This hero who regularly goes toe to toe with police in an attempt to show by example how not to violate the rights of people comes from Houston Texas. His style is laid back and polite and comes across as a man of the cloth, yet more often than not he is treated with suspicion and immediately asked to identify himself as if he had committed a crime followed by an attempt to violate his constitutional rights.
David has been seeking to show the public and the police by example how the Constitution of the United States was designed to work along with citing federal and Supreme court clarifications that better reflect today’s world. He posts his encounters on his YouTube channel “News Now Houston” and each and every video is highly educational because it shows practical applications of constitutional rights. One of the reasons we are interviewing him first is his demeanor is so kind courteous and polite, you would have no issue inviting this complete stranger to your dinner table with the rest of your family just to enjoy his company.
CTD: I think perhaps the most important question is what motivated you to do this type of thing?
NNH: I was seeing on YouTube all these negative police interaction videos, and I had filmed around public court houses and buildings for a long time and never had an issue. So I figured these YouTubers were just being creative and you know, editing out the parts where they provoke the police and whatnot.
So I saw an interaction coming when I was at the La Porte police department and I determined I was going to test that theory about not giving ID and getting arrested and all that. Well I got my eyes opened because that was La Porte Texas and if you look on my channel there’s a video of that arrest. After that I thought initially it must be a fluke, this just doesn’t happen in America. So I went out to test and see, and once again I got educated. It certainly does happen in America and it happens quite frequently.
We call them contempt of cop arrests. Basically the police think that you should comply with anything they say or want you to do, and to it without question. And if you do question you’re a problem for them and they don’t like that. So they’ll just arrest you and give you some bullshit charge.
CTD: Would you call this a hobby or more like a mission or some other description?
NNH: I’m an activist, I’m an activist in defense of our civil liberties. I guess I call that a mission.
CTD: Some people see you as a pain in the ass and others see you as an antagonist, and still others see you as a hero and a teacher. So the question is how do you see you see yourself and what words would you use to describe yourself?
NNH: I’m not a hero, I’m no different than the people that watch my videos. What I do is not a single person’s efforts. We’re a team, the people on my YouTube Channel are part of the team. I’m just the face behind the camera or in front of the camera depending upon the moment. But I can’t do what I do without the subscribers behind me. By myself I’m only one voice, and the government won’t listen to one person or one voice. You know but when you put twelve or twenty thousand voices out there, you get their attention. That’s what we do, I’m an activist, I’m a citizen, I’m not anti-government, I’m not anti-police, however I do believe there should be limitations to government and I think the government is getting out of control with how they misuse our personal information.
Ditto for the police and so that answers your question, and oh the only people that call me an antagonist are bad cops because the good cops don’t have a problem with me. If you look on my channel I post those interactions just as quickly as I do the bad ones. I prefer to post the good interactions personally, however I will not cover for bad cops and not post the bad ones.
CTD: Some may say you are anti-government or anti-authority, what would you say to them?
NNH: I’m not anti-government, I just feel that the government has become too intrusive on our rights. You know they have a list for everything and they want to put people on lists. For what? Jeff Gray HONORYOUROATH YouTube channel and I are both on the Fusion center’s terrorist watch list because some cop somewhere didn’t like us. Don’t like us not giving ID and not bowing down and kissing their feet. So they wrote a report and they worded that report so our activities would be seen as anti-government or make us sound like sovereign citizens, you know which I am not and Jeff Gray isn’t either. So this but hurt cop writes this report and goes to their intelligence division, and their intelligence division sends it on to the Fusion center, and the Fusion center nominates you for the terrorist watch list and yada, yada, yada.
Now they want to use that watch list to deny people firearms, and the watch list is embedded OK, and you can be on that watch list for any number of things. But they want to use that list to deny rights, certain rights without any due process. You know it’s the government and the people in the government who have to justify their position and their job to keep it OK, because if there is no terrorism, what do we need homeland security for? We don’t. so all those people employed by homeland security, they have to find something to justify themselves for. It’s all under the expectation of terrorism, ‘The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming’. There has been terrorism since the beginning of time.
