Rochester, New York, police release bodycam videos to show why officers were 'required' to handcuff, pepper-spray 9-year-old girl

Just on the Rochester news, that the family of the girl have filed a claim against the RPD and the officers involved. Also, the mother says she specifically asked RPD for mental health intervention for her daughter and they refused. Interview with mom and lawyer on now


Breaking: Family of 9-year-old girl pepper-sprayed files lawsuit against the city and RPD | WHEC.com

I have been following the story, and one thing mentioned is the need for special training for cops, or the need for a specific unit to deal with children in crisis.
Anyone interested in specific local coverage, one of the local channels is Whec
 

Unfortunately the phrase "defunding the police" makes it sound like the intent is to reduce the police force itself.

It is NOT intended to remove policemen from handling serious crimes. The intent is to use funds to establish units of mental health professionals who are better trained to de-escalate domestic violence and mental health issues.

THAT is what is needed. It will allow police to better focus on crime. Unless someone really believes that six policecars are needed for one loud-mouthed angry kid. And no, she wasn't that big, either. Not a baby, but definitely no threat for even one of those policemen.

And in fact, the first officer on scene, a policewoman, was making some headway with the 9-yr old by talking to her - "What can I do? How can I help you?" before her mother came up to start yelling at the daughter.
 
The term "Defund the Police" seemed to have been selected without forethought. The intention was to take away duties and the assigned funding from the police. For those duties to be handle by non-lethal personnel who have social/psychological training. Police are trained for crime control. As a result, the term "Defund the Police" has been hijacked.

There have been many situations where families have called 911 because of mental issues with a family member. Police are always sent and in several situations, the police have killed the person in distress.

So it seems families who need help have to decide if that 911 phone call is worth it.

I recall an incident in recent years that happened in Miami which involved a mental patient:

"[Officer] Aledda shot behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey in the leg — even after the therapist laid down on the ground, threw his hands in the air and tried to explain to officers that he and the man he was caring for were unarmed."

"Aledda, a then four-year member of the North Miami police force and a SWAT team member, said he thought Kinsey's life was in danger and was trying to shoot Rios-Soto but missed."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...t-unarmed-caregiver-man-autism-found-n1018616

Aledda got off pretty much scot free with just a misdemeanor.
 

After watching the full video I lost count of the number of times the mother screamed the f word and the mf word.She physically and verbally abused the girl ,telling her she was going to whup her and then repeatedly screamed expletives that I can't repeat here.Now people criticizing her are being called racists.The cops were wrong to use pepper spray,the city needs to find another more benign way to deal with a situation like this,but I feel the abuse this child has suffered started long before this.
 
john danson said:
After watching the full video I lost count of the number of times the mother screamed the f word and the mf word.She physically and verbally abused the girl ,telling her she was going to whup her and then repeatedly screamed expletives that I can't repeat here.Now people criticizing her are being called racists.The cops were wrong to use pepper spray,the city needs to find another more benign way to deal with a situation like this,but I feel the abuse this child has suffered started long before this.
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Precisely my opinion too....
 
I just watched the video with the mother. How did she ever get custody? That's so sad for the little girl. Maybe some good will come from this and the girl will find a better home, but probably not. The mother was probably treated like crap when she was growing up, too.
 
The 9 year old CHILD acted like a 9 year old child. The "police offices" on the other hand acted like a bunch of 🐷🐷🐷🐷. My opinion you don't have to agree :)
 
hollydolly said:
I;d be interested to know if @911 has a view on this or has ever dealt with anything like this situation with a child
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I appreciate you asking for my thoughts. I abhor talking against police departments for various reasons. I do not know the extent of their training, whether offered as voluntary or mandatory. Some, in fact many, PD's have several different mandatory training courses and others not so many. Rochester is a fairly good sized city. I would like to believe that their PD has had some very good training, especially if they have taken courses at the FBI Academy.

There isn't a lot of details being shared in the story. I did watch the short YouTube video and I have to doubt why the OC was used. Why wouldn't the Officer just cuff her and take her to the hospital while calling Child Services on the way there? So she is out of control and having a fit. Does he think using OC is going to make her calm down? Get her to the hospital, they can give her a shot of a drug to calm her and go from there. Or, if the EMS people has a pen or a drug they carry that would be better yet.

We have a protocol for dealing with children. Unlike adults, children require "special handling." Spraying them with OC is not the answer, unless the Officer is under attack and by that I mean, a child picks up a bat, chains or any other type of weapon and begins to swing it at the Officer, then maybe we need to quell the situation.

I never got into this type of situation, but did have my run-ins with older teens. A few of them I would have liked to have cleaned their clock, but, well, you know.

More training of RPD is necessary and that is also obvious. Of course, I would imagine a riot or a protest followed? That seems to be the trend these days.
 
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