New video captures pepper-sprayed girl's wait for EMTs

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Feb. 11, 2021
Updated: Feb. 12, 2021 12:54 a.m.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A 9-year-old Black girl pepper sprayed by police pleaded “please don’t do this to me” and “it burns” as she waited handcuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser for 16 minutes, according to new police body camera footage released Thursday.

The city of Rochester suspended police officers seen in an initial video released Sunday spraying a chemical irritant in the face of the distraught and handcuffed child. Mayor Lovely A. Warren said the city released almost 90 minutes of additional video from the Jan. 29 detainment in order to be transparent.

In the video, the girl can be heard wailing and whimpering that she wants her dad and saying her eyes are burning as an officer tells her an ambulance is on its way but has been slowed by the snowy roads.

“Officer, please don't do this to me,” she says at one point.
“You did it to yourself, hon,” the officer responds.

. . .

The girl's mother, Elba Pope, said she called police during an argument with her spouse, but asked officers to call mental health services when it became clear her fourth-grade daughter was headed for a meltdown.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/New-video-captures-pepper-sprayed-girl-s-wait-for-15944186.php

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The community should just be in an outrage over this and should

have major input as to sentencing if it gets to that point. Years - YEARS - of jail time and add 5 years for stupidity.

[milestogo]

2. Nobody in a mental health crisis should have to deal with the police.

[orangecrush]

4. YOU BASTARDS DON'T HAVE TRUMP TO PROTECT YOUR MURDERING RACIST ASSES ANYMORE

Now perhaps there will be a full scale DOJ investigation of this "police department".

Here is some of the body cam footage

It literally made me want to vomit.

She's lucky they didn't kill her.

Full footage at link.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/rochester-police-release-additional-footage-showing-officers-handcuffing-pepper-spraying-9-year-old%3f_amp=true

[Hortensis]

5. I keep wondering what on earth went on in his head.

Whatever, hopefully he will never again be armed with the authority of the state.

[orangecrush]

8. I know exactly

What went on in his head.

When he said "at this point, just spray her", he meant at that point she was no longer a human being to him, let alone a 9 year old child.

[Hortensis]

9. Dehumanizing seems obvious, but.. But.

Oh well. At least this isn’t one of those stories where calling the police leads to great tragedy. The child and her mother are alive.

[orangecrush]

10. Hopefully the city of Rochester

Will be paying for this kids college education and a house to live in.

Listening to the language this child was using was, to me, a sign of what she was exposed to every day of her life, and a sign that she needed help.

That cop took it as an affront to his ego/authority.

Which is a perfect example of why the police should not be responding to mental health calls.

[Wuddles440]

6. "You did it to yourself, hon"...

Really??!! How so? Oh, that's right - simply by being born Black! This POS is an absolute disgrace and needs to be banished from society.

[MurrayDelph]

7. "Look at what you made me do to you"

is a standard refrain from abusers.