First Amendment Auditor Looks for Trouble in Lancaster Town Hall, Leaves Empty Handed

"Auditor" Joshua Abrams, from his YouTube video

A couple of "First Amendment Auditors" made their way to Lancaster; they failed to provoke anything sensational, and produced a pretty dull 45 minute recording of a beautiful Prescott building staffed with friendly people.

"First Amendment Auditors" have been in the news for a few years now:  typically they're YouTubers that visit town buildings with a camera, confront the people inside and try to provoke a response.   Sometimes they do stir up arguments and physical encounters.   An article in Boston.com in May covered an "auditor" named Joshua Abrams who says he approaches this as a "full time job."

Boston.com: YouTubers film, insult public workers in towns across Mass. for self-declared ‘First Amendment audits’

Subsequent to that article, Abrams arrived in Lancaster.  The video of Joshua Abrams and his companion "Anna" is on YouTube (linked at the bottom) and dated June 15, 2023.    

By the end of his video, Lancaster seems to have passed the test as well as anyone can.  The video is 41 minutes and 52 seconds of cordial encounters with accommodating town staff.

The cover image for the video shows an open-mouthed IT Director John DiTommaso appearing to be confronting the auditors.  You won't find that in the video -- that frame is actually DiTommaso quietly saying "I'm just trying to get my lunch."

There is some foul language and bad behavior in the video, but all of it is from the two visitors.

First, the duo struggle a bit to find the door for the Prescott Building --admittedly a pretty common first-visit-to-the-Prescott-Building experience.

After entering the building their first stop is to IT Director John DiTommaso's office.  They meander in, and "take a look around."   DiTommaso reacts with precisely the same puzzlement I think I'd display if a guy walked into my office and started recording me.  John quietly asks who they are and what they're up to -- they decline to say -- and he snaps a picture and calls the police to give them a heads up.   After some time he rises to get his lunch from the fridge, or as Abrams later inaccurately retells it "barrels towards him."  

At one point Abrams loudly yells at DiTommaso: the auditors want to rile people up and create a confrontation.  DiTommaso ignores the bait and tucks into his lunch in his office.

Unsuccesful in provoking John, the duo wander to the Community Development and Planning Office:  not typically a place to visit for sensational video.   Town Planner Jasmin Farrinacci (who has since taken a position in Dover) chats with him for a bit. 

His next visit is to the Town Clerk, where a cordial Amanda Cannon fields a few questions and helps him request a copy of the picture John DiTommaso took. 

Detective Shaw happens upon the scene, seemingly passing through the building, and parries a few attempts to provoke him.  I think at this point the auditors were starting to realize that this video was not going to be very interesting: "Anna" tries to stir things up and flings a non-sequitur expletive at the officer, but it doesn't even shift his poker face.



Next visit is to Executive Assistant Kathi Rocco's office: again, a quiet visit.

Abrams and "Anna" make their final visit to Town Administrator Kate Hodges office, and she chats with them for a while.   Abrams complains to her about John DiTommaso's trip to the refrigerator (which he now refers to as an "assault") and Hodges suggests he take the assault complaint to the police station.  "Anna" suddenly cries out "back the blue!" -- she seems to have forgotten that called Detective Shaw an expletive 15 minutes earlier.

Abrams closes out the video by mumbling about how the "first amendment gives you the right to your grievances" as he walks into the parking lot.

Here's the video in question -- note there's some foul language.