12 year old arrested

[Pixxie7]

Do you think the police acted appropriately given that they had a tip off that a boy was waving a gun around.

I’ve not followed the story. How did the situation escalate?? I can understand the police investigating as a toy gun may look real plus they have a duty..... but once realising it was not real how did it escalate?

For all those worrying about blinding people maybe they should ban them including “nerf guns” to avoid confusion!

’Intelligence shows that this address is known to be used by a male known to police for firearm offences.’

I’ve not seen this reported anywhere

This looked enough like a gun to get a 12yr old arrested...

What the Camden boy had in his hand looked a lot more realistic, so yes, police were justified to arrest him.

@PlanDeRaccordement

I know quite a few in the U.K. They are hunters, farmers, historical re-enacters - highly likely to be sitting on a sofa in central London, then?

You’re talking about the US.

Police were 100% in the right. Someone waving a 'gun' around in London at midnight has to be treated as dangerous. The parents are to blame for buying a dangerous 'toy' that looks like a deadly weapon.

As a response to a reply up thread - it's not as unusual as you think to know gun owning households. Not unusual at all in the countryside.

@AuntyPasta

You’re talking about the US.

The white girl & finger gun, yes that is US. A place more racist than the U.K.

" I do believe if it was a white kid they wouldn't have been so heavy handed though."

In some of the areas that I've lived in, especially Norris Green (Liverpool) and my current parea, they would and have. For those that don't know it, Norris Green is were Rhys Jones was shot by a 16 year old.

After the James Bulger killing and the rise of drug dealers using kids they've got to be treated as an Adult during an armed response, in terms of threat. Kids on bikes move guns around were I've lived. There's often a lack of empathy in young teen lads that's very scary.

If you've got a gun in a flat and no loft, it's likely to be in a girls bedroom in a teddy or shoe/make up box. People with guns often have illegal tasers, pepper sprays etc. So everyone has to be immobilised.

If anyone has 5 spare minutes, please watch the interview with the Mum, using this link. This is not ok.

www.channel4.com/news/mother-accuses-police-of-racial-profiling-after-12-year-old-son-arrested-by-armed-officers

A place where gun ownership is normalised, school shootings are regular occurrences, the police have much closer links with schools and indicating which people you’d choose to kill by making gun gestures at them carries more weight than it would here.

Other reports of the incident suggest that armed officers entered the property, detained all people work in the house, searched the property and then, after not finding anything dearrested the boy and his family were allowed to return to the property. A spokesperson for the police is quoted as saying this is normal protocol for the type of report made. Seems quite reasonable to me that you have to treat every report of a firearm as legit until determined otherwise?

Hearhoovesthinkzebras, yes he was committing an offence by having it. I wonder what the Mother was thinking allowing it. As for him being arrested, whose to say that the toy gun wasn't planted while the real gun was hidden, or already moved.

Who’s to say that pixies didn’t fly down the chimney and spirit away a tank battalion hmm

Who the hell gives a BB gun to a child? Those things can cause a lot of damage, they are not toys!

Anyway, the mothers allegation of racial profiling is dead in the water if the passer by who called it in was the one who told them the boy was black and/or gave the address.
Racial profiling would only apply if the passer by had not specified race or sex or the address.

[quote hadenoughbleach]If anyone has 5 spare minutes, please watch the interview with the Mum, using this link. This is not ok.

www.channel4.com/news/mother-accuses-police-of-racial-profiling-after-12-year-old-son-arrested-by-armed-officers[/quote]
What's not ok - the mums attitude? I agree. She wants the police, having had reports of a gun being seen, to nip up to a house, unarmed, and knock on the door?

Then she says how many 12 year old children can say they've had a police gun pointed at them? Kyle can and he's a black boy. Well, he's a child holding what looks like a gun - that's why armed police turned up.

How about accepting responsibility and being a parent?

@nancy75 weird thing to ask, no it was having friends in and subsequently joining my university shooting soc.

@MitziK I'd be impressed if my kid managed to get himself in the loft and shoot body parts or pets without any gas or ammo, but thanks for the warning.

@Ponoka7

Hearhoovesthinkzebras, yes he was committing an offence by having it. I wonder what the Mother was thinking allowing it. As for him being arrested, whose to say that the toy gun wasn't planted while the real gun was hidden, or already moved.

Lots of kids have toys guns. Don’t be so OTT!! Who ever called 999 clearly wasted police time deliberately as from the video clip it sounded like night and they were all in bed. For what reason would you be sat with your blinds open in your living with a gun in your hand just casually on your laptop also you can clearly see he is a CHILD!

I just watched the C4 interview and that's not a 'little boy' he is a big strapping lad. And as a member of the public that gun looks real to me.

The only complaint the mother had was that the police should have knocked on her door and asked politely if their was a gun in the house and she would have told them their wasn't. [Face palm]

She took zero responsibility as a parent.

Lots of kids have toys guns

It's not a toy gun though.

@EnoughAlready2020

Absolutely not. It's disgusting behaviour from the police and it absolutely wouldn't have happened if he was a 12 year old white boy. They used guns with lasers.

I can't believe how frightened he and his mum must have been. The only thing that kid has learned is to be afraid of the police. As his mum said, if playing with a toy gun is an offence then make it law. But what really is the law of the land is that it's only BLACK kids that can't play with toy guns.

What would you prefer? The police had a report that a person (no mention of age) was in a house waving a gun around. They followed the correct protocol of sending an armed unit to the house. If there had been an armed person holding the house hold hostage and they'd just sent a PCSO for a quick chat, would that have been ok? The guns the police use have lasers on them so that they can aim them more accurately. Hindsight is a marvellous thing and we can all say they shouldn't have acted how they did, he was only 12, they were being racist, it was only a BB gun etc.

He’s 12. What you see when you look at him says more about you than him.

As his mum said, if playing with a toy gun is an offence then make it law.

Someone quoted the law earlier - he shouldn't have been in possession of that gun because he's only 12.

In certain areas of the very ‘white‘ county that I live in, and the surrounding ones, this would have provoked the exact same police response if it were a white kid. If you watch programmes like Police Interceptors there’s many instances of it. However, the initial report by the member of the public may have happened because the child was black.