The girl's family called the police to say she was threatening her mother, and was also suicidal. Rochester police were trying to remove her to a hospital.
February 1, 2021

The body camera video shows the girl crying out for her father, and screaming before her head is held down as she's handcuffed. The cops struggle to get her inside the back of a police vehicle. Where was the city's mental health team? Via CNN:

(CNN)A 9-year-old girl was handcuffed and pepper sprayed by police officers responding to a report of "family trouble" in Rochester, New York, on Wednesday, according to Rochester Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson.

Two body camera videos of the incident released by the police department on Sunday show officers restraining the child, putting her in handcuffs and attempting to get her inside the back of a police vehicle as she is heard repeatedly crying and calling for her father.

Officers are then seen pepper spraying the girl after she doesn't follow commands to put her feet inside the car.
The girl was transported to Rochester General Hospital where she was later released, Anderson said.

This is what critics mean when they use the clumsy term "defund the police." What they're really talking about is having mid-level resources to prevent domestic and mental health situations from escalating to the point where they need police intervention. Rochester PD does have a crisis team; now we'll have the investigation into why they weren't called instead of the cops. (I'm guessing it's that the city doesn't have enough funding to pay the crisis team to work the weekends.)

But pepper-spraying a nine-year-old in the face? Seems like it shouldn't have gotten to that point.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon