I don't condone the violence aginst the crew, but these reporters don't seem to be very street smart. Especially in an environment like this, with emotions boiling, it would have been smarter to step back and not putting the camera into their faces.
I had been working as a part of a camera crew, luckily only seldom for the news, but nonetheless often in the public and in difficult situations. I've worked in environments where robbing us of our equipment would mean more money for those people than they earn in 10 years. Never anything like this happened, the only near-physical confrontation I've had was with some yuppie assclowns who showed their arrogance.
The key is to respect the people you film and work with. This and some common sense helps to avoid situations like this.
edit:
funny sidenote, when I accessed the page where the video is shown, this little advertisement showed up:
it says: "Immigrate into the USA. Get your green card. Klick here."
so much about well-placed advertisements...