Unfortunately from my perspective the government or its employees or agents can snatch a citizen who is breaking no law, give him a criminal charge, cost him $10,000 to fight that criminal charge, that’s not America. That’s not the country THAT I fought for in the military, that’s not the country that we’re promised with our civil liberties. It’s wrong, and the only way we’re ever going to change it and make it right is if we stand up and say enough! It has to stop somewhere and it should have been stopped long ago. Now were not just having to assert our rights, we have to vigorously assert our rights and push back. We’ve got to push them back and get our rights back and the free expression of those rights.
CTD: What do your friends and family have to say about this?
NNH: For most people it wasn’t a big deal until the death threats started coming. I average about a dozen death threats a week. probably about half of those, or four of those are specific enough that they cause me concern. Generally the ones that cause me concern don’t address me or aren’t aimed at me because I just don’t worry about those. It is when they start including my kids and mentioning addresses and things like that or my grandkids, those are the ones that cause me concern. So needless to say my kids are not real supportive of what I do. Ditto for friends, some friends do, some friends don’t, but there has been a very high cost to me personally for what I do.
It is wrong in this country for a citizen who is not breaking the law and is simply criticizing wrong doing in the government, would be targeted the way I have been targeted. Again that is not America and is not the American way, and it is the police that are targeting me. Those are professional police officer there right?! No those are the ones I am looking for the most, those are the ones that need to be gotten out of law enforcement.
CTD: What feelings and emotions stir in you when you see people’s rights being violated?
NNH: I get upset, depending on the level of the violation that would be the level of my upsetness. Upsetness, I don’t think that is a real word but you get it. Some of what I have been seeing have been pretty horrific and do I ever get angry, absolutely, but I don’t let that be the controlling emotion.
CTD: Do you see yourself as an Alpha male perhaps in a defender roll?
NNH: I don’t know about that, I try to be assertive without being seen as aggressive. A lot of people refer to me as the Ned Flanders of activism you know because my demeanor is so passive. Alpha male, eh maybe but I really don’t see it that way but I guess it is possible.
CTD: When someone tries to violate your rights, do you become more motivated?
NNH: Absolutely ….. absolutely! The more aggressive they are about violating my rights, the more motivated I become. The harder the government tries to intrude, the harder I work to exclude them.
CTD: Given the present climate with terrorism, ISIS and other such potential domestic threats, it is easy to see why some would be alarmed with someone holding a camera near public buildings thinking you were planning an attack without using properly using Google Earth first, and that is especially true with the Government’s motto ‘See something, say something’. How would you best address this?
NNH: This is really simple, first off there is no documented instance of terrorists ever standing on a street in broad daylight in public view making no effort to conceal themselves or what they’re doing to conduct surveillance of a target. I have some experience in doing surveillance and I will tell you that it is just ignorant to even suggest that, it doesn’t happen. I have cameras the size of a pack of Ticktacks that I could place just about anywhere and nobody would ever see them. Why would I stand on the street and risk being caught, there is no logic to that OK, that argument comes from people that are programmed.
They are programmed just to you know, Get a name, get a name, get a name. A name does not stop me from shooting somebody. A name does not stop me from throwing grenades over a fence and hurting people OK, there is nothing to getting a name. This is a programmed response from law enforcement. They are programmed to get a name, get a name, get a name because if we’re gonna put somebody on a list we got to have a name, and that’s what their after. And if you screw up their program, you are a problem for them.
There is nothing you’re going to get from standing outside a building, a federal building or whatever and taking pictures that you can’t get off of Google Earth or that you can’t just walk by and write down on a piece of paper. What they’re gonna say is your getting real-time intelligence. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, real-time intelligence is only useful right this second. Is if I’m going to get real-time intelligence, that means I need to attack right now. Not six weeks from now with video I took six weeks ago or a week ago because real-time intelligence is in the moment. If you’re not using it in the moment, it’s no good to you because no cars come and go at the same time every day, know people come and go at the same time every day, traffic patterns aren’t the same every day. And even if they were, here in Houston they have this thing called TranStar you can go and get the traffic. There’s an App, or you can go to the traffic cameras and look at it all. So that argument is worthless.
CTD: Have you ever served in the military?
NNH: Yes I served in the military, I was in the army. Military police and then I did some intelligence in Europe.
CTD: Picking out one particular confrontation, it seems Shell Oil seems to go out of their way to exterminate you one way or another. Lies, fake documents, intimidation and going the extra mile to shut you down. That does not even address wasting tax payers money calling the authorities trying to criminalize you exercising your rights. Where do you think this will go if you stick to your guns and stand up for your rights?
