Albany, New York — A WNYT news crew was threatened with arrest while working on a story pertaining to the historic Grant cottage in Wilton, NY where President Ulysses S. Grant spent his final days before passing away.
As seen in the video, when Mark Mulholland and his camera-man prepared to head to the Grant Cottage located on Mount McGregor — they were stopped by an over zealous employee of a closed correctional facility nearby.
The officer (who later introduced himself as Lieutenant Dorn) approached the news reporter and his camera-man and instructed them to stop filming.
“You are on state property now, you cannot film here.
You have to get the permission through Albany (city) to film” said Lt. Dorn
He continued…
“You are not up here for that (Grant’s cottage), you are up here for a different purpose”
Mark Mulholland tried to explain to the officer that they were doing a piece on Grant’s cottage but the officer insisted that they were trying to get footage of the empty (yet staffed) prison facility.
When the reporter told the correction officer that he would leave the location and proceed to Grant’s cottage to continue his assignment, the officer became militant.
“No, you are going to leave the mountain now” Said Lt. Dorn
He then signaled to another corrections officer who then blocked off the road in an attempt to prevent the reporter from gaining access the Grant’s cottage or anything else in the vicinity.
Slavery of the Press: ‘You cannot film here’
According to the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights this reporter has every right to film not only Grant’s cottage, but even the closed correctional facility so long as it is public property.
Yet this officer has been given orders to prevent all footage or reporting on the closed correctional facility despite the fact that it violates the Freedom of the Press.
The militant behavior of this officer raises several key questions…
- Why can’t this closed facility be filmed?
- Why is it fully-staffed?
- What is there to hide from the Public?
Reader: what do you think is really going on?
— Share your thoughts below —