US police use pepper spray on 9-year-old, say it was ‘required’

The video footage of US police handcuffing, hitting and applying a nine-year-old black girl with pepper spray in the city of Rochester was released on Sunday. It sparked outrage over the aggression used by the country’s law enforcement, reported AFP.

According
to CNN, the video released by the police department show officers restraining
the child and attempting to get her inside a police vehicle in handcuffs as she
repeatedly cries and calls for her father.

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Deputy
Police Chief Andre Anderson in the department’s defence said that the officers were responding to a report of family
trouble on Friday as the girl, who is suffering from a serious mental health emergency, was threatening to kill herself and her mother.

Rochester
police also claimed the use handcuffs and the irritant against the girl was
required for her own safety.

The police actions while dealing with the child, however, did not go well with the state’s authority, including Mayor Lovely Warren and Rochester city council members, who condemned the use of force.

“I
have a 10-year-old child, so she’s a child, she’s a baby. This
video, as a mother, is not anything you want to see. We have to understand
compassion, empathy,” Mayor Warren said, adding that an internal review of the city’s law enforcement practices would be carried out.

Rochester
city council members also denounced the police aggression and said that the
mental health professionals would have been involved to treat the situation.

The local police department, presented a divided front with Local police chief Cynthia Herriott, acknowledging that the usage of an irritant on a child was not okay.

But the local police union president, Mike Mazzeo, on the other hand defended the officers by saying that the limited resources made them act in a way they did.

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“This
is not about lack of compassion or empathy, we’re dealing with a very difficult situation.” he added.

However, this is not the first time Rochester police came under the scanner pertaining to violence against the people of colour.

In march last year, the killing of Daniel Prude after police hooded and forced him face down on the road prompted the same level of outrage among the masses.