Independent Journalist Craig Hendry acted more like a first amendment auditor in his most recent video as he “reported” from the Starke County, Indiana, courthouse after being rejected by security for filming in the building.
Hendry’s report began with a voice over explaining that he was at the Starke County courthouse to “investigate corruption” and that this video was a curated selection from a larger video he’ll release at a later date.
The reporter entered the building and immediately refused to identify his needs with the security guards at the security checkpoint in the front of the building. He then began to scream at them when they stated that he was not going to be allowed to film in the building.
Hendry screamed that it was his first amendment right to film and that a policy by the building not to allow filming could not prohibit him from recording in the entire building, just in the area adjacent to an actual room deemed as a “courtroom” which the entry way was not.
The journalist then played a cat and mouse game with one of the two senior citizen security guards, moving around him and pretending to run up the stairs of the building while the guard got into the elevator, then retreating down the stairs to find the county prosecutor’s office.
Catching up with the wascally Hendry, the security guard informed the reporter that the prosecutor’s office had requested that he leave the building. Hendry told the security guard to either arrest him or leave him alone as he was not leaving the building.
Eventually, the Starke County Sheriff’s department dispatched a deputy, who left shortly after the security guard apparently kicked Hendry’s camera staff while walking past him.
Citizen journalist Hendry and the citizen security guard exchanged insults, calling each other “communists” at one point, and the hilarity continued as the guard got Hendry to leave the building, only to see Hendry quietly follow the security guard back into the building to continue his argument with the guard.
Hendry has requested all of his fans brigade the Starke County, Indiana, sheriff’s office to protest his treatment at the hands of the security officers, despite neither man claiming to work for that office.
It is unclear whether “journalist” Hendry will now be suing over the apparently staged incident.
