Police used excessive force against 2 Australian journalists, US finds
Two US park police officers used excessive force against two Australian journalists covering a George Floyd protest outside the White House in June 2020, according to an investigation by the Inspector General of the Ministry of the Interior.
The investigation, published Wednesday, found that the officers violated U.S. Park Police policy when one shoved a cameraman’s camera with his shield and the other hit a reporter with his baton.
“We determined that an objectively reasonable officer at the scene would not have concluded that the reporter posed a threat in the circumstances,” the investigation said. It added that the findings had been forwarded to the director of the National Park Service for “any action deemed appropriate”.
The then Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, called for an investigation into how police officers treated the two journalists on assignment for Channel 7, one of the country’s largest networks. Other journalists also faced attacks when they covered the demonstrations against racial injustice in the United States.
The journalists, who were not named in the investigation, were identified in a New York Times article at the time as Tim Myers, the cameraman, and Amelia Brace, the reporter.
Mr. Myers and Ms. Brace covered the demonstration as President Donald J. Trump threatened a crackdown on protests in a Rose Garden speech that began at 6:43 p.m. disperse the crowd.
An officer hit Mr. Myers with a riot shield, causing his camera to fall to the ground. When Mr. Myers and Mrs. Brace started running, another officer appeared to wave a baton at Mrs. Brace’s back.
Mr Myers filmed the officer crashing into him, while the footage was broadcast live on Australian television. When Ms. Brace was back on camera, she said, “You heard us screaming out there that we were media, but they don’t care.”
On Wednesday, the inspector general’s report said U.S. Park Police guidelines call for officers to “use only the minimum level of reasonable force necessary to control a situation,” which includes a requirement that an officer “the amount of violence will de-escalate to the lowest level necessary to maintain control over a subject.