Reporter clowns cop at LA protests, claims he failed algebra twice in high school

A comedy reporter claimed to recognize one of the riot cops at the LA anti-ICE protests from algebra classes the officer failed. Twice.

A clip spreading on social media shows Sidam of the comedy YouTube team Channel 5 in his ski mask, singling out a cop and saying that they knew each other in high school. This was part of a larger video in which the reporter messes with multiple ICE officers.

“We had algebra together”

In a clip posted on the r/chaoticgood sub by u/CorleoneBaloney, Sidam called to the officer, trying to get him to admit they went to the same high school.

“We went to high school together,” he said. “Do you remember? Algebra?”

The cop told Sidam to “back up” and then moved for him, eliciting laughs from the YouTuber.

“Oh sh*t he gonna beat my a**!” he joked.

“We had algebra together, and that n*gga failed twice,” he told a camera.

In the longer YouTube video, Sidam repeatedly questioned officers during the first night of the LA protests against the brutal ICE raids plaguing the community. None of them answer queries like “Do you plan on shooting people today?” and “Would you rather shoot somebody or hit them with your stick?”

Later, he does more serious reporting and interviews protesters, the vast majority of whom were peaceful.

Did that cop really fail algebra?

In the Reddit thread, folks cast doubt upon whether Sidam really knew that cop at all, let alone whether the officer repeatedly failed algebra class.

“Btw, the reporter is just messing with him, he doesn’t know him, OP didn’t get the joke,” wrote u/Ferengi-Borg. “In the full video you can see two protesters who actually know him, reporter found it funny and acted like he also knew him.”

We didn’t see that in the full video. There were protesters saying they knew or recognized one of the riot cops, but they were referring to someone else. Still, Sidam is a jokester first and foremost, so it’s very possible he was in fact joking.

“My friend applied to be a police officer and after getting a little ways in, they said he was too ‘smart’ for the beat, how about he work pushing papers instead,” said u/mermaidreefer. “My friend has a pretty justice-oriented guy and he said he got the feeling he wasn’t compliant enough to be out ‘disciplining’ the public.”

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