The Interior Department concluded that U.S. Park Police officers exceeded the “minimum level of reasonable force” during a George Floyd protest in 2020.
Two U.S. 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 Interior Department’s inspector general.
The investigation, published Wednesday, found that the officers violated U.S. Park Police policies when one pushed a cinematographer’s camera with his shield and the other struck a reporter with his baton.
“We determined that an objectively reasonable officer on the scene would not have concluded that the reporter posed a threat under the circumstances,” the investigation stated. It added that the findings had been delivered to the National Park Service director for “any action deemed appropriate.”
The Australian prime minister at the time, Scott Morrison, called for an inquiry into how police officers treated the two journalists,
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