VANCOUVER -- Vancouver police are recommending charges against a man who is seen in an online video confronting an anti-mask protester.
The violent encounter happened Saturday, March 27, on Main Street in Vancouver, while anti-mask demonstrators held a car rally.
The video shows anti-mask protester Alex Lasarev expressing his views with a megaphone, from the window of a moving vehicle. Then, a man from the sidewalk approaches and hits the car repeatedly with a bicycle, ultimately smashing the passenger window.
“He tries to punch me, he tries to punch my megaphone, he tries to grab the megaphone,” alleges Lasarev. “We are free to express our opinion, whether it’s popular or not, that’s what a free country is supposed to be about,” he said.
Lasarev is the same anti-mask demonstrator who took cellphone video of while yelling at employees of Kerrisdale Cameras in February, after they refused to serve him because he wasn’t wearing a mask.
As for Saturday’s encounter, Vancouver Police are recommending charges of mischief and assault with a weapon, against a 52-year-old man.
