Great article, thanks.

You know, I think few incidents point out the problem with horrific rules more clearly than last week’s pepper spraying of a nine-year-old Black girl in Rochester, New York.

She was having some sort of a mental health crisis, and her family had called the police. Nine officers arrived eventually, handcuffed her, and determined to take her to the hospital for evaluation.

She refused to cooperate by getting in a police cruiser, instead continually calling for her father. An officer told her to stop acting like a child, and then another officer pepper sprayed her directly in the eyes.

The video is shocking.

People all over the nation reacted with horror. But Rochester police responded entirely differently. An assistant commissioner almost immediately responded by telling the public that pepper spraying the girl was “required” by police procedure.

I’m sure he honestly believes that to be true, but the public are calling for his head. I quite endorse public sentiment.

If police rules require brutalizing a small child, then those police rules are horrific.

In this case, danger to the officers is not even a question. Nor did the handcuffed girl present any danger to herself or anyone else.

It’s hard to understand how any police officer anywhere could abide by rules that result in brutalizing children.

But officers all over the country have expressed their support for the Rochester officers.