Police body-cam footage has been released showing police officers pepper-spraying a 9-year-old black girl who was handcuffed in Rochester, New York.
The release of the video has been met with shock and anger and led the mayor of the city to order the immediate suspension of the 3 officers involved. On Monday night, several hundred people carrying Black Lives Matter signs marched through the streets of Rochester to show their disgust towards what had transpired.
Officers were apparently called to the home of the young girl following a disturbance in which she had allegedly said that she wished to kill herself and her mother. Officers then handcuffed the girl after she tried to run away and put her in the patrol car in order to take her to a hospital.
The girl can be heard repeatedly screaming and telling officers that she wanted to see her father. In the video, an officer can be heard saying to the youngster:
"This is your last chance. Otherwise pepper spray is going into your eyeballs."
When the girl doesn't stop screaming, one officer says:
"Just spray her at this point."
After being hit with the noxious spray, the girl screams in pain and says:
"Wipe my eyes, please!"
To this, the officer sighs and merely utters "unbelievable".
The girl's identity has not been revealed due to her age, but her mother spoke to NBC News and said she called police in order to help her daughter and not to have her hurt or abused.
Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement:
"What happened in Rochester on Friday is deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable. Such use of force and pepper spray should never be deployed against a child, period. My office is looking into what transpired and how a child was ever subjected to such danger."
The incident comes after a long year of protests that were sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protests called for an end of police brutality and institutional racism.
This isn't the first time that Rochester police have come under strong criticism for their actions towards the black community. During the summer of protests, footage was released of an incident that occurred in Rochester two months before the death of George Floyd. The incident involved officers putting a spit hood on a schizophrenic man, Daniel Prude, who was running through the streets naked. Prude was suffocated and died soon after.
h/t: Reuters
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