Page 5 | 12 year old arrested

Pixxie7 · 2020-07-24T21:42:59+00:00

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

nancy75 · 25/07/2020 00:29

I’ve just watched the interview - mum thinks the police should just knock on the door & ask nicely if there’s a gun in the house? Can’t see that approach working too well for them.
When the police respond to reports of a firearm they go in expecting it to be real, they have to do that for public safety & their own.
For anyone thinking they should go along unarmed, knock on the door & ask if there’s a gun - would you be happy doing that? Would you be happy with a member of your family going in to that situation not being able to protect themselves?

Soontobe60 · 25/07/2020 00:30

@EnoughAlready2020

He was at his own home and it was a TOY GUN!

It was aBB gun, that's not a toy,

Childrenofthestones · 25/07/2020 00:30

What has his colour got to do with it.
Nothing is new under the sun. About twenty years ago a guy near where i live a driver gave a lift to an old man struggling in the wind with his shopping. The old guy spotted the drivers sons toy gun on the back seat, assumed it was real and once dropped off phoned the police and gave the registration and the fact that he had a gun on the back seat.
30 minutes later the driver had a rolling stop done on him and was dragged out of the car with a gun trained at his head.
He was white for what its worth.
He doesn't give lifts to strangers anymore.

TBH in this day and age I'm surprised they are still legal. Wasn't the a young lad in America took the orange barrel cap off and was waving it around in a park and ended up getting shot by police responding to the call?

ineedaholidaynow · 25/07/2020 00:32

A BB gun is not a toy plastic gun. It shoots pellets and can hurt, as PP have said animals have been killed using them. It is not your average nerf gun. Also why wasn’t it in bright colours to distinguish it from a real gun? Why did a 12 year old have one and why was he playing with it at night?

verypeckish · 25/07/2020 00:32

@Pixxie7

I totally agree and was appalled at the mother when she was asked about him having a gun, that the government should ban them then.

She's right though. Toy guns should be banned.

AuntyPasta · 25/07/2020 00:32

The ‘plastic pellet gun’ (BBC) he was holding wasn’t checked until the police had entered the house, obviously. It was the look of the thing that caused the report to the police. There are things on Amazon sold as toys that look very similar. It wouldn’t matter if it shot water, the police would still have ended up in his house.

Joebloggsss · 25/07/2020 00:33

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras

Lots of kids have toys guns

It's not a toy gun though.

They sell them kind of BB guns in smyths toy shop. Or are you suggesting he bought it from the local guna man down the road???

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 25/07/2020 00:33

She's right though. Toy guns should be banned.

Or she could have not allowed him to have one?

Soontobe60 · 25/07/2020 00:34

@Pobblebonk

I can see that they had to investigate. However, I don't really see why they had to arrest the child. Surely as soon as they looked at the gun they should have realised it wasn't real?

And as soon as they had searched the property and failed to find other weapons he was de arrested. That's very common in house searches.

Ponoka7 · 25/07/2020 00:35

@Joebloggsss, it was 11pm and only the boy was awake in the living room, waving the gun about. His Sisters (16 & 23) and Mother wasn't in bed asleep. His mother had fell asleep in the living room and his Sisters were awake in their bedrooms.

If an area is predominantly black and there's a lot of killing of black youths, by black youths. Is it racial profiling to then take crime reports seriously? It was only a month ago when an Officer was attacked by a group of teens and the black female officer with him, was also punched.

The Police followed procedure.

Joebloggsss · 25/07/2020 00:35

@ineedaholidaynow

A BB gun is not a toy plastic gun. It shoots pellets and can hurt, as PP have said animals have been killed using them. It is not your average nerf gun. Also why wasn’t it in bright colours to distinguish it from a real gun? Why did a 12 year old have one and why was he playing with it at night?

Have you actually fired a nerf gun? Or are you assuming? Because the nerf guns actually do hurt when they are fired. Watch the video the Mother said he was sleeping it sounded like all the family were...

WhereAreAllTheTeaspoons · 25/07/2020 00:35

@AuntyPasta

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

The fact he is only 12 is irrelevant. A friend who is a teacher in a deprived area had to call the police as a child slightly younger than that had sharpened a ruler to a point because 'they thought they might want to stab some one today'. She is trained to restrain children if necessary and she says it often takes 3 or more staff to restrain one child as they are some of these pupils, particularly the boys, are already towering above my friend (she's around 5 foot 6) and they often partake in boxing, martial arts type activity to fully know how to use their bodies.

