunglasses. What was he doing?
“Livin’ that dream,” he told anyone who engaged with him on a recent Monday. “Livin’ that Florida dream.”
In his left hand, he carried a fishing rod and a pole flying a “Don’t tread on me” flag. They bobbed in front of the GoPro camera strapped to his chest and shooting video. Something else, dark and dull but obscured, kept intruding on the frame.
He fist-bumped a beachgoer and complimented the man’s tattoo, the symbol of the Three Percenters, an anti-government militia movement. The man asked about the thing slung over Taylor’s shoulder, that shadow on the screen.
“It’s an AR pistol,” Taylor responded. A shorter variant of the AR-15-style rifle. Fully loaded with a round in the chamber, he explained later.
Four Clearwater Police officers stopped him minutes later, about 100 yards from Pier 60. Taylor, who also carried a handgun on his hip, wasn’t worried. He was used to being stopped by cops — he sought it out, even. This is what the camera was for.
Taylor, proprietor of a YouTube channel called The Armed Fisherman, has for three years traveled Florida with his fishing pole, flag and weapons. He almost always provokes a police response, which he gladly uploads. The videos get tens of thousands of views, part of an online ecosystem of so-called civil-rights auditors, who invite and film confrontations with police and other officials.
Openly carrying firearms is illegal in Florida, but state law makes a few exceptions, including one that allows open-carry while hunting, camping or fishing, and while going to and from those activities. Taylor tests this law time and again.
He’s made hundreds of videos. He’s been handcuffed dozens of times. Occasionally, he gets arrested, though he says he’s never been convicted of committing a crime while auditing. (A Tampa Bay Times background check did not turn up any convictions.)
Taylor titled the Clearwater video, filmed on June 14: I Tried To Be Nice, But Tyranny Doesn’t Care. Within two weeks, it had nearly 140,000 views, and he was planning a return trip.
In the Clearwater video, a detective identified in a police report as Jon Cappa points out that Taylor chose to take a long walk down the beach, rather than park near the fishing pier.
“You think it’s appropriate, walking around with an AR-15 on your chest, where there’s children and everybody on the beach?” Cappa asks. “You don’t think that’s going to cause problems?”
“I don’t care about people’s concern,” Taylor tells the officers. “I care about your reaction.”
Dreaming4ever
Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/news/walked-clearwater-beach-ar-15-110200761.html