The mother of a 13-year-old boy who was arrested while playing with a water pistol says he was targeted 'for being black'. Officers would not have treated her son in the same way had he been a 'white 13-year-old boy', she added. The teenager, described only as Child X, was in the streets outside his home with a younger sibling in Hackney, east London, when a uniformed officer reported a potential firearms incident.
' She said she felt 'broken' by what had happened and 'distraught' because she was unable to protect her boy. She commented: 'How can I ever tell that they can turn to the police for help?' The borough commander arranged for her to view the body-worn video footage from the officers involved but she found it 'too painful and traumatic to see what they did to my son'.