\u00ab\u00a0Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action,\u00a0\u00bb the mayor said in a statement.<\/b>
\nOfficers involved in the pepper-spraying of a 9-year-old girl in Rochester, New York, have been suspended, the city announced Monday. The suspensions are effective immediately and will last at least until an internal police investigation is concluded. \u00ab\u00a0What happened Friday was simply horrible, and has rightly outraged, all of our community,\u00a0\u00bb Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement. \u00ab\u00a0Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action.\u00a0\u00bb Warren said she would \u00ab\u00a0lead the charge\u00a0\u00bb to change these laws to \u00ab\u00a0allow cities to more quickly issue discipline in cases like this one.\u00a0\u00bb The officers were suspended with pay, on the condition that a suspension without pay couldn’t last more than 30 days without a concluded internal investigation, CBS affiliate WROC-TV reports. The city did not say how many officers were suspended. Earlier reports indicated a total of nine officers and supervisors responded to the report of \u00ab\u00a0family trouble\u00a0\u00bb on Friday. Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson on Saturday said the girl was threatening to kill herself and her mother. The Rochester Police Department said in a statement that officers tried to force the girl into a police vehicle, but she tried to pull away and kicked at the officers. The department said this \u00ab\u00a0required an officer to take the minor down to the ground.\u00a0\u00bb Once she was in the back of the car, police said the girl ignored multiple commands to put her feet inside the vehicle, and an officer was \u00ab\u00a0required\u00a0\u00bb to spray her with a chemical irritant. In body camera video released Sunday, prior to the girl being sprayed, and an officer can be heard saying, \u00ab\u00a0Just spray her at this point.\u00a0\u00bb The girl was eventually taken to a local hospital. \u00ab\u00a0I’m not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is OK. It’s not,\u00a0\u00bb Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said at a news conference on Sunday. \u00ab\u00a0I don’t see that as who we are as a department and we’re going to do the work we have to do to ensure that these kinds of things don’t happen.\u00a0\u00bb The police department is conducting an internal review of the incident and Rochester’s Police Accountability Board is also investigating, according to WROC-TV.<\/p>\n