Rochester Police officers handcuff and pepper-spray a 9-year-old girl after call of 'family trouble'

SummerMadness

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Rochester Police officers handcuff and pepper-spray a 9-year-old girl after call of 'family trouble'
Police officers in Rochester, New York, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9-year-old girl on Wednesday while responding to what a police official called a report of "family trouble" in an incident sharply criticized by city officials.

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 repeatedly cries and calls for her father.

After the girl fails to follow commands to put her feet inside the car, the officers are then seen pepper-spraying her.
 

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1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

Jesus Warns of Offenses
6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

8 “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep
10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
~Matthew 18:1-14 (NKJV)

Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 18 - King James Version
Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 18 - New King James Version
Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 18 - New International Version
Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 18 - International Children’s Bible

If this passage means what I believe it means, then these police officers messed up ROYALLY by using excessive force on a clearly distressed child.

Also, please keep in mind that these police brutality stories are the exception, not the norm.[1][2][3]
  1. Mean world syndrome - Oxford Reference
  2. https://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Mean-World-Syndrome-Transcript.pdf
  3. https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=senior-theses
 
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RDKirk

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There is a lot about how that situation began and evolved that I wish we knew.

But certainly there was a better way for the police to handle it. I'm not sure they should have "handled it" at all. Somewhere in there an officer should have said, "Lady, get your child under control. We'll help, but it's your job."

And more and more I'm disturbed by the lack of full information gathering and dissemination by dispatchers. People have gotten killed because dispatchers have failed to gather adequate information and disseminate it to responding officers.
 
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keith99

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After watching the video and skimming the article I think there are two things worth pointing out. They point in different directions.

The first is that the officers had been told that the girl was suicidal and had threatened to kill her mother. That changes things quite a bit and makes the officers actions moore understandable.

The other was that the girl repeatedly screamed that she wanted her father. Perhaps I missed it or it was cut from the video, but the officers never responded to that. I can't help but wonder is just asking if she knew his phone number would have calmed her considerably and if then calling it might have totally defused the situation.
 
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RDKirk

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After watching the video and skimming the article I think there are two things worth pointing out. They point in different directions.

The first is that the officers had been told that the girl was suicidal and had threatened to kill her mother. That changes things quite a bit and makes the officers actions moore understandable.

IMO, it makes their actions less understandable. It makes the mother's actions (which appear to have been no action at all) less understandable.

I don't see it mentioned at any point that the 9-year-old girl had a weapon. Three adults and an unarmed 9-year-old girl. What was really going on there?

The other was that the girl repeatedly screamed that she wanted her father. Perhaps I missed it or it was cut from the video, but the officers never responded to that. I can't help but wonder is just asking if she knew his phone number would have calmed her considerably and if then calling it might have totally defused the situation.

They couldn't get to that line of thinking because their concept and training of "getting in control of the situation" apparently didn't include situation de-escalation. Not even with an unarmed 9-year-old girl.
 
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rambot

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It's crazy to me.
This is CRAZY to me.

When I worked at the treatment centre for you, we were only able to employ nonviolent crisis intervention techniques and we were in PLENTY of scenarios just like hte police.

a 9year old kid NEVER EVER EVER needs pepper spray. Never. It's just being vindictive and abusing power.

Now htat is not to sya that this girl was NOT the cause of the trouble. But again, I've been in those same situations too. We employed deescalation techniques that very often worked.

Now I teach in a behaviour program. Same deal.
 
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pgp_protector

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Biggest issue it seem with the police in most of these cases, is they've no idea how to de-escalate a situation.

It comes down to "I in charge, you do what I say or it gets worse for you"
 
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disciple Clint

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I do not know everything that happened, from what I could see the restraints may have been appropriate if she was trying to hurt herself, I would not have authorized use of Capstun on a child. the officers are trying to resolve this too quickly. Lots of time to let her cool down, not much she can do to her herself or the officers while she is in close observation. Would have been best to maintain control and take as much time as needed for her to calm down.
 
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loveofourlord

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this seems to be a running problem, a few times a year we get these stories about cops hurting kids or doing stupid things. Or heck people call cops for help and get killed, THIS is why people want to defund the police, take some of the money away from the cops and put in some mental health professionals, people that are equipped for a situation that doesn't require guns or harm.
 
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disciple Clint

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this seems to be a running problem, a few times a year we get these stories about cops hurting kids or doing stupid things. Or heck people call cops for help and get killed, THIS is why people want to defund the police, take some of the money away from the cops and put in some mental health professionals, people that are equipped for a situation that doesn't require guns or harm.
That is not why people want to defund the police. If actions are the problem the solution is training not defunding. The people who want to defund the police want to eliminate the effectiveness of the police.
 
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loveofourlord

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That is not why people want to defund the police. If actions are the problem the solution is training not defunding. The people who want to defund the police want to eliminate the effectiveness of the police.

MAYBE YOU SHOULD LISTEN instead of spouting righ wing lies. They want to remove the funding from police and put it somewhere better. It's about fixing the budgets where they go into more bigger guns and such and not actually fixing things.
 
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disciple Clint

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MAYBE YOU SHOULD LISTEN instead of spouting righ wing lies. They want to remove the funding from police and put it somewhere better. It's about fixing the budgets where they go into more bigger guns and such and not actually fixing things.
Sorry you seem to have been deceived by the LIES of the Left.
 
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disciple Clint

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MAYBE YOU SHOULD LISTEN instead of spouting righ wing lies. They want to remove the funding from police and put it somewhere better. It's about fixing the budgets where they go into more bigger guns and such and not actually fixing things.
By the way shouting at people and accusing them of spouting lies is rude.
 
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loveofourlord

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By the way shouting at people and accusing them of spouting lies is rude.

I didn't accuse you of lying, I accused you of spreading known rightwing lies. Hence the you should listen to whats said. Given your track record for repeating lies from right wing media excuse me if I don't accept your idea of your opponents reasons.
 
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It appears to be possible to train police to handle situations like this. But in places where that doesn't work, putting some funding into non-police groups to handle welfare calls seems sensible.

"Defund police" became a matter of ideology, on both sides. Mostly nothing happened. But to the extent that it was a real strategy, it seems to have meant moving a moderate amount of funding to mental health professionals. That may not be what the slogan meant to some radicals.
 
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FireDragon76

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"Mental health crisis"... that's some kind of euphemism now that bears out further scrutiny: its being used to gloss over intolerable behaviors that violate other peoples rights.

You have no right to make your mental health crisis other peoples crisis.
 
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FireDragon76

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this seems to be a running problem, a few times a year we get these stories about cops hurting kids or doing stupid things. Or heck people call cops for help and get killed, THIS is why people want to defund the police, take some of the money away from the cops and put in some mental health professionals, people that are equipped for a situation that doesn't require guns or harm.

It's a false dichotomy. We need to both fund the police, and provide resources to communities. "Defund the police" is dangerous and extremist rhetoric.
 
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