Boy handcuffed in Superdrug targeted because of his race, mother says

I would be mortified if my child had been arrested on suspicion of assault and I would wait until I had heard all the evidence from both sides before I made accusations of racism.

As it was, he did two stupid things as a teenager which brought him to the attention of the police, both times his fault; he was severely told off with my support, and punished. Both times the Police said, privately, don't be too hard on him, he's learned his lesson, which he had.

JaneJudge

This may surprise some of you but ^The boy's mother Kirsty Buchanan was once political editor at the Sunday Express and is a former adviser to Theresa May and Liz Truss. She has now called for a probe into the use of private security guards^

Good. I would do the same if I, or one of my children (or their father, come to that) had been treated like that. I would want the guards charged with assault.

kircubbin2000

As usual no mention of a father here.

Most of the pond life that murdered Steven Laurence had a father that came from the same pond 😡

This may surprise some of you but The boy's mother Kirsty Buchanan was once political editor at the Sunday Express and is a former adviser to Theresa May and Liz Truss. She has now called for a probe into the use of private security guards

wtf?!

kircubbin2000

As usual no mention of a father here.

Sorry what difference would that have made?

kircubbin2000

As usual no mention of a father here.

What do you mean as usual? Insulting racist stereotype.

It is shocking that a child can be pinned to the ground and handcuffed by private security guards. The rule for shop lifting used to be that you had to have left the shop with the item before you could be judged to have stolen it. The police seem to have behaved just as irresponsibly by detaining him and not informing the mother for an hour and a half. The racism and the mistreatment of a juvenile is completely unacceptable.

As usual no mention of a father here.

I find it doubtful that security guards have the power to be that forceful and if that is the case they may have broken the law.
I think reasonable force is acceptable for the police but what those security people did was far short of reasonable.

Jennifer Eccles. It is reported at length in the Sunday Times, where there is also a front page article about children as young as eight being strip searcched,
Perhaps we should congratulate these newspapers for being on target and up to date.

Just to point out those doing a nice bit of victim blaming here; even if there was suspicion of shoplifting, he was still in the shop. I don't know what bothers me more, people trying to excuse this violent behaviour, irrespective of the potential race issue, or the fact that some moron in a uniform can wrestle you to the ground in a shop and handcuff you.

I don't think saying this doesn't happen is in any way helpful. It happens all the time and you would know if you had family, friends or neighbours who were black. It isn't confined to just this sort of thing either. I mean that's absolutely awful about the hair products Gagajo

My DD has been stopped in shops, for no reason other than being Black. She's employed, professionally dressed, pays by card etc etc.

Equally, I've made a complaint about a branch of Superdrug in our city, for security tagging black haircare products, but not white haircare products of similar or higher value.

I fear for my grandson as he gets older. He's cheeky and cute at 4. At 15, he'll be in danger of stop and search.

You don’t know the whole story. Why comment on what you don’t know, it’s selling papers without knowing the facts. You don’t know the attitude or size of this teenager or the circumstances.

I was on holiday last year when a white man was asked to leave a pub. ( he’d had a bit too much to drink ) when he refused he was bundled onto the floor by a group of security guards who then sat on him. The man actually died. Bystanders said they could see him going blue.
This incident - although it made local news, was never picked up by national news or the guardian ( well the guardian wouldn’t be interested because he wasn’t someone they could shout ‘racism’ about )
I’m a bit weary of all this ‘it only happened because he was black’ thing.
It happens to white people too. Many times.

JenniferEccles

“Speaking to the Guardian”
That tells us all we need to know.
How can the mother be certain that her son was targeted because of his race?
She can’t, can she?

It doesn't tell us all we need to know - she also spoke to The Times, I heard her on Times Radio.

That doesn’t make it acceptable here though. I’m not sure what comment you’re making, really.

Well try living in Thailand. Quite the reverse. Or Bali, come to that. Racism is not confined to white people, it crosses the borders and is a human failing. It is actually racist to consider it only applies to one race. Try living in China as a white person- my friend did and was arrested for absolutely nothing and later deported.

Hetty58

I think it's good that bystanders now routinely record incidents on their mobiles. Also, being white and British - I never do have to wonder if I'm being treated unfairly because of my race.

Yes, that’s what’s meant by white privilege. It’s the sort of thing you don’t notice when you have it, isn’t it?

You’re right about the filming. It would be good if someone has footage of what happened. I was once in a city centre Superdrug and a man was filling a weekend bag with toiletries. He looked off his face with drugs. As soon as he clicked that I had noticed he pushed me out of the way and ran, taking his booty with him. The security guards were unconcerned (about catching him or tending to me).

I was thinking the footage was from the shop's security camera, therefore why only 15 seconds, but of course it could be from someone's phone. Either way, 15 seconds is not enough. I hope the shop can produce footage of the whole incident.

I think it's good that bystanders now routinely record incidents on their mobiles. Also, being white and British - I never do have to wonder if I'm being treated unfairly because of my race.

No. I wonder how that took hold. . .

I don’t know if the burden of proof will be on the security guards to show that they didn’t use excessive force - how can the boy prove he never intended to shoplift?

A 15 second video is not sufficient to show the whole incident. It's almost as if someone was showing the bit they wanted to be seen. And I agree with asking who provided that 15 seconds of footage to the mother? That is really weird. Where is the rest of the footage?
A 15-second video of the incident, taken in a Superdrug branch in Chichester and posted by Buchanan on Twitter, appeared to show the boy being held down and handcuffed.

It seems we need video footage of everything these days because lying has become the norm. You simply cannot believe anyone any more.

He was in 'a group' so I can't help but wonder what the others were doing - although I do agree that black teenagers are still far more likely to be under suspicion, stopped, searched and arrested.

My friend's grandson was followed to her house by police - who questioned her 'He's my grandson!' she said.

What did he do 'wrong'? When they pulled up alongside him at traffic lights, they glared at him with hostile suspicion (for no good reason) - and he made the mistake of looking straight back at them, with a puzzled and surprised expression. It simply wouldn't happen to a white person.