TeeRoy's 2 Cents:
- In the bodycam footage, an officer can be heard telling the girl, "You're acting like a child," to which the girl replied, "I am a child."
- This is the same police department that made national news last year when 41-year-oldDaniel Prudedied in their custody.
- Nobody wants to see physical force used on a child, but what else could officers have done?
- Cops need to be better trained for how to deal with kids and mental health crises.
Police officers in Rochester, New York are under investigation after bodycam footage released to the public shows a confrontation with a nine-year-old girl that ended with an officer using pepper spray to get her under control.
Officers were responding to a call of "family trouble" at their home and reports that the girl was threatening to harm herself and her mother. When they couldn't calm the girl down, officers they tried to restrain her and put her in the back of a police car, but she resisted and kicked.
The girl was eventually handcuffed and put in the car but only after she was pepper sprayed. She was taken to the hospital for treatment and ultimately released back to her family. The city's police union president Mike Mazzeo says, "I'm not saying there are not better ways to do things. But let's be realistic about what we're facing. It's not TV, it's not Hollywood. We don't have a simple (situation), where we can put out our hands and have somebody be instantly handcuffed and comply." (Democrat & Chronicle)