Dupage Policy Journal

If you live in Reid McCollum’s neighborhood you’ll want to keep an eye over your shoulder.

The 37-year-old Democratic activist has a habit of taking photos from his house Bodin Street home overlooking Dietz Park in Hinsdale.  

McCollum has taken to snapping photos of children in the park, sometimes those in early grade school, and posting them to Facebook asking for his followers to shame the children and their parents publicly for not wearing masks and playing outside.

Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window".

“Dietz Park right now,” Reid said in a recent Facebook post. “This is almost every day. If you know their parents shame them.”

Reid has also been posting the photos to Twitter.

“Hinsdale parks every afternoon. Great work, reckless parents,” he said on Twitter accompanying a photo of young children in the park.

While it is legal to post photos of neighborhood children online, such behavior is certainly frowned upon and can quickly spiral out of control.

Doxing children, as McCollum has asked others to do, has been decried as a tactic of the far left and is increasing in its use to harass others.

McCollum’s actions come as a growing movement of parents have been limiting the details they are sharing about their children online due to the many abuses that could occur.

The children pictured in McCollum’s photos appear to be playing a sport of some sort. According to the World Health Organization those exercising should never wear masks.

“People should NOT wear masks when exercising as masks may reduce the ability to breath comfortably,” the WHO said on Facebook. "Sweat can make the mask become wet more quickly which makes it difficult to breathe."  

In addition, the WHO has said children under the age of 12 should not wear masks as a default.  

More and more stories are being shared from those who exercise in the outdoors, such as parks, being harassed for not wearing masks.

McCollum has been working as an activist for the Democrats at the co-founder of a group that backed U.S. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) in unseating predecessor Republican Peter Roskam who had held the seat for six terms.

Last month McCollum applauded Community Consolidated District 181 for allowing for a hybrid approach to learning.

“It’s clearly safer to have a half-full classroom, and our 6-year-old is unlikely to successfully keep a mask on for an entire school day,” McCollum said in a letter to the Hinsdalean.

McCollum did not respond to a phone call by publication time.