Epoch Times - Surveilled, Silenced, and Smeared: How Parents Became Targets | Kelly Walker and Sam Sorbo
Aired: 2025-07-23
Duration: 02:26


=== Standing Up for Free Speech (02:25) ===

[00:00:00]  We're getting death threats, threats to kill my children.
[00:00:03]  We're getting doxxed.
[00:00:05]  Phone rings.
[00:00:06]  An eighteen-year-old Barista picks up the phone.
[00:00:08]  She's called an F-ing C. You can fill in the blank.
[00:00:11]  Our employees were terrified.
[00:00:14]  So I ended up getting invited to the Board of Supervisors meeting.
[00:00:18]  And I just started reading these comments that my wife and children and the public had to see.
[00:00:24]  I didn't delete the expletives.
[00:00:27]  I thought, you know, if we have to see this, you're going to experience it.
[00:00:31]  Within 30 seconds, and you can see the video.
[00:00:34]  You can go to realfreedomtalk.com.
[00:00:36]  You can watch the video.
[00:00:37]  Within 30 seconds, they had three sheriff's officers surrounding me, handcuffed me.
[00:00:43]  I'd never been handcuffed.
[00:00:44]  Hadn't even had a speeding ticket since probably, you know, early 20s, model citizen kind of thing.
[00:00:51]  And I was just shocked.
[00:00:53]  And my approach was, you all work for me.
[00:00:58]  We pay your salaries.
[00:00:59]  And I said, I have a right to speak.
[00:01:03]  And I stood there and I was just holding on to the speaking stand because it was, you know, I'm having anxiety here.
[00:01:09]  I don't know what's going on.
[00:01:12]  And the officer who was arresting me said, you are resisting.
[00:01:16]  I said, you're violating my civil rights.
[00:01:18]  He said, you're resisting.
[00:01:19]  I said, I'm not resisting.
[00:01:20]  I'm just strong.
[00:01:22]  I didn't know I was saying that.
[00:01:23]  People picked up on that afterwards.
[00:01:24]  I said, oh, that's awesome.
[00:01:26]  What I was really saying was, you're not going to move me until I want to be moved because I'm holding on for dear life.
[00:01:32]  Because I thought, I'm just going to stand here and exercise my free speech.
[00:01:36]  So I was handcuffed, taken out of the room, booked for disorderly conduct.
[00:01:41]  And the next day, because this was televised, I came to the shop and there were lines out the door.
[00:01:47]  There were people who had traveled from other states.
[00:01:50]  And it was overwhelming, Jan.
[00:01:51]  I sat there at this round table inside the entrance, and it was just a steady stream of people for days.
[00:01:59]  And people are throwing cash on the table for legal defense.
[00:02:03]  People are praying over me.
[00:02:04]  They're saying things like, God raised you up.
[00:02:06]  And I'm just like, what?
[00:02:09]  And one night, this is very personal, but after a day or two of this, I just went in the bathroom and I fell on my knees and I said, God, I know I could hide from this, but if I keep going, it's going to put a target on my chest.