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An interior investigation by the Met Police found no misconduct had been dedicated
By Jess Warren, Liz Jackson & PA Media
BBC News
The mum of a gloomy 13-year-gentle boy says she feels “betrayed” after he became as soon as surrounded by armed police when his water pistol became as soon as improper for a gun.
The boy became as soon as handcuffed and confronted by marksmen in Hackney, east London, in July, the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) acknowledged.
His mother says she is “extraordinarily mad” and the incident has been “a deeply anxious abilities”.
The Met Police’s Det Ch Supt James Conway apologised for “trauma” introduced on.
The boy became as soon as having a water fight with his sibling on 19 July when a police officer on patrol reported a doable firearms incident, the APA acknowledged.
A police van then “rammed” Cramped one X off his bicycle, the APA acknowledged, knocking him to the ground sooner than he became as soon as “surrounded by armed police officers who pointed their firearms at him” and arrested him on suspicion of being in possession of a firearm.
He became as soon as “de-arrested” at the scene quickly afterwards, it acknowledged.
Indubitably one of many water pistols being conducted with became as soon as blue and white and one became as soon as pink and white, and unmistakably toys, it added.
‘Described me as aggressive’
The minute one’s mother acknowledged: “The standpoint of the police to him – and to me – is proven up in the words of the senior officer at the scene after I protested to him about the conduct of his officers: he educated me I became as soon as fortunate that they had not arrested my son.
“For what? For taking half in with a brightly colored plastic water gun with his youthful sibling on the streets in the back of our home? For being a gloomy boy on the streets of Hackney?
“I do know – and the police know – that they’d not include handled my son in the manner they did if he had been a white 13-year-gentle boy.
“I do know that they’d not include handled me with the contempt proven in direction of me or described me as ‘aggressive’ if I became as soon as not gloomy.”
She added she became as soon as “in shock” and feels “broken by it all; distraught because of the I became as soon as not ready to supply protection to my minute one from what took place”.
Talking about her young folk, she continued: “How cease I assist them cope with the incontrovertible truth that the police order at the scene regarded unable or unwilling to apologise, order or answer for what they had accomplished?
“And after what has took place, how can I ever repeat them that they are going to turn to the police for assist?”
The APA added the “treatment of Cramped one X and the horrific scene that unfolded became as soon as appalling” and the boy’s mother had been “handled with contempt by the officers”.
‘No officer misconduct’
The boy’s mother added that after contacting her MP she became as soon as met by the borough’s police commander for her to scrutinize the officers’ physique-stale camera photos but it became as soon as “too painful and anxious to peep what they did to my son”.
She twice asked the police watchdog, the Honest Put of enterprise for Police Habits (IOPC), to overview what took place but acknowledged it refused, “insisting that the investigation must be implemented by the police themselves”.
An interior investigation by the police force found no misconduct had been dedicated by the officers alive to.
An additional criticism accusing them of racial bias is quiet being investigated by the Met’s Directorate for Professional Standards.
The boy’s mother concluded: “I no doubt feel let down and betrayed, not handiest by the police, but additionally by the IOPC, and by the total machine that’s supposed to peep after our young folk, gloomy or white: they deserve larger.”
Det Ch Supt Conway acknowledged he had apologised to the family for the “extraordinarily distressing” incident.
“We know it’s miles going to additionally cause public space and we favor to assist the general public realize why we responded in the manner we did,” he acknowledged.
He added that, in step with the Faculty of Policing, officers “must deal with all firearms as true and loaded till proven in any other case”.
“This does not in any manner detract from our recognition of the trauma introduced on to the boy, for which I apologised quickly afterwards to his family,” he added.
A City of London Police spokesperson acknowledged the force attended the incident in toughen of the Met Police “as customary be conscious”.
The IOPC has been approached for comment.
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