Award winning independent journalist Tim Pool, who is widely celebrated for his unbiased presentation of events, has announced that he does not believe it is safe for him to cover US political rallies due to escalating threats from antifa, as well as escalating trolls from the right.
It is becoming increasingly more dangerous for me to cover domestic political events. I am considering no longer covering these events.
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) May 14, 2017
“When I go to these events who are creepy stalkers who are conservative leaning trolls and then there is antifa sending me threats, it’s just become too weird,” Pool told Big League Politics.
In a video statement, Pool noted that most of his coverage is international — from Sweden to Ukraine. He is also known to occasionally cover domestic events, however, including the free speech rallies and riots in Ferguson and Baltimore.
“On the antifa side, I get death threats, they post lies about me, they make up crazy stories accusing me of being a fed,” Pool begins. “I was forced to flee Venezuela because some of these activists thought it would be funny to convince people in Venezuela that I was a spy.”
He explained that he has had people attempt to get into his Ubers, his home address emailed to him, and on Saturday — someone sneaking up on him attempting to steal his hat. He stated that while stealing his hat is generally meaningless, it presents the possibility that someone may sneak up on him and hit him.
“The antifa guy assaulted me, it was verbal — the conservative troll actually grabbed me,” Pool told BLP. “One was meant to be harmless fun, but now I am on edge because people think they can come up and put their hands on me.”
He noted that while he has had to deal with some creeps on the right — only members of the far left have actually threatened his safety.
“The extreme right has never threatened or attacked me,” Pool told BLP. “I have never been physically attacked by the extreme right, only the extreme left. However, it isn’t just one issue that is making it clear that it is reckless to show up without security — and I don’t want security.”
On Saturday, supporters of President Donald Trump gathered in Boston to hold a free speech rally. Pool was in town to cover it when someone from the free speech side snuck up behind him and attempted to snatch the hat off his head, he was also verbally attacked by a member of antifa.
“If you put your hands on me I’ll knock your teeth out, I don’t give a fuck who you think you are,” Pool told BLP. “The only reason I didn’t in this case was because we had the entire Boston PD surrounding us. If I had, I would have been the one to be arrested.”
This dude is about to fight @Timcast pic.twitter.com/5p0PmKvQ2R
— Alt Right Report (@AltRight_Report) May 13, 2017
“You have people in antifa saying ‘punch a Nazi,’ and then people up on that hill were calling me a Nazi — on the livesteam people were saying that I am a Nazi sympathizer and that I’m a known alt-right person or whatever,” Pool said.
Pool is one of the rare journalists who does not publicly express his political views and will criticize both sides. Sadly, this has made him a target of more extreme members of both sides.
“I’m at the point where people feel welcome to come up and put their hands on me,” Pool said. “Are people on the left going to think it’s okay to come up and punch me in the face?”
Due to his increased notoriety, Pool believes that he now faces a serious threat at domestic events — where as internationally he is rarely recognized. He explained that he does not want to be part of the stories he is covering.
