On Wed 14th May 2008 at approximately 5.30pm outside KFC on the Wembley High Rd. Police Officers arrested an underage boy (of 13yrs of age) on suspicion of theft.
At the time of the arrest it was stated by a Police officer that the theft the boy was accused of happened only “20 minutes ago” This statement was later retracted by the same officer due to a number of witnesses who knew for a fact this couldn’t be true of the boy; because they were with him for the past hour.
As the arrest was taking place the young man was dealt with in an improper manner, being manhandled and treated very roughly by the Police. At this time there was a lot of commotion and the general public were in shock as to how this boy was being treated.
When he was being arrested the possessions on him at the time were seized by the Police. – One of these items was his Mobile Phone of which belonged to a member of the public that was present when the arrest took place.
At the time the lady made it clear to the Police officer that the phone was hers and asked if she could have it back, the police officer refused so the lady asked why; and even offered to show the officer a receipt to prove it was hers.
The situation began to get heated between the officer and the lady who the phone belonged to, and they started shouting at each other. The officer became very hostile & it was at this point that he indecently assaulted the lady by pushing her in her chest and touching her (longer than normal) in that area.
Again this was witnessed by the general public who were disgusted by the officer’s behaviour, people were getting outraged and some children who knew the boy getting arrested personally , was getting upset.
When one of them went to see if his friend was OK, the Police threatened to arrest him – a young man black boy of 12yrs old”
The Police later sped off with the distressed 13yr old in tears, where it was later confirmed that the Police officers were being abusive and calling the young boy names in the car “wanker”. They was also discussing in the presence of the boy whether they should go back and arrest the woman who owned the phone on trumped up instigated charges!
A small number of people arrived at Wembley police station where the young boy was being held; to show their support. As soon as they arrived they found out that the under-age boy had been intimidated into giving the Police his recollection of the events leading up to the alledged incident of theft without a solicitor present!!
It is illegal to interrogate a minor without a responsible adult being present!!
One of the officers that was involved in the arresting of the boy felt it was necessary to harass this small group of people by questioning their motives as to why they felt they needed to defend and support the young detainee.
It was at this point that the officer made a claim that the African lady who he had argued with regarding the phone had now all of a sudden assaulted him.
This little scratch on the officer would seem self inflicted, simply because he knew that a complaint was likely to be made against him and because he was aware of his inappropriate actions earlier that day.
After hours of waiting in a cell the boy was correctly interviewed with a solicitor and an appropriate adult present.
He was later charged with “PETTY” theft although there was no concrete evidence to go on except the boy’s unsupervised interview by the Police in which he could have been coerced into saying anything.
It would indeed appear that this case was exaggerated due to personal feelings of the police and biased opinions of the boy as we later learned that the Police already knew him
Again it was just a case of GUILTY – until proven innocent and the ever growing war on the black youth!!
