Passers-by walk past police officers in Düsseldorf's old town (symbol image)
Photo: Bernd Thissen / dpaA video is currently spreading on Twitter showing a police operation in Düsseldorf's old town. It shows a young man who is being fixed to the ground by two policemen so that he can no longer move. One of them bends his arm behind his back, the other puts a knee on his head and neck.
The short sequence also causes a lot of outrage because it arouses associations with the George Floyd case in the USA. The 46-year-old African American was killed in a police operation on May 25 after a white officer held his knee on his neck for minutes. His death sparked demonstrations against racism and police violence in numerous US cities and other countries.
"Get your knee down, brother"
In the video from Düsseldorf you can hear bystanders yelling to the policeman: "Put your knee down, brother" and "That's not funny". The "Rheinische Post" first reported the incident on Sunday.
The Düsseldorf police announced in the evening: The scene took place around 7.30 p.m. on Saturday evening on Neustraße in the old town. The officials were previously called to a nearby restaurant because about ten people had rioted there.
A young person who was apparently uninvolved in the actual event then "disrupted" the police measures. When the officers wanted to record his personal details, he attacked them "physically" and then resisted. He was taken to the police station and then handed over to a legal guardian.
"The video in question will also be analyzed and assessed intensively with regard to the manner in which the police intervened," said the official announcement. Since the suspicion of an official offense is in the room, the Duisburg police headquarters are in charge of the processing for reasons of neutrality.
Icon: The mirrorlov