Police pepper-spraying of boy, 7, at BLM protest captured in shock image was ‘lawful and proper’, cop probe says

A POLICE officer pepper spraying a 7-year-old boy in Seattle was deemed “lawful and proper” in a cops accountability probe. 

Video clips of the shocking incident from a May 30 Black Lives Matter protest were published online by the Seattle Police Department’s Office of Police Accountability (OPA) on Friday. 

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 A 7-year-old-boy was pepper sprayed ‘inadvertently’ by a Seattle police officer[/caption]

The compilation video shows a boy crying with pain from being pepper sprayed in the face, while a medic pours milk over his face.  

According to an OPA report on the case released earlier this month, the police officer who was moving protesters away from Westlake Plaza “directed” pepper spray at a woman who “grabbed” the cop’s baton and shouted, “Don’t push me, you move back.” 

The boy standing behind the woman was “inadvertently” exposed to the pepper spray, the report states. 

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A Black Lives Matter protest broke out in Seattle days after George Floyd’s death[/caption]

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People walk on Interstate 5 in Seattle in protest of death of George Floyd’s death[/caption]

“OPA cannot reach any conclusion other than the force used by [the officer] was lawful and proper,” the report concludes. 

“Moreover, at the time of this incident, there was no section of the policy that caused directed pepper spraying to be improper simply because it inadvertently affected another individual in the immediate vicinity.”

The caption for the video compilation conveys the same message: “OPA’s investigation determined that the child was not intentionally targeted with pepper spray.”

After bystander video circulated social media, the OPA received more than 13,000 complaints alleging that the officer pepper spraying the child constituted excessive force. 

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A year-old-boy was apparently pepper sprayed when police officers moved a line of protesters [/caption]

“OPA understands that this decision will be unpalatable to some and perhaps to many. This is understandable. In some respects, it is unpalatable to OPA,” the report states. 

OPA Director Andrew Myerberg wrote that no case in his nearly three years in office had received so many complaints and that it was “one of the hardest” he has considered. 

After the boy was pepper sprayed, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance creating a legal cause of action for individuals affected by the noxious spray during demonstrations. 

While the ordinance does not undo harm that the boy suffered, “it may defer similar incidents form occurring I noted future and, at the very least, will provide a legal and monetary remedy,” the report states. 

The protest broke out to call for justice for George Floyd, a black man who died days earlier after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.