Police Overkill: Government “truth” Public Access TV (We Are Change Hawaii) Crew Bloodied in Video Confrontation With Cops Guarding Obama

So much for “Freedom of the Press” in the United States …

From KITV via The Blaze comes the following,  a public access television crew of the show “We Are Change Hawaii,” drove up to the president’s residence but was turned away and left without incident. As they were filming while driving away, they noticed they were being followed by secret service and police. Before you know it, the incident got out of control. I guess this is the security that $1.47 million vacation is provided to Barack Obama.

The crew was video-taping vehicle searches along the potential motorcade route as they left the neighborhood. They noticed a van behind them.

At this point Sherri Kane, who describes herself as an investigative journalist, looked into the camera and said, “Behind us we have the Secret Service following us now so this is kind of exciting.”

Exciting turned to scary after they pulled into a gas station. On their video, a police officer approached the car and said, “Stay in the car. Put that camera off of me.”

Producer Sativa Jones can be heard saying “OK.”

The women said police vehicles and up to five officers surrounded the car, demanded IDs and registration without explanation. Then without warning an officer reached into the car and grabbed Jones’ camera.

“He grabbed it out of my hand and then he slammed it on top of the car,” Jones said. She said the camera was damaged – the automatic lens cover no longer worked.

Jones’ fingers were gashed by the sharp edge on the camera mount. She said the officer appeared shaken by what he’d done and courteously showed her how to complain, writing his name and badge number on a card with contact information for the Honolulu Police Commission.

President Obama, is Hawaii one of the 57 United States that are allowed “freedom of the press” as referenced  in the US Constitution? I wonder if  Ezra Kline would consider Freedom of the Press binging, after all when the Constitution was written there were no digital video cameras. After all, that Constitution is just too confusing … who is capable of understanding anything wrote a 100 years ago. Who is Shakespeare again?   BTW, one has to wonder what would happen if there was actually a threat against the President if this is how this was handled.

Asked if it was legal for police officers to stop someone from videotaping an officer in a public place, the department said citizens are allowed to video in public places.

UPDATE I:The problem with what the folks at ”We Are Change Hawaii” did was when first confronted at the secret service roadblock, they should have introduced themselves as Michaele, Tareq Salahi. That would have got them right on the property and lunch with Obama rather than being assaulted and their cameras broken.