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Police in Rochester, New York, have come under new criticism after body camera footage showed an officer pepper spraying a handcuffed nine-year-old girl.
A video released by police showed the girl was immobilized after officers were summoned to family disturbance on Friday. Crying and shouting “I want my dad,” the girl was driven to a police car and was sitting in the back seat when a policeman told her colleague, “Just spray her at this point.”
Police proceed to pepper spray the nine-year-old, who yells and shouts, “Wipe my eyes, please.” An office then closes the car door. Video shows that at least seven officers were present.
Rochester Police were already under surveillance for the death of a mentally ill black man in March 2020. Daniel Prude, 41, died of asphyxiation after officers put a hood over his head and propped his head up. head against the sidewalk for two minutes.
Rochester Police released body camera footage six months after Prude’s death, after her family sued the city. The incident sparked national protests. The police chief was fired.
Regarding Friday’s incident, Andre Anderson, Rochester Deputy Police Chief, said officers were told the girl had “indicated that she wanted to kill herself and that she wanted to kill her mother. “.
Anderson told reporters officers chased the girl as she tried to flee. Police decided to take the nine-year-old to hospital, but Anderson said the girl refused to get into a police car.
“It didn’t seem like she was resisting the police, she was trying not to be forced to go to the hospital,” Anderson said. “As the officers attempted to get her into the car numerous times, an officer sprayed the young child with eye spray to get her into the car.
The video shows officers struggling with the nine-year-old in the snow. At one point, an officer says, “You are acting like a child.”
The girl replies: “I am a child.”
Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said, “I’m not going to stay here and tell you that for a nine year old it’s okay to get pepper sprayed. We’re going to do the work that we need to do to make sure that stuff doesn’t happen.
However, the president of the Rochester Police Union defended the officers involved.
“[The officer] made a decision that he felt was the best course of action. It didn’t hurt her, ”Mike Mazzeo, president of the Rochester Police Locust Club, told reporters. “If they had to go further and use more force, there’s a good chance she’d been injured more.”
Mazzeo added: “It is very, very difficult to get someone in the back of a police car like that.”
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said that as the mother of a 10-year-old daughter, the video “isn’t something you want to see”.
In A declaration, Warren added, “I am deeply troubled by the macing and handcuffs of a child who is distressed and clearly emotional.”
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