DeRay Mckesson, Two Reporters Arrested in Baton Rouge
At protest for Alton Sterling.
Max Becherer/AP
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana—Police arrested dozens of people during protests in Baton Rouge this weekend, including Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson.
Mckesson, a former Baltimore Mayoral Candidate, was arrested while he live streamed the protest on Periscope. He was filming the street’s painted boundary line to show that he was not obstructing the highway. “City police—you’re under arrest,” an officer shouted at Mckesson. His phone clattered to the ground as police grabbed him, his friends said he was tackled from behind. It was his 31st birthday.
Two reporters were also detained by police. Chris Slaughter was reportedly knocked into the road during a scuffle between police and protesters and arrested for blocking the highway.
Ryan Kailath, a reporter for WWNO, a New Orleans based National Public Radio affiliate, was arrested early in the protest, around the time that a group of New Black Panthers got in a confrontation with police officers. Kaliath was arrested for “obstruction of the highway,” according to Eve Troah at WWNO. “Officers just charging people like it's a football game,” wrote Baton Rouge Advocate reporter, Maya Lau, on Twitter.
—Zack Kopplin
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