Spontaneous Riots: Not Exactly

First published on September 19, 2025

His website tells the story:

“Adam Swart founded Crowds on Demand as a college student at UCLA in 2012 because he understood the power of a crowd to shape people’s perceptions.”

“The same speech by a politician has a different meaning if it is given in front of 1000 people instead of 10. A routine conference becomes ‘controversial’ when 50 protesters are outside.

“We create movements from the ground up on something as simple as a local building and zoning issue or as complex as an international business dispute. We create advocacy groups and staff them with suitable leadership. We also provide phone banking and mass-emailing services with global capabilities.”

“If you need to hire protesters, we can get a crowd on the street, sometimes within 24 hours time. If you need speakers to present at a council meeting, we can provide talented and well-spoken individuals to advocate for the cause. We also have a dedicated team of phone-banking staff who can call Congressional Offices and convince government officials to support your cause and help you overcome opposition. If you need lots of letters and emails written from constituents, we have a network of tens of thousands of individuals across the country who can send well-written constituent letters to their representatives.

“We provide a cost-effective way to lobby government to pass or defeat legislation, push for approval of projects, and influence government in a grassroots manner. We are the ultimate guerilla lobbying and government relations firm.”

Swart’s company states on its website that they are “best known for organizing passionate demonstrations, rallies, flash-mobs, corporate PR events, and light-hearted events such as paparazzi, brand ambassadors, and PR stunts.”

Swart said there is “a lot of misinformation online” about paid protesters. His company hires people for “peaceful and law-abiding protest,” and are focused on “persuasion.”

In an interview with Fox’s Lawrence Jones about how protesters are paid, Swart said it is usually $100 to $200, but said different circumstances determine the amount. For instance, if the weather is really cold “or a left-wing demonstration in rural Mississippi, that would be a higher rate, because finding and identifying those people is harder and that might be a more tense environment.”

He said his company, as Michael Jordan so astutely commented about how Republicans buy sneakers, too, also works for conservatives. “We work for the left and the right, but always on the side of common sense and generally on the side of the underdog. So we, a lot of conservatives, use our service because, a lot of times, there’s a case where hippies with a trust fund are out there protesting, but conservatives are more likely to have jobs and families, so actually they require a little bit more of an incentive to turn out to a demonstration.”

But Swart’s company will not work for everyone who wants to hire it. There was a request for a nationwide “Good Trouble Lives On” protests on July 17, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the death of civil rights leader John Lewis.

While speaking with NewsNation, Swart said, “Interests aligned with the organizers of the July 17th movement have approached us. In fact, we rejected an offer that is probably worth around $20 million. He said he had a concern about violence and thought a protest would be ineffective.”

The way Swart originally gained attention was by offering “celebrity experience” services such as “fake paparazzi and hired fans,” primarily in Los Angeles. Who knew? I wonder if he hires Swifties?

Swart worked as a journalist for the Patch network owned by AOL before founding his company.

And, by now, anytime we see printed signs, we know that someone is footing the bill.

Susan Daniels is a private investigator and the author of The Rubbish Hauler’s Wife Versus Barack Obama: A True Story, available on Amazon.com.