<p><strong>Watch: [Warning: The following footage is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers]:</strong></p><p>"These officers should be fired and indicted," <a href="https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1356265712474583041" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Sawyer Hacket, senior advisor and communications director for Julian Castro, in response to the footage.</p><p>What was released by the Rochester Police Department on Sunday were two body camera videos, one just under 11 minutes and the other just over 6 minutes <strong>[Warning: Graphic]:</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eba8fece8d1478be881a72c21a1bb030" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" type="lazy-iframe" scrolling="no" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KjLgK0FUNBY?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">RPD BWC 2021-00017779 (1 of 2)</small>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">RPD BWC CR2021-00017779 (2 of 2)</small>
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</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/nyregion/rochester-police-pepper-spray-child.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According</a> to the <em>New York Times</em>:</p><blockquote>During the incident, which occurred Friday afternoon, officers restrained the girl, pushing her into the snow in order to handcuff her, while she screamed repeatedly for her father, the footage showed.<br/>At one point, an officer said, "You're acting like a child." She responded, "I am a child."</blockquote><p>In a statement at a Sunday press conference, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren expressed her concern for the "child that was harmed during this incident." </p><p>"I have a 10-year-old child," Lovely added, "so she's a child, she's a baby. This video, as a mother, is not anything you want to see."</p><p>As the <em>Times</em> notes, the incident on Friday "has brought renewed scrutiny to the Rochester Police Department, months after the city was roiled by the disclosure that Daniel Prude, a Black man, suffocated to death last year after Rochester police officers had placed him in a hood."</p><p>The local <em>Democrat & Chronicle</em> <a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/01/31/rpd-body-cam-video-9-year-old-girl-getting-handcuffed/4330459001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reports</a> that the young girl was taken to Rochester General Hospital where she received assessment and care. She was later released to family.</p><p>Later in the day, Mike Mazzeo, president of the Rochester Police Locust Club, held a press conference where he defended the officers' actions and even went so far to say that the young victim could have been hurt worse if they had acted differently.</p><p>Mazzeo also said that the police did not violate any department protocols.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0a1d32aaeae74c2a24ea60b05ab55f09" id="ec49b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1356010047751467012"><div style="margin:1em 0">The officers didn’t break any policies, because there aren’t any policies. We need answers, Mazzeo said. #roc @DandC https://t.co/pZUE8UrVP5</div> — Will Cleveland (@Will Cleveland)<a href="https://twitter.com/WillCleveland13/statuses/1356010047751467012">1612132963.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"They broke no policies," claimed Mazzeo. "There's nothing that anyone can say they did that's inappropriate."</p><p><em>This article first appeared on Common Dreams. You can read it <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/01/these-officers-should-be-fired-and-indicted-outrage-after-rochester-police-pepper" target="_blank">here. </a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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