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The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has confirmed receipt of the complaint – but has referred it to the Met Police and asked the force to investigate itself.
The force was found last year, following a review by Baroness Casey, to be institutionally racist.
The Met referred itself to the IOPC in July after armed officers used a van to knock a 13-year-old Hackney boy off of his bike, then slapped cuffs on him.
The incident occurred in Stoke Newington in July.
It transpired that he and his much younger sister had been playing with bright blue and pink water pistols, but a police officer who saw them reportedly called in that had seen “a black male with a gun”.
The boy was de-arrested but was said by a lawyer representing his family to have sustained injuries.
He is also reportedly suffering “continuous” nightmares.
The IOPC allowed the Met to investigate itself after. It cleared itself of any wrongdoing.
But then a formal complaint was received from a member of the public.
The IOPC said it “included allegations of racial bias and adultification”.
At a press conference about the incident on Thursday morning (October 19), Lee Jasper – chairman of the Alliance for Police Accountability – felt “adultification” was a persistent problem in the Met Police’s relations with Black communities.
“Adultification is a real phenomenon,” he said, adding that Black children were “routinely” viewed as adults by police officers.
The family’s solicitor Raju Bhatt, of Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, made a similar point, telling the press conference at the IDPAD Centre in Lower Clapton Road: “The officers saw what was in fact a vulnerable young child but instead they saw a youth – a Black youth – a threatening…
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