By Delaney Norris, Staff Writer
BRUTALITY: A nine year old girl was pepper sprayed by police.
From 2020 and 2021, police brutality has become an increasingly serious topic of discussion. Time and time again, the police have seemingly shown the public that violence is the only way to deal with calls. If the police are allowed to pepper spray an innocent nine year old, what are they prohibited from doing?
A video has recently surfaced from January 1, 2021 that underscores the unacceptably harsh actions of police. The video is of a nine year old girl (name not released) getting forcefully handcuffed and taken to a police car. She refused to put her feet in the car and was pepper sprayed into submission even though she was already handcuffed and posed no threat to the officers. Her mother, (whose name is not being released due to privacy reasons) had called the police claiming that her daughter had been threatening to hurt herself or her mother. Six police cars rushed to the house. They dragged the girl through the snow and forcefully handcuffed her against a patrol car. She then was taken to the back of the car and wasn’t allowed to brush the snow from herself. Once in the car, the girl repeatedly called for her father. The officers showed no patience for her, one saying that she was acting like a child, to which she responded, “I am a child!” One officer threatened to pepper spray her, which only frightened her even more. Eventually, an officer said that they had no choice but to pepper spray her for her resistance. Yet she was already handcuffed— there was no reason to pepper spray her. For a bit of context, pepper spray is measured in how painful it is the same way chili peppers are, the SHU. US grade pepper spray measures up to 5.3 million scoville heat units. The once hottest pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, only measures 2.2 million scoville heat units. The jalapeno is only 5,000. The point is, you should spray the stuff around lightly, or not at all.
The video was streamed across the internet, and grabbed the attention of Lovely Warren, the Mayor of Rochester, New York, where the incident happened. She was very disturbed from the video, especially because she is a mother herself. She demanded that all officers involved will be suspended. The mother of the child has recently come out and claims she plans on suing the city. Although she is acting protective over her daughter now, many people have said she is not fit to parent. Is calling the police because your nine-year old is having a breakdown the proper way of parenting? People hope that any money received will go into a trust fund for the daughter, where the mother cannot use it for any other purpose except for her daughter.
Police brutality has been an issue for centuries and will probably continue to be an issue until we stand up and protest that it be stopped. Situations like this should not be happening. Police have a history of being inhumane and it is unfair for anyone to be treated this way, especially a child.