Poor Stanley just can't catch a break.
San Francisco news reporter Stanley Roberts was assaulted by a group of panhandlers while filming a segment in Berkeley on Thursday.
According to the Oakland Tribune, Roberts, who hosts KRON's sometimes-heated "People Behaving Badly" segment, was filming an episode about panhandling in Berkeley. Reportedly, three men Roberts wished to feature in the segment said they did not want to be filmed, but because they were in a public space, were told the cameras would keep rolling.
According to Roberts, one of the men then began yelling profanities at him and walked up closer. The man put his face in the camera and started to antagonize him.
"No matter where I moved, they followed me," Roberts said.
Even though Roberts tried to move on, they would not leave him alone, and suddenly, he was attacked from behind.
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During the scuffle, Roberts had his press credentials stolen and his $5,000 camera and $1,000 microphone broken before police arrived.
In a raw video of the incident, a dog is shown barking at the camera. The men then approach the camera and ask Roberts to stop filming. When he refuses, an unseen man attacks Roberts and the camera falls to the ground.
According to Roberts' Facebook page, he suffered a sprained back from the incident but was not injured otherwise. He also wrote that he was pressing charges against his assailants:
To all the get well wishes, Thank you! For the record I am fine, outside of a sprained back. I refused to go down without a fight and I used equal force to defend myself, in other words I got my licks in too. Hey I'm from Philly what would you expect! … I pressed charges and will seek justice. I want to make it clear it is not OK to assault a journalist ever!
The incident is not the first time a subject has turned on Roberts. In 2011, while filming a segment on drivers abusing the Bay Bridge carpool lane, an angry man gave Roberts a profanity-laced earful.
"Why don't they have you down there filming what's going on in Oakland?" he shouted at Roberts. "They got your fat, lazy, non-relevant, non-factor ass out here filming highway patrol shit. That tells you how much you're worth at your job."
In November, a KPIX cameraman was attacked while filming a live broadcast in neighboring Oakland. His assailant was not part of the broadcast, but stole the camera during the incident.