A pianist slammed bizarre demands from a group of Chinese tourists who asked not to be filmed as he performed at a busy London train station, claiming they tried to get his video taken down, and police got involved.
Brendan Kavanagh slammed demands from a group of Chinese tourists who asked not to be filmed as he performed at London’s St Pancras train station
Image credits:Brendan Kavanagh
According to theMetropolitan Police, members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places, and police have no power to stop them from filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.
“We are in Great Britain. We are not in China,” the pianist was seen arguing as the group of Chinese visitors continued to demand their faces not be put in the video.
At some point, a man from the group stepped up and exclaimed: “This is our right that we are protecting.” He further explained: “We have an agreement with other people that we cannot be shown online.”
“We have an agreement with other people that we cannot be shown online,” a person from the Chinese group exclaimed
Brendan tried to resonate with the frustrated group, saying: “We are a free country. This is not communist China,” before suggesting the group “walk away [since] it’s a public space” if they did not want to appear in his livestream.
However, the musician’s plea fell on deaf ears, as the angered man from the Chinese group threatened: “We will put legal action to it. This is the end of the conversation,” before adding: “We are protecting our image right[s].”
With Brendan repetitively arguing against the group of travelers, stating, “The UK is a free country,” the situation soon escalated after the pianist was accused of “trying to touch” one of the female members of the group after he seemingly pointed to the Chinese flag she was holding.
The vocal male member of the group suddenly started screaming: “Why are you touching her? Stop touching her. Don’t touch her.”
He proceeded to add: “You are not the same age. Do not touch her.” The woman intervened and exclaimed: “Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot him. What’s the problem?”
According to theSouth China Morning Post, each star on the Chinese flag has its own meaning, with the largest one representing the Communist Party.
“We are a free country. This is not communist China,” Brendan responded
Nevertheless, one of the members of the group exclaimed that Brendan should “educate” himself, as the flag is not a flag for the communist party.
The flag of the Communist Party of China (CPC) consists of a yellow hammer and sickle in the upper-left corner, with a red colored background, symbolizing revolution, as per the19th CPC National Congress.
The woman the pianist had allegedly touched said she was “here to celebrate the new year” and didn’t want to be filmed doing so.
The situation only took a turn for the worse when a pair of police officers approached the situation
A member of the Chinese group was seen telling a male officer that the pianist had filmed them and had asked him to remove the footage, which he had refused.
However, the police officer echoed Brendan’s initial reaction as he exclaimed: “You’re in a public place.” A female officer reminded the cameraperson: “Excuse me, if we’re having a police matter, you need to put that phone down.”
TheUK Rulesstate that the police have no power to stop people filming or photographing officers on duty. Recording film footage of a police incident or taking photographs of their actions is not illegal.
Brendan went on to address hislivestream viewers, who have since grown to more than 4 million, as the officers started to side with the tourists. He said: “The Chinese communist party told us not to film here.”
A police officer echoed Brendan’s initial reaction, as he exclaimed: “You’re in a public place”
The law enforcement said: “They [the tourists] have requested that the video where they approach gets deleted and is not used on your channel […]
The situation was finally put to rest as the group of Chinese tourists and the police officers left. Brendan was subsequently able to finish his livestream with more boogie-woogie songs after declaring: “Free speech prevails,” as per theDailyMail.
You can watch Brendan’s livestream below:
In afollow-up videoposted shortly after, Brendan revealed that the Chinese Communist Party was “trying to get [the footage] taken down” and pleaded for his viewers to make a copy of his livestream.
“It’s pathetic,” a viewer commented about the incident
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