Austin man sets up livestream of alley behind apartment as social experiment

An Austin man has set up a livestream of the alley behind his East Sixth street apartment. The alley is full of people who are homeless – and drug dealers who prey on them. 

“It’s a half a block from where tens of thousands of people are coming to party every weekend, and nobody ever sees this side of it. So, I just thought people need to see this.” said stream founder Keegan Godsey. 

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Users can pay to play audio in the alley. Some of the clips are light-hearted. Others are not. Drugs, sex, and racial slurs were all mentioned when a FOX 7 Austin team listened.

Godsey has had the stream up for five days and has already received six citations from Austin police. Police say it's a noise ordinance violation and within those citations, an officer alleges that this is a hate crime.

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Godsey, who plans to fight the citations, says it’s a social experiment and freedom of speech. 

"Everybody gets to do whatever they wanna do anyways. The homeless are down there getting to do what they wanna do. I just feel like everybody gets to do what they wanna do if that's gonna be the situation" he said. 

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Godsey says he's not sure what he's going to do with all the money this stream has raised, but he says at least some of it will be going to his lawyer.