Monday evening video footage
A video shared on Monday evening in Albania shows a group of police officers rushing toward several young people and beating them with batons. In the footage, one person shouts that he is only 13 years old. BIRN cannot independently verify the ages of the young people in the video. This footage shows police in Tirana using violence against protesters, including minors, which has circulated widely in the media and on social media over the past week. I find the footage showing police officers rushing towards several young people and beating them with batons to be a clear example of the violence that has occurred in Tirana over the past week. I find the behavior of the State Police against these minors to be alarming.
Police treatment of minors in Tirana
The footage raises concerns about how the State Police treats children and teenagers involved in the wave of protests against Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government. I find the reports of police in Tirana using violence against protesters, including minors, which have circulated widely in the media and on social media over the past week, to be deeply troubling. I observe that BIRN cannot independently verify the ages of the young people in the video. In the footage, one person shouts that he is only 13 years old. This footage shows a group of police officers rushing towards several young people and beating them with batons. I think the State Police treatment of children and teenagers involved in the protests against Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government is a matter of serious concern. The media and social media have widely circulated similar footage showing police in Tirana using violence against protesters, including minors, over the past week. I note that the footage shows police officers rushing towards several young people and beating them with batons. I see the officers rush toward several young people and use batons to strike them. The protesters oppose the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, and I see the police officers rushing toward several young people and using batons to strike them.