A 12 year old black male with a gun will do no less damage shooting some one than anyone else pulling the trigger.

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 25/07/2020 00:35

They sell them kind of BB guns in smyths toy shop. Or are you suggesting he bought it from the local guna man down the road??

I don't know where they got it from but the quote from the law earlier in the thread suggests that it's illegal for a child of his age to be in possession of it.

GrumpyHoonMain · 25/07/2020 00:38

I bet if it were a white or asian 12 yo boy playing with a toy gun the nosy neighbour wouldn’t have called the police; or if they did the response would not have been this heavy handed. It’s the ‘black male with a gun’ that prompted an entire family to be targetted like this.

Original poster

Pixxie7 · 25/07/2020 00:39

Verypeckish@ why should the government ban all toy guns, perhaps they should all be brightly coloured?

OP posts:

Joebloggsss · 25/07/2020 00:40

@ineedaholidaynow

A BB gun is not a toy plastic gun. It shoots pellets and can hurt, as PP have said animals have been killed using them. It is not your average nerf gun. Also why wasn’t it in bright colours to distinguish it from a real gun? Why did a 12 year old have one and why was he playing with it at night?

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

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 25/07/2020 00:40

I was just googling to see what the law is and found this

www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q334.htm

Please note that all calls to police involving firearms are treated as if it is a genuine firearm so be aware that if you do wave an imitation firearm around you could find yourself surrounded by firearms officers pointing real weapons at you.

ineedaholidaynow · 25/07/2020 00:41

Nerf guns can hurt but a BB gun is more than a nerf gun. It certainly isn’t something you would be playing with in the house. It certainly isn’t something you should be aiming at any living thing, it is something you would do target practice with.

Joebloggsss · 25/07/2020 00:42

@Ponoka7
You should get your facts rights. People speak as though they were in the house. The mother WAS sleeping well unless she lied which is possible of course...
www.channel4.com/news/mother-accuses-police-of-racial-profiling-after-12-year-old-son-arrested-by-armed-officers

I’m intrigued to know how people seem to know the colour of the toy and everything

Childrenofthestones · 25/07/2020 00:43

rumpyHoonMain Sat 25-Jul-20 00:38:04
I bet if it were a white or asian 12 yo boy playing with a toy gun the nosy neighbour wouldn’t have called the police; or if they did the response would not have been this heavy handed. It’s the ‘black male with a gun’ that prompted an entire family to be targetted like this

Really? How much?

nancy75 · 25/07/2020 00:43

The police have made many warning about replica guns, a few years ago a 16 year old in the West Midlands was seconds from being shot by armed police because he had one in his waistband.
If a weapon looks real the police have to act as if it is real until they are certain it isn’t

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 25/07/2020 00:44

I’m intrigued to know how people seem to know the colour of the toy and everything

Because it was shown in the interview? And it's not a toy.

OnGoldenPond · 25/07/2020 00:44

A boss from years ago had a habit of hanging out of his office window and taking potshots with an air rifle at squirrels in the trees next to it. His reason was supposedly that the squirrels were getting into the roof.

However there was a public footpath nearby and a passerby reported that a man with a gun was shooting out of an office window.

All that happened was two police officers turned up (not armed), had a stern word with him and confiscated the gun.

But he was white.

Joebloggsss · 25/07/2020 00:46

@ineedaholidaynow

Nerf guns can hurt but a BB gun is more than a nerf gun. It certainly isn’t something you would be playing with in the house. It certainly isn’t something you should be aiming at any living thing, it is something you would do target practice with.

They would of investigated it what ever type of gun. The caller who reported to the police clearly just saw a gun and the police went round. Your being ridiculous they probably sell them in several toy shops. Hence why the child had one in the first place. If it causes so much upset the law needs to be changed to avoid this.

WhereAreAllTheTeaspoons · 25/07/2020 00:46

Joebloggsss

There is a picture of the gun in the BBC article... it's easy to see how it could be believed to be real, it's hardly a bright blue and orange nerf gun..