NNH: Shell, it’s not just shell its ExxonMobil. You know we are here in Texas and Houston in particular we are the energy corridor, so these are major corporations that the state and the government get big money from. They are major employers here and there are people that will sacrifice their liberties for a paycheck from these people, I’m not one of those guys. Shell, ExxonMobil, if you’re on their property you are subject to their rules. But their policy is not law, it does not apply once you are off their property.
Shell is getting sued, that is coming in January. There will be a civil lawsuit. They had no authority to do to me what they did, and the repercussions from what they did were horrendous. You know the death threats, that is when they all started, and those were coming from Harris county deputies because I caused something and Phillip too that was arrested the next day. We got something on video that had not been on video before. We got Harris county deputies breaking the law arresting people on contempt of cop charges that were completely bogus. We got the video, we can prove it, and you know that’s a problem for them. The fact that they did it on the behalf of Shell, you know really speaks about where their loyalty lies.
CTD: Would you say with Shell Oil, is it one person with a God complex or is a corporate mentality or some place between?
NNH: You know I don’t know. I know that the Shell people, their security people and their lead guy have for years been able to get away with anything they did. Whatever they wanted to do, they could just do it. They had people arrested out there that were working on the property. They would make up charges like they did with Phillip and I, and have those Harris county deputies haul their asses off to jail. And I have affidavits from deputies who have worked there that say if you did not do what shell wanted you to do, then they would fire you and get somebody else in there that would. In the City of Deer Park, Shell employees, you don’t get arrested for anything. You know Shell owns Deer Park Police department, and that also is a problem we’re going to address this year. I think it’s time that we get the law enforcement officers out of there and that’s going to be something I will work on this year as well.
CTD: In your opinion, what would you say is the primary reason police look to violate people’s rights on a regular basis?
NNH: It’s not all police and the vast majority of the issues that I run into out there about 80 percent of the police are good honest police doing their job. You would have to….. I’m not going to say they wouldn’t break the law and violate your rights, but you would have to push them really, really hard to get them to do it. The other twenty percent, well fifteen percent of that… well let’s say ten percent of that is training problems. A lot of departments don’t have funding for proper training and that creates an issue. Five percent of what’s left are officers with ego problems, they can’t separate their ego from the law and when you tell them no, they don’t react well to it. and then you have that other five percent that are just straight criminal cops. They do what they want because they are not held accountable.
CTD: It seems that once the police get to know you, they don’t bother you simply because they know better. What is it like when you go you someplace where you are a stranger?
NNH: Police that know me, they tend to leave me alone yes. When I go to a place where I’m a stranger, it depends, a good department will leave me alone anyway, it doesn’t matter if they know me or not. Bad departments, well we have seen what happens with those.
CTD: In general would you agree that places that don’t like to have a camera pointed at them have something to hide?
NNH: I don’t think it’s so much they have something to hide as they just don’t like being watched. They don’t like being held accountable when they do wrong and cameras don’t lie, and they like to be able to cover their ass anyway they want if something goes wrong. If there’s cameras they can’t do that.
The problem with them having cameras is they control the footage and they won’t release it. when something happens they won’t give it to you. I run into that quite a bit here in Texas and it’s wrong. The whole point of giving them cameras so we can have some accountability and transparency but they are fighting that. They’re fighting it, because so many of them are getting caught. So us having the cameras is important because they’ve shown that they lie. They want to control the narrative and as long as they have the footage they can do that.
CTD: You have said that the police watch your YouTube channel, and from the outside that seems to be a good thing because each and every video you make is educational in one way or another. In your opinion would you say their intent is to learn about the first amendment and the rights of people, or is it more of a tactical study on how to take you down legally or for some other agenda?
NNH: There are officers that watch my channel and comment and send me messages to help me improve things or to maybe explain something that I missed things like that. Homeland security has an open warrant to monitor my social media and that includes YouTube. Harris county sheriffs department intelligence division routinely monitors all my stuff because they know their getting sued and that is what they do when somebody’s gonna sue them is they start monitoring those people and watching those people trying to find something to fight their case you know with and that’s just wrong as well.
CTD: What percentage of people that you have encountered have learned about their rights from what you are doing?
NNH: I can’t give you a percentage on how many people have learned from me about their rights and stuff.
