Anti-masker’s confrontations with California children investigated

A man wearing a T-shirt that says "Your mask makes you look stupid" shouts about mask wearers, insulting onlookers and using foul language.

The alleged harassment of Los Angeles County children by a mask opponent is being investigated by sheriff’s deputies.

Though the Crescenta Valley station of the sheriff’s office on Monday released a statement acknowledging it was “aware” of one incident and would be investigating, a group of parents showed up at the station that evening to call for more decisive action about unpleasant encounters they say have been going on for weeks.

A video circulating on social media — including Reddit’s Public Freakout forum — was reportedly recorded Thursday by a parent outside a shopping center in La Crescenta. A man wearing a T-shirt that says “Your mask makes you look stupid” shouts about mask wearers, insulting onlookers, using foul language and saying masks are child abuse. Among those in the parking lot are five boys who appear to be of middle-school age.

A sheriff’s spokesman told Los Angeles TV station KTLA that deputies responded to a call from that site in which a person reported the anti-masker was shoving children during his rant.

Since the incident became public, more video has emerged of the man yelling at students outside schools in the La Crescenta area, and parents told TV station CBSLA that the confrontations have been going on for at least a month.

One of the parents who showed up Monday night at the Crescenta Valley station told CBSLA that the deputy who responded to the shopping center said there was no apparent crime, then proceeded to reprimand the children and “lecture them about freedom of speech.”

A sheriff’s spokesman told CBSLA on Monday that the man in the videos has been identified and that deputies and Glendale police are investigating the incidents.