Mleh. A 7yo. Surely better procedure would be to take it up with his parents... if they're not responsible enough to deal with the situation, that's a different problem (although from the way the mother's portrayed in this article, I'd say a policeman having a word with her would have plenty of effect).

But, that said, I don't 100% like the writeup.
The Police Department's zero-tolerance arrest policy — begun under former Mayor Martin O'Malley, who is now Maryland's governor — has drawn complaints that such arrests occur most often in poor, black neighborhoods. Gerard is black.
The obvious implication is that Gerard was arrested because he was black, it wouldn't have happened if he were white, and it's a definite case of racism. That may well be true, but it is not borne out in fact anywhere. For all we know, Gerard could have ridden his bike (note - it's a motorized bike, I doubt they'd have complained about a pushbike) on previous occasions and been given a warning by the police. Without more facts, we the readers cannot judge the situation - but the article chooses not to offer facts, but just to jump to conclusions, or rather to offer just a couple of facts to make US jump to conclusions.

It's moderately likely that this WAS racism at work. But if it were, why not say so?