Qwenews.com – Ian Pfister held up his camera phone in one hand and his pepper spray in the other, recording Richard Hobig as he marched out of his deli, Zimmerman’s Meat Market. Walking backwards on a wet sidewalk of Marine City, Michigan, Pfister kept videoing as he shouted: “I’ll spray the f**king shit out of you, mother f**ker. Stay back!” For a couple more seconds, Hobig kept walking down the street as Pfister backpedaled.
“Stay the f**k back,” Pfister said again as he sprayed a stream of irritant in Hobig’s face. Those moments became the sizzle reel at the start of Pfister’s post to his YouTube channel, Welcome to this World Media. “Hot sauce for hot head” emblazoned in neon lettering was the title card.
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It’s the kind of video that can strike internet gold, with clicks and engagement translating into a payout. Pfister is part of a growing so-called First Amendment audit movement where individuals record in public to test the limits of the freedoms of the press and of free speech, often leading to confrontations with strangers who don’t like being recorded. The more drama, the bigger audience and monetization.
But for Pfister, it’s more than that. He believes he’s planting his body and his camera between the threat of tyranny and the ideals of the Constitution. As a former drug addict who used to steal to feed his habit, he’s now a legitimate member of the taxpaying class, finding success in today’s attention economy.
And his new life also has him facing jail time. Watching Pfister work is not for the fainthearted. He’s out on the streets recording anyone and everyone whether they like it, or especially if they don’t.
Questions and complaints are frequent and often descend into curse-laden spats. He gives himself the noble mission of defending the First Amendment, and of educating people there is essentially no right of privacy when in public, whether it’s having lunch in a sidewalk café, walking into a post office, or even doing your banking if you’re visible through a window. He’s also part of the world of rage bait, where people are recorded — and sometimes provoked — as they get angry and then mocked as a busybody “Karen” or “Darren.” On sites like YouTube and Facebook, accounts monetize viral confrontations between auditors, officials and members of the public — the more views and time spent by watchers, the more income is earned, mostly through ads being played to millions of subscribers.
The 30-minute video posted by Pfister of the Zimmerman’s Meat Market incident from earlier this year shows him, his wife, Pam, and another man holding their cameras to the deli’s front window, capturing what was visible inside. They refused requests to stop recording, even as the owners became upset and called 911. “I got a maxi pad in my bag if you need it!” Pfister taunted them as his wife ridiculed them for trying to cover their windows.
It’s the kind of sidewalk spectacle that Pfister knows will make a successful video and the sort of situation he keeps seeking despite being prosecuted and found guilty by a jury of assaulting Hobig with the pepper spray. Weeks after that incident, he continued recording in a bus station in Royal Oak, Michigan, despite complaints from an employee and a security guard. Police responded and ordered him to leave or be arrested, mistakenly saying it was a private building.
Pfister, carrying a copy of the Constitution in his pocket and wearing glasses that can record video, chose to leave because of his ongoing legal action, he told CNN. As he retreated, he denounced the police officer as a “f**king pig tyrant.” Pam Pfister piled on in her recording: “As many interactions as we’ve had with Royal Oak, I’ve never came across your c*ck sucking ass.” When the officers left, to a stream of insults from the Pfisters and then an on-camera reminder to viewers to “like, share, subscribe and all the fun stuff,” Pfister pointed out the contradiction to CNN. “It’s bad overall for the First Amendment and for freedom but it’s good for view and clicks … it will be a banger video,” he said.
These days, the recovering addict says he mostly vapes but will still smoke in stressful situations. In Royal Oak, he took long drags from a cigarette. By many definitions, Pfister, 47, is an American turnaround story.
He grew up in the working-class suburbs north of Detroit, the son of union parents who instilled a strong work ethic. In high school, he saved a few thousand dollars working at a pizza shop before drugs took over his life. “I literally snorted some heroin knowing nothing really much about it,” he said, recalling that he was introduced to drugs by a neighborhood friend during his senior year.
