Traveling near the Warehouse District with Derrek Miranda is akin to riding in a motorcade with an elected official.<\/p>\n
Under the moniker Whitewallstuntz, Miranda has carved out a name for himself in downtown Los Angeles. On social media, he can be seen cutting through the most downtrodden parts of Skid Row on his white and neon green Honda Grom minibike, almost always in search of a subject to document. <\/p>\n
He has amassed nearly 300,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. He can be seen letting sparks fly from his tail scraper on the 10 Freeway with a \u201cLos Angeles\u201d tattoo emblazoned across his back, chopping it up with LAPD officers or, most commonly, touring homeless encampments to show, as he puts it, \u201cwhat real life in L.A. is like.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Derrek Miranda pops a wheelie on his motorbike on the 6th Street bridge in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are scared of these human beings because they look at them like they\u2019re zombies or something,\u201d Miranda said. \u201cA lot of these people just have a story they want to tell, or they want to talk about, and not a lot of people want to hear them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miranda fashions himself equal parts good Samaritan, stuntman and documentary filmmaker. He produces his own short-form videos, feeding an internet audience hungry for unfiltered views of L.A.\u2019s underbelly. <\/p>\n
He is among a growing wave of influencers who create content that toes a fine line between advocacy and exploitation. <\/p>\n
Miranda has documented a litany of drug trades in broad daylight, whooped as he recorded violent altercations between homeless individuals that he later titled \u201cBum Fights\u201d and coaxed sex workers into a brief thrill by taking them on the back of his bike while popping wheelies. <\/p>\n
But he has also engaged in thoughtful conversation with those who usually go unheard and unseen. He provides resources like clothing or food at a more intimate level than a contracted social services worker. He has personally delivered Narcan to help some recover from the brink of overdose in multiple videos. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to show the reality of life, not only behind a closed door, curtains and, you know, a chandelier when you walk in,\u201d Miranda said. \u201cI want to show behind the tent zipper \u2026 It just shows real life, how these people still be human beings and live like an animal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Miranda was born in Long Beach and raised in East Compton. For years, he said, he was primarily employed as a private hibachi chef and rode bikes as a hobby. He said he was struck by a van during immigration protests in June, which put him out of work temporarily. It turned into a permanent leave after his pages started to gain traction. <\/p>\n
Since then, he has lived in a camper van while pushing out near-daily content on his page that is occasionally licensed by mainstream TV news organizations \u2014 the bulk of his current income. <\/p>\n
As Miranda made his rounds on a recent evening downtown, subjects of past videos on his page popped out of their sidewalk encampments to catch up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known him for what feels like all my life, but it\u2019s been about three years,\u201d said Alvin Jones, 32, who lives in an encampment on 5th Street and Stanford Avenue. \u201cHe\u2019s telling stories about people out here, who don\u2019t really have a shot at getting their stories heard very often.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Miranda has admirers on the street, there are also detractors who believe his content can be harmful to the homeless community.<\/p>\n
\u201cDont praise\/normalize this kind of living,\u201d one comment read on a video titled \u201cTent Tour.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cTake this s\u2014 down why would you even record this bro,\u201d another read on a video of Miranda in conversation with a homeless person. <\/p>\n
Miranda recognizes the \u201ccontroversial\u201d nature of his work, but views it as an effort to be transparent about what life is like for the city\u2019s most marginalized residents.<\/p>\n
He is openly critical of state and city policy and said he believes more can be done by officials to ease the burden on a vulnerable homeless population.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the time they just put people into a housing complex where there\u2019s a bunch of different people in one room,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get a bed, but then what happens is everyone starts fighting with each other, taking stuff. It doesn\u2019t really make anything better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another account, Street People of Los Angeles, claims to have had more than 700,000 Instagram followers before being suspended by the platform. A replacement has already sprung up, with tens of thousands of people tuning in for gritty videos of squalor and street life. <\/p>\n
One of Miranda\u2019s close friends, Brandon Castro \u2014 who goes by Brandonexploredthis on Instagram, where he makes videos touring abandoned buildings \u2014 said Miranda\u2019s work extends into direct advocacy for his subjects. The two once reunited a missing homeless individual with his sister in Redding after one of their joint posts went viral, Castro said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think some people take it the wrong way sometimes seeing someone post another struggling, but I\u2019ve seen it help so many people and give so much encouragement and confidence,\u201d Castro said. <\/p>\n