CTD: What percentage of cops are angry you put them in their place?
NNH: Some officers I get a chance to speak to after the fact. I’ll run into them on the street or something like that probably 50/50. And like I said the ones the issue revolves around training generally are not a problem. The ones that are just crooked and criminal and you know got caught doing wrong, those guys are a problem. I can’t give you a percentage on that but if had to I’d say 50/50.
CTD: What percentage of people fall into the ‘fail to learn’ group otherwise known as the bad guys?
NNH: About five percent. Five to eight percent I would say.
CTD: Have you ever seen a case where you have educated the police about the right to video and they did not bother you after that, but the next person after you who decided to video, things went right back to square one and they tried to violate that person’s rights?
NNH: No I’ve not seen an instance of that.
CTD: Just by looking at your videos it is clear that you are driven by morals and ethics as well and being a champion for the people. People that would look to stop you or otherwise stand in your way, would you say they are Anti American or perhaps have some personality disorder like narcissism or being a sociopath?
NNH: Some of them yes because you know one of our founding principles in America is freedom, and they seek to infringe upon that however the vast majority are, THE VAST MAJORTY are misguided. They’ve been spoon fed the whole terrorism propaganda thing and for too long they’ve done without accountability and the thing about power is once you have that power you don’t want to give it up. And so they had that power now a while and we’re pushing back and taking that power away from them and they don’t like it.
CTD: Is there a particular encounter you had that stands out?
NNH: The federal court house when the US marshals or directly they are called CSO court security officers, that one stands out, that was ridiculous. And I loved that old idiot who is a retired police officer stood in my face in front of my camera and said ‘That camera doesn’t do a thing for you’. He was clueless.
CTD: Are you being stalked, harassed or threatened by anyone?
NNH: That’s an ongoing thing, that’s just nothing pretty much for the last twelve, thirteen, fourteen months. For sure since the Shell arrest, a little bit before that some minor harassment, but after the Shell arrest, once those crooked deputies got involved it’s been ongoing.
CTD: There are dozens of other people who do the same as you, and with every video that gets to the point of police violating rights, there is a clear attempt to strip dignity from the person with the camera. In your opinion is that a tactical move on the part of the police along with intimidation, or do they simply not know the law?
NNH: Yes the more you can belittle someone the more it empowers, and not all police do that, it’s the bullies. By striping you of your dignity and inducing fear it empowers the bullies and the cowards. So when you see that type of behavior, that is what you’re seeing, you’re witnessing a bully in action.
CTD: What equipment cameras and so on do you take with you?
NNH: If you check my secondary YouTube channel, it’s called ‘Camera Terrorist’. Everything that I use as far as equipment and stuff is on there and how I use it and other stuff like that is there.
CTD: Do you work as a team with others?
NNH: Sometimes, most of the time we are all independent but we do get together because as a team a lot of times we can expose other things.
CTD: Please describe what you call an audit.
NNH: An audit is really simple, you obey the law standing on a public sidewalk taking pictures of anything that you can see from that sidewalk is legal. There is no question about what you’re doing if you’re out there in broad daylight making no attempt to conceal yourself or what you are doing. That’s not a terrorist conducting surveillance okay, that is a citizen engaged in lawful constitutionally protected activity. Police know the difference and they just choose to make it something that it isn’t. Would it be different at two o’clock in the morning? Maybe but we’re not talking about that we’re talking about lawful activity. I seek to obey the law at all times.
CTD: From your base, what is the greatest distance you traveled to do what you call an audit?
NNH: It was about 1200 miles, I went to Wetumpka Alabama because a police chief there doesn’t like me, so I made a point to go and visit him and his department and video.
CTD: Do you ever do Second Amendment audits with open carry?
NNH: I don’t do second Amendment open carry audits. I think it’s a bad idea when you’re dealing with people who can kill you and get away with it. I think it’s a bad idea to introduce a firearm into that mixture. If I weren’t so famous you know there are other guys that aren’t as well known and prolific as I am you know that might be different. However there are people out there who seek to harm me and that would just open the door for that, so I do not carry any type of weapons. Nothing, no pocket knives nothing when I go out to video.
CTD: Can you tell people what federal and Supreme court rulings are relevant to doing what you do and how they apply?
