‘She Could Have Been Hurt Worse’: Police Union Defends Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed 9-Year-Old Girl

The police union in Rochester, New York, is defending a group of cops who pepper-sprayed and handcuffed a nine-year-old girl on Friday.

“They were trying to get her into the car,” said Mike Mazzeo, president of the Locust Club police union, at a press conference. The officer who pepper-sprayed the girl “made a decision there that he thought was the best action to take,” Mazzeo declared. “It resulted in no injury to her. Had they had to go and push further and use more force, there’s a good chance she could have been hurt worse. It’s very difficult to get someone into the back of a police car like that.”

In this case, that someone was a child—what’s more, a child who wasn’t suspected of committing any crime. Footage shows her screaming for her father as officers force her to the ground to cuff her. The police were reportedly responding to a family disturbance call, with Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson claiming that the child “indicated that she wanted to kill herself, and she wanted to kill her mom,” according to The New York