To think it's outrageous that Kemi Badenoch did not know the police were armed?

[PerditaProvokesEnmity]

Tory MP. She's just been pontificating on Today. Asked about the mother of the twelve year old boy arrested in his own home with a toy gun she accused her of inflaming the rhetoric around race. Interviewer pointed out the police were armed. She did not know this.

People on Mars know armed police stormed the house. She's an utter disgrace.

I heard this and was also shocked.

Comes from the top, doesn't it?

Johnson doesn't never bothers with unimportant bagatelles like "facts," so why would anyone else in his government?

They wasted so much time discussing this frankly terrifying incident with a pompous, disingenuous careerist who clearly felt herself so far above the citizens of this country that she Did Not Even Bother to read a headline about the case.

My fucking cats know the police were armed.

The way she abused that poor mother. It was gobsmacking.

It isn't KB herself I care about. It's that the Tories are saying "Look, our black politician doesn't believe this country is racist. She doesn't think black families need be afraid when the police raid their homes and arrest their 12 year olds for playing."

Makes me want to weep.

Real kick in the teeth having an Equalities Minister who gives not one shit for equality.

To be fair to the police, if they get a report of a (quoted by BBC) "black male holding a firearm on the sofa" surely armed police paying a visit is proportionate?

And from the police www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q327.htm

"Also be aware that many BB guns are extremely realistic and the police treat all reports involving weapons as if they are real live firearms.

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."

I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing, tbh. When she was asked whether this would have happened if the boy had been white, she said something along the lines of "maybe it has, but it just hasn't been reported."

What else would you expect from the Tory party though? They see fit to have a racist PM who does not give a toss about BAME people.

contrmary The point I am making here is that this minister went on national radio to discuss Equality (her brief) and excoriated the mother of a black child - without having taken the slightest notice of widely publicised facts which entirely justify the mother's reaction.

It would be utterly pointless to attempt an argument on police behaviour.

Lets not forget the mother did buy her son a BB gun so has a lot to answer for.

She should of known that the police were armed when they went to the house. The mother has already been criticized, which is not helpful now.

Tory MP is ignorant twit shocker ?

Not really news is it.

To be honest, it would have been more newsworthy if they had all the facts and gave a sensible opinion. To the stage where I could see it becoming a 3-part drama series for the Autumn.

We could call it ...

The Question !

similar sort of promotion to Frost/Nixon maybe ?

Wouldn't the response have been the same if it was a white male on the sofa with a firearm? Surely the response from the police was due to the fact it was a firearm.

BB guns are stupid and dangerous.

Wouldn't the response have been the same if ...

You know - I never know how to even begin to approach this type of question. It suggests such a vast, vast distance between one person's lived experience (and consequent understanding) and that of the questioner.

The response from the police was due to the fact there was a firearm.

I, by the way, am BAME.

Choukette I don't feel that any of us need produce our passport in order to justify stating an opinion. I certainly don't intend to show mine.

Passport? Are you one of those people who believes race is solely linked to nationality?

Why in the world would you send unarmed officers into a firearms call? Officers do not have the luxury all the info before going in. The risk to the public as a whole comes first and must ALWAYS be the priority.

Please ask to go on a ride along before you dare to criticise.

Of course they were armed - they thought they were going to deal with a real gun. If you were going to deal with a gun I'm guessing you would be armed too.

Why in the world would you send unarmed officers into a firearms call?

Leostar you are making my point for me. Why did the Equalities Minister - who presumably volunteered to speak on a national news programme - not know that the police were armed?

@PerditaProvokesEnmity
The response was due to the fact that a firearm had been reported. ALL firearms incidents are reacted to in the same way.
The subsequent events are a different thing & don't look good, but a firearms report gets a firearms response because the response has to be able to match the reported threat.
Where this case begins to unravel is when it was discovered that the "threat" wasn't actually a real firearm & you've got a lot of hyped up officers who need to calm down, adjust to the situation as it is, not as it was reported.
Thing is, a moment ago, it was a firearms shout & they were heading into a situation where they might be shot at or might have to shoot to protect themselves or the public.
That's stressful & in the real world, lowering adrenaline & stress is not easy.
However, this case was not handled well & the minister certainly did not look on top of her brief this morning.

When I was about 10/11, a friend and I were playing in a local park overlooked by a row of houses.

I saw a white adult in the garden with what I thought was a gun. We ran home and told my parents, who then dialled 999.

That evening the Police called back to tell us that armed police had forced entry to the property and searched the house top to bottom, but found no firearms.

I still feel guilty to this day as to what that person must have been put through, but obviously my parents couldn't take the chance of not reporting it.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/27/mother-of-boy-with-toy-gun-says-met-police-acted-out-of-all-proportion

"a gun being handled by a black male"...

If that quote is what was reported to the police then I'm sorry but this investigation was weighted from the beginning.

But I am much too old and weary to want to talk about the police. I'm confining my despair to the completely indefensible attitude of the Tory minister.

If that quote is what was reported to the police then I'm sorry but this investigation was weighted from the beginning.

Oh FFS. It was weighted by the fact there was thought to be a firearm. The call handler would have had to ask for a description of the person - that's what happens. It does not "weight" the outcome in a firearms incident.

@Choukette
Spot on.

Tell you what, let's carry out a reconstruction experiment!

One white twelve year old boy, one black. Let's send out the police and see how they behave in each case.

And let's wait to hear a government minister appear on the radio to shame the mothers involved.

Fun for all the family ...