Max Alper is an unconvincing liar

Just how long do you have to hold someone hostage before it's considered a crime?

There's a hidden gem inside this news article about anti-gentrification (ie anti-prosperity) activists who held a bus of Google workers captive for half an hour in San Francisco:

A man who screamed at protest organizer Erin McElroy, 31, was later identified as a union worker who was pretending to be a Google employee upset at being delayed by the protest.

What they meant to say is that the fake worker is a union organizer named Max Alper who is pretending he wasn't trying to deceive the public. McElroy, however, said she thought he was real.

Modern protesters love to emphasize that what they're doing is "nonviolent," as if that's the standard of decency. Tell me, does it cross over into violent territory when a mob of brigands holds a group of workers hostage?

Alper tipped his hand by pretending to be a too-convenient obnoxious tech worker, which makes me wonder if McElroy is legit as well. Who outside an Ayn Rand novel would revel in mediocrity with lines against successful companies like "It's creating a system where San Francisco is being flooded with capital, and creating a technology class where other people can't compete" ?

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen for the original link