[Clarifications: The following clarifications have been made since the original publication of this post. The caption in one of the photos below has been changed from "filming himself" to "videotaping and recording his voice." Also Daniel Sandini disputes the allegation that he is in any organized "anti-Occupy group." The title has been changed to reflect this.]

The folks with Occupy Portland's multimedia team have figured out who's behind Daylight Disinfectant, one of the semi-secret-filming outfits who'd haunted the Chapman and Lownsdale camps for the month they existed and have been haunting Occupy-relate events since.

Say hello to Dan Sandini. Blogtown regulars might remember him as the fellow who was rather roughly and brusquely booted from a candidates forum at a North Portland church last year. I've seen him around Occupy here and there, and wondered if he was with either Daylight or AntiOccupyPortland.

(I'd last encountered Sandini at a Tea Party rally this spring. He accosted me on camera for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance, but then relented when he remembered, gratefully, that I'd actually tried to get his side of the church-ouster story. Since then, we've been friendly.)

In recent weeks, Daylight Disinfectant produced the viral footage of an occupier bitching out some of the TV reporters who'd been covering Occupy, as well as the "triumphant" tale of a tipsy couple of looky-loos who'd "liberated" an American flag amid the street party before Occupy's eviction.

Sandini has a partner who's also been around Occupy occasionally with a Flip camera held slyly at waist height—a guy with long hair, John Lennon glasses, and a winter cap. He vaguely resembles Wiley Wiggins (for all you Linklater geeks out there.)

I can't fault Sandini too much for his tactics—his camera is usually always front and center. It's a free country, and you should watch your lips if you see someone you don't know with a camera and you don't want to wind up out of context on YouTube. But his partner, with the camera held sneakily out of sight while he engages people? That's some bullshit—and I've made sure to tell him that when I've seen him doing it.

Sandini, shown videotaping and recording his voice heckling Michael Moore. The video from Sandinis perspective is on Daylight Disinfectants YouTube channel.
  • Occupy Portland
  • Sandini, shown videotaping and recording his voice heckling Michael Moore. The video from Sandini's perspective is on Daylight Disinfectant's YouTube channel.
Daylight Disinfectant?
  • Occupy Portland
  • Daylight Disinfectant?