Use of force criticized in protests about police brutality

JAY REEVES and KAT STAFFORD

Associated Press

As protests grip the nation, officers have doused crowds with pepper spray, struck protesters with batons, steered police cars into throngs, shoved demonstrators and screamed curses. Some police action has been directed against people smashing windows, breaking into stores and burning cars, but many find other instances more difficult to understand — like the elderly man knocked over by police as he walked with a cane on a Salt Lake City sidewalk.

The protests began after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a...