A 9-year-old Black Girl Was Pepper Sprayed by Cops While Already Handcuffed in a Squad Car

At the end of January, 2021, a 9-year-old Black girl in Rochester, New York was brutalized by police during a mental health crisis. Police were called due to a family disturbance, then body cam footage showed the literal child was yelled at, thrown in the snow, tossed in the back of a police car in handcuffs, and then pepper sprayed in the face by cops. The worst part? The president of that police union said the officers "broke no policy." That means that their policies allow for physical violence against children in distress.

Sign the petition now to demand these "policies" change so that no one, especially not a child, ever faces such cruelty again.

This is the same police department who suffocated a 41-year-old Black man to death by placing him in a hood. His name was Daniel Prude and during the incident he was naked and distressed and the cops put a hood over him in the middle of the street, leading to his death. The video of the event only came out after his family sued the city. Clearly this department has significant race and police brutality problems. While most U.S. police departments are riddled with those same problems, this one really stands out.

At one point during the assault of the 9-year-old child, an officer says to her, "You're acting like a child", to which she responds "I am a child." The girl was yelling for her dad and clearly in the midst of a mental health crisis and she was met with physical abuse by the very people who were there to "help her." The officer involved has been suspended, but not fired, pending an internal review.

Of course that officer should lose their job. However, the fact that the union president defended this action and stated that it is not against their policy points to a horrendous problem. Sign the petition to demand justice for this little girl by way of a change in policy so that no one ever suffers the way she did