New York Attorney General Letisha James is responding to the body cam video released by the Rochester Police Department showing a distraught 9-year-old girl being pepper-sprayed while handcuffed.
In a tweet, James says, "What happened in Rochester on Friday is deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable. Such use of force and pepper spray should never be deployed against a child, period.
My office is looking into what transpired, but it’s clear that drastic reform is needed at the Rochester Police Department."
Meanwhile, one of Rochester's longtime critics of police conduct, the Reverend Lewis Stewart, says police officers acted inappropriately when they handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a distraught nine-year-old girl.
Stewart says the girl needed mental health intervention -- not police, whom he says made things worse.
Stewart wants the officers suspended without pay.