I HAVEN’T been able – yet – to bring myself to watch the bodycam video of a British police officer being a de facto accomplice in the murder of young student Henry Nowak. I promise I will before ending/posting this blog.
Neither can I imagine an anger, nay fury, any more voluble or outraged than is being voiced by every civilised person in reacting to what Hampshire police did to that distressed and dying young man. But still, it’s almost a duty to make observations, to put words to the raw emotions being suffered not just by Henry’s family, but I suspect every parent who has ever lost a child to such a mindless act of violence.
I would say this is every bit as bad as the cynical act of Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on drug addict/criminal George Floyd’s back and neck leading to his death, however unintended it may have been or made likely by Floyd’s drugged state. Chauvin’s paying a 22-year price for his negligence, ironically more than the 21 years Henry’s killer got.
Vickrum Digwa will waste the best years of his life behind bars, and it’s tempting to wish evils upon him once inside. That instinct doesn’t appeal to the best of us either, in truth. But really, in the England of 2026, young men being stabbed to death by their peers is so desperately commonplace that we should no longer be surprised by such tragedies.
No, what raises this on to a platform of abject national shame is the institutionalised anti-British racism of a police force specifically – supposedly – dedicated to protecting us and using their best judgement in doing so, while enforcing the law in situations which may indeed have unexpected complexities. That’s supposedly why these people get trained.
One of the officers involved in Henry’s murder has already resigned as I type this. Good, but far, far from being good enough. This has to become a societal and law enforcement turning point in our besieged and beleaguered nation. A country that can throw a momentarily angry woman like Lucy Connolly behind bars for a social media post, but can let walk free teenage rapists of under-age girls, has entirely lost its moral compass.
The people need to be allowed to speak truth to power. Heads must roll, from the Chief Constable of Hampshire to the uniformed ignoramuses who played such a negligent and care-less role in Henry’s death. Will they see prison walls? I doubt it.
And now I’m going to watch the bodycam footage . . .
‘I’ve been stabbed . . . I’ve been stabbed . . . I’ve been stabbed . . . I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe . . . (repeated)’. The officer dragging him by his feet, then handcuffing a clearly inert man, almost derisively saying to him, ‘You’ve been stabbed, whereabouts? I don’t think you have, mate,’ before reading him his rights. All in a night’s work, PC Plod, eh? A laugh a minute.
It’s not clear from the video but you suspect Henry Nowak was possibly dead by the time, a minute later, a female officer inquires about the possibility of getting an ambulance, observing that ‘his pupils aren’t even reacting’.
No, love, there’s a chance they won’t when you’ve been stabbed five times, dragged about by a copper like a town centre drunk, thrown around to be handcuffed, and roundly ignored as you plead for your life with police officers far more concerned with virtue-signalling to people of colour than actually bothering to respond to your dying moments. Beyond shameful.
The video footage ends there, before the officers realise they have a murdered young man on their hands and begin token efforts at CPR. A pathologist told the trial Henry couldn’t have been saved, but that is a million miles from the point here.
Digwa’s mother was found guilty of assisting an offender, and his father and brother have been charged with possessing offensive weapons. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyp33pp0lvo As such we can’t comment in too much depth for now. Suffice to say, justice – both judicial and social – must follow.
As for the actions of Hampshire Police? Well, we’re promised a ‘report’ within three months which, quite frankly, is pathetic given that they were watching that bodycam footage within hours of the murder, already knew the cause of Henry’s death, the perpetrator, the family involvements, and the deadly presumptuous, casual anti-white racism of their own officers. Following the jury’s guilty verdict they issued a mealy-mouthed, half-arsed excuse for their officers’ actions. Again, beyond shameful.
I keep thinking the entire British state can’t plumb depths any deeper than we witness daily. And by the day they still manage to betray us even further and prove our fears can’t even imagine where the bottom of their hellish pit is.
Rest in peace, Henry. You’re in millions of people’s prayers, young man.