NNH: There are so many Supreme court rulings and lower court rulings that are relevant to this that you know all I can tell you is check your district court rulings and your state law and know what you’re doing. Don’t go out there halfcocked and get yourself arrested because you’re in Alabama you thought Texas 3802 applied, but laws from state to state vary so know your local laws.
CTD: Are there differing laws from state to state on showing and carrying ID when asked by the police?
NNH: Yes he laws from state to state vary. Generally speaking they have to have some kind of reasonable suspicion that you’re doing something before they can bother you. But you need to be careful in stop and ID states because it is pretty simple to get arrested. Will that charge hold up when you get to court? Maybe not but to fight a class A or class B misdemeanor here in Texas you’re going to spend somewhere between six and ten thousand dollars. I don’t know about you guys but I don’t have that kind of money to throw away.
So whenever I am looking at being arrested and standing up, I look at the situation carefully, and you know it requires quick evaluation. Am I 100% right? Am I where I need to be? I look at that situation and I evaluate it and determine at that point, is this something I can win in court? I mean 100% for sure, and if I can’t say yes to that I’m very likely not going to push it to arrest. Because I may win in court, but the time and money it’s going to take to win honestly just may not be worth it. I have the video, I have the video of these tyrants in action, do I need to push it to arrest to prove the point, where I can go and make a you tube video and expose them without having been arrested for being what they are, for exceeding their mandate, I don’t think you need to be arrested every single time to prove a point. But you know others don’t feel that way. Of course usually they are not the ones being arrested.
CTD: If someone wanted to do what you are doing, what advice can you give them?
NNH: Look at my secondary YouTube channel ‘Camera Terrorist’, it’s all there.
CTD: Is there a website that people can go visit to learn more about how to deal with police who look to violate people’s rights?
NNH: ‘Camera terrorist’, there is plenty of stuff there. Some of the activist Phillip Turner for one are doing what I do now. We’re starting to make videos kind of how to videos. So you’re going to see a few of those turning up.
CTD: If you were presented with a chance to be on 60 Minutes or any other similar news program, what thoughts would be going through your mind?
NNH: I don’t know, um first off I never thought that this channel my YouTube channel and Facebook and all that would ever be as big as they are. I didn’t do this for the notoriety. As a matter of fact I don’t like the notoriety. For as long as I possibly could I stay behind the camera and people didn’t see my face. I didn’t do videos now where I got in front of the camera. I never wanted to be in front of the camera but it is what it is. And would I go on ‘60 Minutes’ and talk about what I do or ‘Dateline’ or whatever, yeah I would but I’m not the poster boy for this. They would be better served to get Phillip Turner or Jeff Gray out of Florida, one of those guys they’re a little more docile than I am,
CTD: Can you please take a moment to talk about things you feel are important not addressed above.
NNH: Lack of accountability amongst unionized police. The police unions have, I’m not anti-union OK, but unions were originally supposed to secure a safe working environment for employees and a decent working wage. Now what we’ve got with these police unions is, and specifically the Fraternal Order of Police is a very powerful and rich group of people who exploit their position and utilize their money to put politicians in office that will protect them. District attorneys that won’t prosecute police officers, and that sort of thing. And they get laws passed that protect their officers excessively. It is almost impossible to fire a unionized police officer.
There was a recent case here Texas in San Antonio where a police officer defecated on bread, gave it to a homeless guy and the homeless guy ate some of it, baaaa. He was fired, and he should have been criminally charged because that’s actually a crime in Texas. Instead he went to the union, and the union got his job back. Now is that a public servant? Is that the kind of police officer we want on the street? It’s not up to the police chief anymore, it up to the union. The police chief can fire them all day long, it’s the union that goes to arbitration and gets their job back, PLUS BACK PAY, and that’s ridiculous. We put the chief in charge and we expect him to control those officers. How can you control people you can’t fire. That’s now how it works, and we have to get the unions under control, get their contracts under control, and get the power to hire and fire back in our hands.
That is the number one item of accountability. Because if we can’t fire somebody that does wrong they have no incentive to do right.
Based on your answers we can see that there is a lot to do to restore what has been whittled away over time. We can assure you the vast majority of Americans support what you are doing because it is no so much for you, it is for them. Anyone who would not fight for the things you are fighting for, are the very same people who want to take it away. If Helen Keller was still alive, we are sure she could see this clearly with her walking stick.
