Photo: Gawker

CLEVELAND — In the public square on Monday, as religious fundamentalists condemned sodomy to anyone who would listen, William Hale made sure his dog, wearing a vest laden with GoPro video cameras, was staying hydrated. “A lot of people ask if the dog is a boy or a girl,” he told Gawker. “I try to be gender neutral. It’s just ‘Liberty.’”

Hale, who also goes by Mohammed Omar, was himself wearing three GoPro cameras, carrying two cell phones, and had one MacBook open on his blanket. He is in Cleveland documenting God’s miracles, he said, as he has been doing for two decades.

“I’m starting to run out of money,” he admitted. “I’ve got 50 days until I’m broke.”

Fortunately, he said, he receives an allowance from a deceased family member who made a fortune on Wall Street. “I know how Wall Street works, how finance works,” Hale said. “That’s why Bernie Sanders likes me. Because I tell him how he can finance his ideas.”

Hale’s interests are expansive: In a short conversation, he swung from police reform to drug addiction to strategies to ensure full employment. He is not a journalist or an activist, but refers to himself as The Ultimate Insider.

“Everybody on the inside knows who I am,” he told Gawker. “Nobody on the outside knows me from Adam.”

A few years ago, a doctor recommended that he lose some weight: Hale adopted his dog, Liberty, to run along side him while he rides his bike—a form of motivation. Asked why Liberty was carrying cameras, Hale said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world, that it “makes the dog feel included.”

At one point, a woman walked up and gave Hale a half-empty bottle of water for Liberty to drink. “See?” Hale said. “God’s miracles.”