A video originally posted to TikTok by @thebigfatpum and reshared on X by @Heal_within96 showed a police officer detaining a Black teenage boy outside a train station while a bystander intervened on his behalf.
The caption claimed the teen's white friends were not detained, describing it as an example of "two-tier policing" — a claim The Daily Dot could not independently verify from the footage.
In the video, the bystander repeatedly asked the officer to ease up. "Just be gentle with him, cause he's a child," he said, adding, "you got nothing to worry about" as he tried to reassure the boy.
The teen can be heard asking, "Why are you doing this to me?" multiple times during the confrontation, and later said, "I feel scared."
The officer told the teen he was not under arrest but was being detained under Section 37, a stop-and-search power British police can use to search someone in an area if a search authorization is in effect.
The officer said he had previously seen the boy and his friends "hanging around the train station" and that the group had run when they spotted police. He also cited unspecified prior concerns about young people carrying weapons in the area.
One commenter praised the bystander, writing, "Hats off to the guy helping him and being there supporting him," while adding that the boy "shouldn't have been the only one put in cuffs."
Section 60 and Section 1 stop-and-search powers, along with the Section 37 power referenced by the officer in this video, allow British police to search individuals under specific legal conditions without requiring an arrest.
People identifying as Black or Black British were searched at a rate 3.7 times higher than people from a White ethnic group across England and Wales in the year to March 2024, according to the House of Commons Library.
It’s a new program called “Preventative policing.” Police go around arresting black kids before they commit crimes.
— Mooseknuckle ?? (@Moose_Knuckle_) July 26, 2026
Another user criticized the humiliation of young children by the police under the guise of policy. They added, "It’s a failure of procedural justice. When law enforcement treats young people as suspects by default, systemic alienation and over-policing become self-fulfilling prophecies 🤦🏾"
One commenter used sarcasm to make a similar point, writing, "It’s a new program called “Preventative policing.” Police go around arresting black kids before they commit crimes."
The Daily Dot could not independently verify the identities of the teenager, the bystander, or the officer, confirm the outcome of the detention, or verify the claim that the teen's white friends were not detained.