“It gave a calm over me that I’d never felt before. I’m like, ‘Oh, that was fun — let’s do it again’ … I went straight from school to now I’m a heroin addict.” He blew through his savings and began stealing to feed his addiction. He’d take items from stores then “return” them for refunds to buy his next fix.
“Kind of a rinse-and-repeat lifestyle,” he said. Pfister estimates he stole thousands of times. His criminal record reflects some of the occasions he got caught and did jail time, for non-violent retail fraud.
That was his life for more than a decade — sometimes in work or a relationship but always falling back to addiction. Drug court — a specialized system to help non-violent addicts avoid incarceration and start recovery — finally broke the cycle along with the realization that he would die, like nearly all his high school friends, including the teen who introduced him to heroin. “I’m sick of a life like this.
I know that I got potential to do much, much greater things than where I’m at now,” he said of his impetus to change. Pfister says he’s been clean since he graduated from drug court in 2010, and his record reflects that. He went to community college, where he met Pam.
They began a life together, and he pledged to help support her four children. He did construction jobs for friends, but his felony record made it hard to find steady work. “My criminal background wouldn’t allow me to get a job at most places.
Regardless of what my story is behind it, they’re not going to want to hire me,” he said. A lifelong musician, Pfister turned to online forums to learn how to shoot and edit music videos at local clubs. He expanded to do wedding videography and kept going, working long hours for minimal pay.
And then his wife showed him a First Amendment auditor video that had come into her feed. Pfister’s work ethic, his quick and acerbic wit, and his editing skills helped him launch his channels that are now followed by more than 100,000 subscribers across Facebook and YouTube. He is sometimes recognized by fans even as some subjects react with distaste and disdain, sometimes telling him to “get a real job.” He knows the income is real.
His wife estimates they make about $75 an hour, sometimes topping the wage from her 9-to-5 job. They support themselves, the four children and a nephew they’ve taken in. “The government loves my tax money just as much as it loves any other person’s tax money,” Pfister said.
The couple created a life they can afford, and Pfister said he has found not just a community but acceptance. He insists he believes what he is doing is necessary. “It’s a stress test of the First Amendment,” he said, adding that his work is focused on exercising his rights.
“My rights don’t end where somebody else’s feelings begin. Simple as that. That’s why we live in America,” he said.
“We live in a surveillance state. Public photography is not a crime.” Assault, however, is a crime. After the Zimmerman’s Meat Market confrontation, the St.
Clair County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Pfister with aggravated assault and dangerous use of a self-defense spray. “I recognize Mr. Pfister’s First Amendment right.
Just because it’s objectionable, you can’t silence them,” Prosecuting Attorney Michael Wendling told CNN. But using the pepper spray was not protected by the Constitution. “In our opinion, Mr.
Pfister initiated a conflict and used mace against an innocent person,” Wendling said. Pfister turned down a plea deal that would have avoided a jury trial and jail time. “An innocent person doesn’t take deals to plead guilty, especially when my purpose is about exercising constitutional rights, transparency and accountability,” Pfister told CNN.
A jury found him guilty of dangerous use of a self-defense spray and aggravated assault at the end of June. Because of his previous felonies, though none for violent crimes, Pfister could now be defined as a habitual offender under Michigan law and faces prison. Sarah Hoover is the co-owner of Zimmerman’s Meat Market and the daughter of Richard Hobig.
She was also in Pfister’s video. She said the store was “still getting prank calls every day,” apparently from those who agree with Pfister. “I’m glad he was convicted, and I hope he gets punished,” she said.
YouTube told CNN that Pfister had violated its creator responsibility policy, and he would be suspended from monetization for 90 days. Monetized or not, Pfister is continuing to film in public and post videos, at least until his sentencing hearing, scheduled for August 3. “Even if the world ends in a week, I’m just going to record it,” he said.
“Whatever happens, I’m going to record it, and I’ll put it up.”
