Anti-racism breeds barbarism: the Nowak case in the UK

It is 11.05 pm on 3 December 2025. Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old student from Southampton, is walking home after celebrating the end of his first term at university with friends in a pub. He comes face to face with 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, an Indian Sikh, on the street. For no apparent reason, Vickrum stabs Henry five times: twice in the chest, twice in a leg and once to his groin.
Henry also suffers a facial cut. He tries to run away and jumps over a fence, but remains on the ground. Digwa catches up with him and calls his parents and brother. Having rushed to the scene, they call the police. Digwa tells the agents that Henry had attacked and racially abused him and that he was merely defending himself.

Meanwhile, half an hour has passed and Henry is lying on the ground, gasping for breath and saying that he has been stabbed and needs an ambulance. 'I can't breathe,' he pleads. However, the officers do not believe him. They mock him, handcuffing him to the ground with his hands behind his back because, by definition, white people are guilty. Only when he loses consciousness do they decide to call an ambulance, but it is too late. At 00:37, Henry Nowak is pronounced dead at the scene. The police then decide to arrest Digwa, but he is not even handcuffed.

The video of the police intervention, captured by an officer’s bodycam, was made public last Monday at the end of Vickrum Digwa’s trial, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years. It is this chilling video that has shocked the British public and sparked protests, with hundreds of people demonstrating outside Southampton police headquarters on Tuesday evening, 2 June. This resulted in 11 police officers being injured and two arrests. Moreover, there are other videos filmed by Digwa himself which have not been made public.

There has also been fierce political controversy, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer being forced onto the defensive. He was criticised for remaining silent for so long before speaking out. He described the footage as ‘heart-wrenching’ and expressed full support for the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct), which is investigating the case. ‘There are serious questions the police will have to answer,’ he said. However, like Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Starmer attacks those who, in his view, are exploiting the Nowak affair to create further divisions within British society. He attempts to downplay the incident by dismissing it as a poorly managed police operation, as if it were an isolated incident.

However, the behaviour of the police and the authorities in general is anything but an isolated incident. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, which won a landslide victory in the recent local elections, is quite right to speak of a Britain where there is 'a two-tier culture' and where 'some groups receive greater protection than others'. This applies not only to immigrants, but also to other groups, given the many inclusion and diversity promotion programmes in which British institutions and law enforcement agencies are involved.

The Daily Telegraph recently revealed, for example, an email from a police officer in Hampshire (the county in which Southampton is located), showing that officers are instructed 'to respond differently depending on the ethnic backgrounds of those involved'. The email also explains how promotions are assessed on the basis of diversity targets rather than merit.

Contrary to what we are led to believe, these are not views held by right-wing extremists. In September 2023, Suella Braverman, the then Home Secretary under Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, wrote a courageous letter to all police forces, urging them to abandon dangerous ambiguities that create the perception of an impartial police force acting on ideological and political preferences. At that time, there had been particular sensational news stories in which the police showed extreme leniency towards LGBT+ groups while adopting an aggressive and rigid stance against pro-life activists praying silently outside abortion clinics. Unsurprisingly, Braverman was heavily criticised for this.

But the most contentious issue is undoubtedly immigration and the Islamic community. In the UK, there are already worrying precedents of leniency, if not complicity, on the part of institutions and the police regarding the criminal behaviour of certain ethnic groups. The scandal involving Pakistani gangs in Yorkshire in the 1990s and early 2000s, which reduced at least 1,400 white minors to sexual slavery, is still fresh in everyone's memory. This took place amid silence from local authorities, who feared being accused of racism or, worse, Islamophobia. Despite the existence of a detailed report revealing all the facts of these crimes, the Labour majority in the House of Commons blocked the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to conduct a national investigation into these mass rapes as recently as January 2025.

As if that were not enough, new guidelines for the South Wales Police Force were published just a few days ago, requiring officers to record conversations of an anti-Islamic nature. This is another freedom-destroying measure that aims to legitimise the alleged offence of Islamophobia, and it has provoked a reaction from organisations defending freedom of thought.

The behaviour of the police officers who handcuffed a white boy while he was in agony and gave credence only to the account of the man who had stabbed him is therefore anything but a tragic and unfortunate incident. Rather, it is a demonstration of the 'barbarism of the caring state', as columnist Brendan O'Neill commented. Anti-racism has become a more lethal weapon than a dagger in a 'woke state that has made a holy mission of uncovering ‘racism’ everywhere, even where it does not exist.'.

It would also be a mistake to think that this is only an English problem; it is a problem affecting the West in general and Europe in particular, including Italy. Look no further than how the major Italian press downplays or hides news stories concerning crimes committed by immigrants, particularly Muslims.

The case of Henry Nowak should at least open our eyes to reality and prompt us to take appropriate measures, assuming it is not already too late.