Rochester Police Officers Suspended for Pepper-Spraying 9-Year-Old Girl

On January 31, 2021, the Rochester N.Y. police department released shocking body-cam footage of officers handcuffing and pepper-spraying a nine-year-old Black girl on Friday afternoon, January 29, 2021. The bizarre incident, which arose after six police vehicles responded to a domestic disturbance call, has resulted in suspensions for officers involved, until an investigation concludes.

According to The New York Times, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren expressed her dismay “as a mother” of a 10-year-old daughter. At the same time, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, also speaking “as a father,” urged the city to “reckon with a real police accountability problem.” Even Chief of Police Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan was at a loss to defend officers, admitting, “I’m not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is OK.”

Condemnation was not unanimous. However, as Michael Mazzeo, president of the police officers’ union stated, “Those officers and those scenes, they broke no policy. … There’s nothing that anyone can say they did that’s inappropriate.”

Events began to unfold on Friday afternoon, when a 911 call requested assistance with “family trouble.” Upon arrival, officers encountered “the 9-year-old girl dressed in a black hoodie and colorful leggings,” who expressed the intention to kill herself and her mother, according to Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson. The girl tried to run away, but officers apprehended her, pushing her into the snow to handcuff her. The video shows the girl, covered in snow, pleading with the officers to stop and repeatedly telling them, “I want my dad.”

Officers attempted to get her into the back of a police car, so they could take her to a hospital, but she continued to resist, saying she did not want to get into the car. Her resistance escalated to kicking the officers, who became impatient. In the video, one officer accuses her of “acting like a child,” to which she responds, “I am a child.” While some officers coax her to calm down, one officer says, “Just spray her at this point.”

An officer sprays her face with the irritant, and predictably, she screams. She is placed in the car. "Officer, please don't do this to me," she says at this point. "You did it to yourself, hon," the officer responds. She cries that her eyes are burning. An officer tells her an ambulance is coming to rinse her eyes, and that she should stick her head “towards the window” to feel the cold air for the time being. She complains, "It's burning too bad," and is told, "It's supposed to burn. It's called pepper spray." Eventually, the girl was transported to the hospital and was subsequently released.

Coverage in The New York Times noted how “the incident highlighted the longstanding problem that in many police departments, officers are trained to subdue violent suspects and often are poorly equipped to deal with people who are distraught or mentally ill.” Yet how much advanced training does it take to recognize that a distraught nine-year-old ought not to be tortured into submission?

Once the child is in restraints, what purpose does pepper spray serve other than inflicting unnecessary pain? The exercise of authority requires restraint and prudential judgment, not actions that can only be classified as sadism.

This travesty follows on the heels of the death in police custody of a Black man, Daniel Prude, last year. Prude suffocated after Rochester police had placed him in a hood. After officers attempted to characterize Mr. Prude’s death as a drug overdose, charges of a cover-up were launched, which led to the firing of the Rochester Police Chief. There was also body-cam footage in Prude’s case, but authorities only released it six months after his death in response to the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.

The fact that Rochester authorities released body-cam footage of the pepper-spray incident within about 48 hours is a sign that city leadership is making good on promises of greater transparency. What is needed now is a commitment to reforming police procedures for dealing with domestic disturbances. Where emotional distress and mental illness are the catalysts, a punitive response is entirely inappropriate and needlessly cruel. Incidents like this can only lead to a greater distrust of police, making their primary mission of protecting the public infinitely more difficult. Most importantly, rigid tactics imperil the very public the police are sworn to protect.