A YouTuber filming near Boston police station was arrested and issued with a coronavirus fine.
Ryan Dales, known on YouTube as Ryan Rampage, uploaded a video entitled ‘Arrested and COVID fined at Boston Police Station (Corruption at its finest)’ on February 16.
It has since attracted over 8,300 views and over 300 comments. He even included a link to his PayPal in the video description for anyone who wants to help him pay his COVID fine.
Ryan, whose life was saved by a police officer when he was two-years-old, starts the video with an introduction where he points at that it is “legal to film in a public place” and how police made him “really angry, it’s so corrupt, this is what you call brutality”.
*Be advised – there is some strong language in this video*
He walks around outside the police station and into the car park before two female members of staff come and ask what he is filming and where he has travelled from.
Ryan simply says he is in Boston on “official business” and is allowed to film in a public place. After a conversation the staff go back inside.
He continues filming outside the police station before Chief Inspector Trafford quizzes the YouTuber about why he is filming officers in their private cars.
The chief inspector said he is concerned for the security of police officers, but when asked why he is filming, Ryan said “because I can, for my own benefit”. He said “I am here and about for a reason” and when asked what that reason is, he simply replied with “it doesn’t apply to you”.
He believed he has a reasonable reason to be out, but the chief inspector didn’t agree, saying: “I’m going to give you one opportunity now, your final opportunity, to leave this area otherwise I’m going to consider you in breach of the COVID restrictions, and consequently you’ll be fined and you’ll be issued a ticket.”
Ryan claims he’s waiting for someone to pick him up, but is told to wait elsewhere or he will be fined. He becomes increasingly angry at police and as they come towards him he says “don’t surround me, you’re alarming me”.
He refuses to provide his details when asked and told that he has not “given a reasonable excuse for being there”. He is then arrested and taken into the station.
He is issued with a COVID fine and told not to return near the police station or he will get re-arrested. He then goes to the local train station and also films one of the officers getting into her car, who asks if he’s “fishing for another COVID ticket”.
Lincolnshire Police were contacted for a response.
This is Ryan’s second YouTube account and has over 370 subscribers, including another brush with the law and a video claiming the “COVID testing site choose to be bullys [sic]”.
His other YouTube account with nearly 700 subscribers includes several urban explorer videos.
He’s not the first YouTuber to get in trouble with Lincolnshire Police and get fined over filming outside a station. Here is another recent example from Lincoln.