Several journalists were attacked by police Friday in suburbs of Minneapolis in the United States, during demonstrations to protest the death of Daunte Wright, a young black man killed Sunday by a white policewoman.
• Read also: With the accumulation of incriminating videos, the pressure mounts on the police in the United States
• Read also: Video of policeman shooting 13-year-old shocks in US
Nearly 500 people had gathered in front of the gates of the Brooklyn Center police station, about ten kilometers from Minneapolis, for a sixth consecutive evening of demonstrations after the death Sunday of Daunte Wright, killed during a banal traffic control.
It is also in this large metropolis in the north of the United States that the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former white police officer accused of the murder of George Floyd last year, is currently taking place.
Shortly before a 10 p.m. local time curfew came into effect, police ordered the crowd to disperse by loudspeaker before deploying several dozen officers. in riot gear.
Surrounding the demonstrators who remained there, the police then used pepper spray on several journalists who had clearly identified themselves as such.
The press was also prohibited from remaining in the trap system put in place by the police to document the arrests in progress.
To get out of this system, journalists were also required to have their photograph taken, along with their identity documents, by the Minnesota State Police.
After a complaint filed by several journalists and a union representing them, a judge had yet issued earlier the same day a temporary deportation order to the police in Brooklyn Center.
According to the judgment made public, the police are thus prohibited “from arresting, or threatening to arrest (…) any person whom they know or are right to believe is a journalist”.
They are also prohibited from using physical force as well as stun grenades, batons, or even “chemical agents” such as pepper spray against journalists.
The press freedom group US Press Freedom Tracker deplores “at least 7 assaults and 3 arrests / detentions of journalists covering the protests” since Sunday in Brooklyn Center.