Armed police arrest of boy, 13, with water pistol ‘reasonable’ watchdog rules

The police watchdog has deemed the actions of armed police who knocked a 13-year-old boy off his bicycle and arrested him for pointing a water pistol at a woman in Hackney, east London, as “reasonable”. The boy’s mother complained about the adultification and discrimination against her black son during the arrest, which resulted in him being taken to the hospital with bruising and swelling. The incident was treated as a firearms incident, with armed officers from the Met and City of London Police sent to locate the child after a report described him as approximately 16 years old and wielding a blue and white firearm shaped like a glock.

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