Showing posts with label #BatonRouge. #Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #BatonRouge. #Police. Show all posts

Monday 11 July 2016

Baton Rouge killing: Black Lives Matter protest photo hailed as 'legendary'

A demonstrator protesting at the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US July 9, 2016.
Protests have continued in the United States, after violent incidents involving African American people and the police last week.

On Sunday, dozens of protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a black man was killed by police last Tuesday.

In an atmosphere of heightened racial tension, and amid growing debate over the seeming militarization of American police, one photo has stood out.

It was taken by Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans-based photographer who has been working for Reuters in the past few days.

The image shows a young woman in a dress standing calmly in front of two police officers wearing layers of armour, and appearing to approach her in a hurry.


The demonstration, organised by the civil rights group Black Lives Matter, took place days after police killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. A video showed two white police officers holding him down and shooting him. Police said they had received a report an armed man was making threats.

Reuters said the woman in the photo, which was taken on Saturday, was later detained, but little more is known about her and she has not yet been named.

Other notable figures online to share the image include Calestous Juma, a Kenyan-born professor at the John F Kennedy School of Government, who was once named among the 100 most influential Africans.

British-Indian novelist Hari Kunzru praised the "grace under pressure" shown by the woman in the photo.

Another angle of the incident was captured by Associated Press photographer Max Becherer.
AP reported that the woman in the photograph was grabbed by officers after refusing to move off the public highway.
A man protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 9, 2016
The protests were not entirely peaceful - Louisiana's The Advocate newspaper said 102 people were arrested, with eight guns seized. One police officer lost several teeth after being hit by a projectile, it said
SOURCE: BBCNEWS