Sharing a video of police manhandling people, some users claimed that American police are brutally behaving towards the deportees. A script in Gurmukhi is also given in the viral video which read, ” Actions were taken against ill*gal immigrants in America”.
The video has been widely shared on social media platforms.
The translated version of the text can be seen below.
Fact Check
To begin with, the DFRAC team analyzed the insignia and uniform worn by the police in the video. Using Google Lens, the team translated the uniform and understood it was German police. Officers wearing black uniforms with “POLIZEI” on their backs are visible. “Polizei” is the German word for police.
Moving ahead, the team reverse-searched the image using Google Lens and found a similar video shared on the official X handle of Middle East Monitor on Mar 31, 2024. ‘German police assault Hijab-wearing woman amid crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators’, the post read.
We also found the video uploaded on Munsif TV’s Instagram channel, which also stated that the video is from Germany, where ‘German Police attack Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators in Berlin’
In the viral video, a store named Einstein Kaffee is visible. Geolocation confirms that this café is located at Hauptbahnhof, Europaplatz 1, in Berlin. A comparison of the viral footage with Google Maps images shows that Einstein Kaffee and the Berlin Tourist Info office appear in both, confirming that the video was filmed at Berlin Central Station.
Conclusion
From the investigation of DFRAC, it is clear that the viral video claiming that immigrants are brutally manhandled by the American police is misleading. The video is originally from Germany on March 31, 2024, while dealing with Palestinian protesters. Thus the posts are misleading.
