Top Black Lives Matter activist released

[DALLAS] A prominent Black Lives Matter activist who livestreamed his own arrest during a protest against police brutality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released on Sunday.

A spokesman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Jail said DeRay McKesson was released on US$500 bond after being charged with obstructing a highway.

He was among more than 100 protesters arrested in Baton Rouge Saturday night, according to police cited by local media.

The demonstration was one of dozens triggered by the fatal police shooting of two African American men, whose dying moments was captured in shocking video footage that went viral online.

One of those killed was Alton Sterling, shot dead by a police officer in Baton Rouge.

McKesson traveled to Baton Rouge and was walking on the side of a road livestreaming the demonstration on Periscope.

"Police have been provocateurs all night," he says in the footage.

"We aren't blocking the street or anything."

"No justice, no peace, no racist police!" activists chant, as police cruisers follow the group.

Then suddenly, the video is interrupted. "City Police. You're under arrest - don't fight me," a voice says.

Another activist grabs the phone and continues the video, asking police why McKesson was detained.

Police took McKesson away, his hands behind his back.

"We welcome the protests," a Louisiana state police officer told The Advocate newspaper in a video posted online.

"We wouldn't arrest people who are quietly protesting off the roadway." Two activists who were witnesses told The Washington Post that it was a physically violent arrest.

"He was clearly targeted," activist Brittany Packnett told the Post.

Most of the protests Saturday into Sunday passed off peacefully with hundreds of rights activists taking to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

But a riot broke out in Saint Paul, Minnesota - where the second of last week's fatal shootings took place - resulting in more than 100 arrests.

AFP