No, they were not reasonable. Or were they?
The mother of a 13-year-old boy arrested by armed police after pointing a water pistol at his younger sister has hit out at the watchdog who declared the officer’s actions “reasonable”.
The boy, referred to only as Child X, was knocked to the ground, handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of having a firearm after being confronted by officers with submachine guns while having a water fight with his younger sister near his home.
After an officer mistook his water pistol for a dangerous firearm the teen was struck by a police vehicle causing him to crash into a wall during a tactical stop as he cycled alone on Buxted Road, in Dalston, on 19 July 2023.
That officer needs to go to Specsavers pronto. Is this an example of police overreach and a complete loss of perspective? Children play with water pistols – I had a cap gun when I was growing up. God knows how that would have gone down with this lot. However, all is not as it seems here, for there is a piece of information we are not seeing.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched an investigation when the boy’s mother complained about the adultification and discrimination against her black son during the arrest, in Hackney, east London.
Child X’s mother described the outcome of the IOPC investigation as “extremely disappointing” after it concluded the actions of the police “were reasonable in the circumstances.”
She said: “From the very day of this horrific incident, it was clear to me that the police would not have treated my son in the way that they did if he had been a white 13-year-old boy.
Ah, well, maybe, maybe not. You see young black boys in certain areas have been known to carry weapons, so maybe that officer did have reasonable cause after al.
“From the outset, I made it clear that I expected any investigation into the incident to look at the very obvious role that my son’s race played in the way in which he was treated by the police.
“Unfortunately, the IOPC have shown themselves to be completely incapable of understanding what race discrimination is and how it actually operates in the way that black children are treated by the police.”
My initial sympathy just evaporated.
The water pistol was blue & white according to the media reports. The VCRA brought into effect the requirement for realistic imitation firearms (water pistols) to be dual coloured so as not to be mistaken for real steel. So why did they not use this fact to realise that he was no threat?
Perhaps because (like the fuckwit politicians were told) the police can’t be sure a criminal wouldn’t just paint a real gun multiple colours!
To me it’s the gang culture that glorifies violence and gun crime that is to blame here and not the coppers who have to deal with the realities on their streets.
Or is that too racist?
We make toy guns multi coloured so it’s obvious they aren’t real…
Meanwhile…
https://nypost.com/2021/07/14/utah-gun-company-under-fire-for-glock-encased-in-legos/
Is it likely to appear on the streets of Londonistan? Probably not. But with the prevalence of 3D printers, are you willing to bet your life on something similar not being fabbed up?
Won’t be long before someone gets attacked by the filth for making a gun symbol and pointing it at someone in a game near one of these pearl clutchers.
Drop the gun or I’ll shoot.
What gun?
BAM BAM
He didn’t drop the gun.
The late, unlamented, Chris Kaba’s first brush with the law was when he was 13 – knifing someone. His record includes an imitation firearm at 19. What was the policeman supposed to do – look at the (imitation) gun and say in his best George Dixon “Come on, sonny, let me make sure that it’s not dangerous?”
Some of the police don’t know the difference between rights and wrong, but are they suicidal or stupid?
Whoops – that should have been “..right and wrong,…”
I don’t think that I can pass judgement on this one without at least seeing a picture of the fake weapon in question. Both the police and dark coloured youths have form for being bang out of order in incidents of this kind so it’s a bit hard to judge.
I’d like to see a picture of the 13-year-old boy – some 13 year old boys look quite adult in which case some of the criticism – made after the event – could be misplaced.
One of the problems (as I see it) is that the powers that be WILL NOT punish criminals but always take the easier and more repressive course of banning everything that is used by, or could be useful to, a criminal. The “paint toy guns in garish colours” does nothing to prevent a criminal obtaining a firearm (and I do assure you that it is much easier to obtain a firearm illegally than to go through the legal channels to do so) and as Joe Smith pointed out, paint isn’t exactly hard to come by.
If you made it so that the game wasn’t worth the candle for a criminal to do whatever he does (carry and use a knife, a firearm etc.) then you could pile firearms up in the high street with a sign saying “Help Yourself” with no real consequences but no.
In the past, we locked criminals up and allowed the law abiding to roam the streets freely and do whatever they liked provided it didn’t impact or inconvenience others.
Nowadays, the criminals are free to roam and do whatever they like while the law abiding lock themselves in their increasingly fortified homes and have restrictions placed upon them that resemble more and more like being in a prison.
Odd, that, eh?
As usual the public are also complicit in the banning of everything. Few care about liberty or personal responsibility, much easier to abdicate those to the state. See the docile response to CV-19 “restrictions” for example. Many happily grassed their neighbours for having family visit.
We all played with toy guns in the street. I had a life sized M16. Police never bothered us. They did seem to have some more brains back then though
It’s process over common sense. Plod turn up and see water squirting from a gun. They should think ‘False alarm. yet another whingey whiney snowflake just proding their nose where it isn’t wanted and stopping someone having fun. Nothing to see here. Lets go back to our Twitter feeds for some real action.’
But no they have to follow the process. Assault then false imprisonment and terrorising the poor kid. The Prodnose, like the filth, will both have been happy about a job well done.
Fuck em all.
“Plod turn up and see water squirting from a gun.”
I’d really want to see the body cam footage and I’m prepared to bet that there’s plenty we aren’t being told.
Plod don’t just pile in and arrest. There’s a lot of shouting and warnings and stand off etc. During which time, boy can point “weapon” away from police at ground and demonstrate that it’s a water pistol, then obviously comply with subsequent orders.
If he was wrestled to ground and arrested, I’d want to see why. I’m suspecting that IPCC looked at that footage pretty hard too before coming to their conclusions.
??? even more bizarre.
Pointed at with submachine guns, yet knocked off biked by a vehicle.
That suggests he was challenged and took off on his bike. Let’s see the footage.