Paid Protesters? They’re Real — And A Beverly Hills Firm That Hires Them Stands Accused Of Extortion In A Lawsuit

Available at the beck and call of Democrats.

Paid protesters are a real thing.

Crowds on Demand, a Beverly Hills firm that’s an outspoken player in the business of hiring protesters, boasts on its website that it provides its clients with “protests, rallies, flash-mobs, paparazzi events and other inventive PR stunts.… We provide everything including the people, the materials and even the ideas.”

The company has hired actors to lobby the New Orleans City Council on behalf of a power plant operator, protest a Masons convention in San Francisco and act like supportive fans and paparazzi at an L.A. conference for life coaches.

But according to a lawsuit filed by a Czech investor, Crowds on Demand also takes on more sordid assignments. Zdenek Bakala claims the firm has been used to run an extortion campaign against him.

Bakala has accused Prague investment manager Pavol Krupa of hiring Crowds on Demand to pay protesters to march near his home in Hilton Head, S.C., and to call and send emails to the Aspen Institute and Dartmouth College, where Bakala serves on advisory boards, urging them to cut ties to him. Bakala alleges that Krupa has threatened to continue and expand the campaign unless Bakala pays him $23 million.

Crowds on Demand founder Adam Swart and Krupa neither confirmed nor denied that they are working together. They declined to answer specific questions about Bakala’s allegations, though Swart, in an emailed statement, called the claims meritless.

“Not only will I vigorously defend myself against the allegations in the complaint but I am also evaluating whether to bring my own claims against Mr. Bakala,” Swart said.

The lawsuit comes amid growing interest in the business of paid protesting and other forms of so-called “astroturfing,” the practice of manufacturing the appearance of grass-roots support.[…]

Crowds on Demand isn’t the only outfit that hires paid protesters, though it is perhaps the most open about what it does, said Edward Walker, a UCLA sociology professor who wrote a book on astroturfing, “Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy.”

“There are hundreds of lobbying firms and public affairs firms that do this work, though not all in the same way,” he said. “Some only do a little bit of this grassroots-for-hire, but things adjacent to this are not uncommon today.”

For instance, the ABC News program “Nightline” reported in 2014 that a beverage-industry-backed group was hiring people to protest a soda tax measure and posted an ad on Craigslist offering to pay $13 an hour.

Longtime California political consultant Garry South, a former campaign strategist for Gov. Gray Davis, said it’s long been common for campaigns and political parties to pay people a few bucks or perhaps provide a meal in exchange for attending a rally. He recalled a 2002 rally in San Francisco where he said that tactic was used.

“It turns out, the San Francisco Democratic Party, to bolster the crowd, had basically gone down to skid row and paid people $5 or something to tromp up to Union Square,” South said.

Keep reading…