Among my greatest frustrations with my fellow conservatives, is many of them have the complete inability to realize that police forces in the US require reform.  That doesn’t mean that all cops are bad, or even the majority of them are.  Just that the power wielded by police forces is absolutely out of control and that some cops definitely need to be sidelined and/or fired.  If police train to be able to subdue 300-pound dudes who are drugged out of their minds, they should be able to gently control a child who may be suffering some sort of mental health crisis.  Too often though, we are told that “they are just trying to do their job,” however, still that “job” allegedly includes the blatant abuse of power and assault.

Today, the video was released out of Rochester, NY, where police were called to deal with a child who was suffering from some sort of mental health crisis.  The video begins with the hysterical child, handcuffed in the back of a police car, begging for her father.  Several police officers stand by and watch as two officers struggle to control the child in the back of the car.  Clearly, there is no reasoning with the child, which simply would just require that they place her in the back of the car and call for the appropriate social services to come by and provide a wellness check, many of which are on-call for situations just like this.  As they struggle to control the child, one officer is seen pulling out pepper spray and deploying it on the handcuffed little girl.

SHOCK VIDEO: A handcuffed 9-year-old girl is pepper sprayed by cops in Rochester, NY.

Police later said the girl was suicidal & “wanted to kill her mom." The girl was taken to a hospital, “where she received the services and care that she needed,” and was released to her family. pic.twitter.com/5Ntvoa1Zu8

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 1, 2021

Let me be clear:  This is completely unnecessary and unacceptable behavior.  There is never, any case, in any way, at any time, where a police officer, let alone 6, should use pepper spray on a child that is handcuffed in the back of the police car.  Full stop.

If any police officer was to do this to my kid, I would be the one under arrest in a very short period of time.  I would be the one pepper-sprayed and handcuffed in the back of a police car, if not worse.

You see, it is okay to want to support police officers while weeding out the disgusting behavior of the out-of-control ones.  The black and white approach to reform of those driving black and whites has done no one any favors.  For the left to suggest that all cops are bad is no different than the right saying all cops are good. Neither is true or accurate and both do a disservice to the debate about police reform.  There’s a place that the use of force can be justified when it isn’t used against handcuffed 9-year-olds or no-knock raids performed at midnight.  There’s also a place where the use of force is justified when a man wrestles with two police officers and then steals and attempts to deploy a taser against them.

While the report says that the girl was treated and released to her family, methinks there is a lawsuit on the horizon for this agency.  The action was completely unnecessary.