Footage of a German policeman pressing his knee on the head of a young man lying on the ground during an arrest has prompted an official investigation, local police announced on Sunday after the video sparked condemnation on social media.
A video of the arrest, which took place in central Dusseldorf, was rapidly shared online due to its similarity to the arrest of George Floyd in the U.S., whose death sparked worldwide protests after he was filmed suffocating under the knee of a policeman.
Police said the young man arrested in the German video was not gravely harmed and that the incident took place in the old town of Dusseldorf on Saturday evening at around 7:30 pm.
Dusseldorf police and the regional Interior Ministry said on Sunday evening that an investigation will be led by the Duisburg police headquarters.
Police had previously been called to a nearby restaurant because of an unruly group of people. On the fringes of this incident, a young person who was not directly involved had apparently interrupted the police, officials said.
When asked for ID, he assaulted the officers, police said, after which he was taken to a police station for identification and then handed over to his legal guardians.
“We take this video very seriously,” a spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Ministry said, adding that officials would follow up in the event of police misconduct.
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