"Park Police officers violated policy when they hit a reporter with a baton and pushed another member of the media’s camera during the infamous 2020 clearing of protesters in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., an internal government watchdog has found.

In a new report on Wednesday, the Interior Department’s Inspector General’s Office said that pushing the camera went beyond the “minimum level of reasonable force.”

The reporter said that hitting the journalist with the baton was a violation because the Park Police policy “does not permit an officer to use their baton to strike an individual who is running away.”

The watchdog, however, did not fault the officer who pushed the camera for also striking the cameraperson with a shield, saying that doing so was “objectively reasonable and did not exceed the minimal level of reasonable force necessary to control the situation.”"

Rachel Frazin reports for The Hill May 24, 2023. [2]