The video footage was horrific - a man telling a police officer who was in the process of arresting him that he could not breath. The killing of George Floyd in 2020 sparked the biggest protests in US history and condemnation throughout the world. And then in an uncanny parallel last December in the UK an 18-year-old student, Henry Novak, was being arrested by police for racism – after his accuser had stabbed him several times.
Last week the video footage of his arrest was released and if anything, was even more horrific than the George Floyd video. Henry told the police that he had been stabbed and that he couldn’t breathe. He said this at least seven times. His murderer stepped in and told the police that he was the one who had been assaulted and racially abused. The response to Henry’s claim of being stabbed was chilling. One officer stated, “I don’t think you have mate.” Someone else could be heard saying, “He hasn’t been stabbed.” Another police officer says that they need to check. Police handcuffed Henry as he was lying bleeding to death and the last thing he heard was them reading him his rights.
It is an astonishing video. And one that I suspect will be a key image of this decade. The responses to it have been deeply revealing.
The family
Firstly the response of Henry’s family was deeply moving. They spoke so well of their grief, of their blaming the killer Digwa and asking people not to politicise the murder, or to blame the Sikh community. Would that their plea be heard. Also, their plea for the government to deal with knife crime.
The killer and his family
It astounded me that the killer filmed the murder and Novak as he was dying. It is voyeurism of the sickest kind. Furthermore, his mother was arrested and found guilty of assisting an offender by removing and concealing the murder weapon.
The Sikh community
The Sikh community has acted responsibly and with clarity. They called the murder “a horrific and senseless crime with no excuses” and “a disgrace to the Sikh community”. It is unspeakably sad and senseless that some have sought to blame the whole Sikh community, all 535,000 of them – who in general have shown themselves to be a law-abiding and well-integrated part of multi-cultural Britain.
The police
There is no doubt that most police forces have been taken over by a DEI ideology which creates the very opposite of diversity, equality and inclusion. Many police officers have testified how they feel that their training pressurises them into particular prejudices. There is clearly two-tier policing.
The police are now schooled in anti-racism ideology – which is itself racist and which certainly does not lead to all people being treated the same, despite the colour of their skin. For example, the National Police Chiefs Council’s anti-racism policy explicitly disavows treating all people as being the same:
“Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes for people from different ethnic groups by responding to individuals and communities according to their specific needs, circumstances and experiences, with understanding that these will be racialised and with the aim of reducing harm.
“It does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind’ (racial equality).”
How this two-tier policing works was seen in another case where Luke Salmons was suspended by North Yorkshire Police for daring to question Islam in a training day on race, religion and culture. Undoubtedly no one would suffer the same treatment for expressing the same doubts about Christianity.
The politicians
The hypocrisy has been stunning. Ed Davey and Keir Starmer have been making solemn pronouncements about not politicising the tragedy. They blamed Farage for speaking about ‘anger’. Yet they were lightning quick in politicising the George Floyd tragedy. Starmer said on 3 June 2020 in Parliament: “May I start by expressing shock and anger at the death of George Floyd? This has shone a light on racism and hatred experienced by many in the US and beyond. I am surprised the Prime Minister has not said anything about this yet, but I hope that the next time he speaks to President Trump he will convey to him the UK’s abhorrence about his response to the events.” Yet this week he has solemnly been proclaiming that those who ask for anger are divisive.
I think of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood who condemned the protests in Southampton. Yet she was on a pro-Palestinian protest that forced a supermarket to close. If angry protests are permitted or excused in some circumstances but not others, then we do have two-tier justice.
Or the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said that the death of Novak should not be used for engaging in political disputes. This is the same mayor who talked about how the death of Floyd has “rightly ignited fury and anguish, not just in the US but around the world”.
Starmer complained about the US Vice President JD Vance “interfering” in UK politics by making a statement. Yet in October 2024 the Labour party sent more than 100 volunteers to work with the Kamala Harris campaign.
But there are also politicians on the right who demonstrate a degree of hypocrisy. Having argued that the death of George Floyd should not have been politicised, they cannot legitimately argue that the death of Henry Novak should.
It is also fair to point out when politicians strike the right tone. For example, Kemi Badenoch has been impressive (despite being misquoted by a Reform attack campaign as saying that ‘white lives don’t matter’. She had actually said that all lives matter). Her refusal to use Prime Minister’s Question time in Parliament to score political points on the issue was wise and measured.
The media
The contrast in coverage by the BBC and others of the two cases is sharp and clear. The BBC was even forced to apologise to Nigel Farage for misquoting him. They quoted him several times as saying that people should respond to the killing with ‘white, cold rage’. What he actually said was ‘pure, cold rage’ which, as he explained, meant not ‘hot rage’ i.e. not with rioting or violence.
Much of the media regarded chanting ‘I can’t breathe’ at the Southampton demonstration as crass and ignorant. But this was the same media who applauded the crowds chanting ‘I can’t breathe’ at the BLM protests.
Consider how the BBC reported the Southampton riots on June 2, 2026 – “violent, violent disorder, community shocked by violence”. Eleven police officers were hurt. Contrast that with the reporting of the BLM riots in London on June 8, 2020. Despite 27 officers being hurt the BBC’s description was that “the protests were largely peaceful”. This is what we call two-tier reporting.
The University of Southampton
After the Floyd killing in the US, Southampton University set up scholarships for black students only. Other than express shock and horror at the killing of their own student, it is unlikely that they will do anything else in memory of Henry Nowak. Why? It’s two-tier diversity.
The Church
Church leaders in the UK have called for prayer, peace and rejecting rage. But when George Floyd died the response was somewhat different – many called for racial justice and protest, and endorsed the violent protests of the Black Lives Matter movement.
One leading evangelical has argued that the video cam footage of Nowak’s final moments showed that the police action was understandable in the light of the phone call they had received and that it did not constitute that there is an overall problem with policing. I have no doubt whatsoever that this same evangelical would be claiming the opposite if this was a young Asian boy who had been left to bleed to death by the police. Two-tier Christian commentary, reflecting the culture, is alive and well.
Two-tier is another way of saying unjust. The UK has moved towards a two-tier system, if we are not already there. There are so many examples of this. Just last year, the Sentencing Council tried to push through guidelines that would have instructed judges to give ethnic minorities more lenient treatment than whites. Thankfully this was stopped by the government, but the fact that our best legal minds could think this was justified is chilling.
Two-tier is perhaps best summed up by Konstantin Kisin’s excellent article on what happened, “You will not see Henry’s words stencilled on a mural. No politician will quote them in the Commons. No corporation will change its logo. The same establishment that made four words immortal when spoken by a black man in Minneapolis has met the same four words, spoken by a white boy dying on a Southampton street, with what can only be described as a determined, institutional silence.”
Two-tier occurs when political leaders use the phrase ‘causing division’ for their political opponents, while those who agree with them are expressing the justified anger of a community.
The Bible has an interesting take on all of this. We are not to shop partiality to any group in justice – including the poor. "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great but judge your neighbour fairly" (Leviticus 19:15).
When we believe in a just God who demands justice for all those made in his image, we have a much more solid basis for a just society. When we abandon God and his Word – and base justice on identitarian politics - we end up with the madness we are seeing in the UK today. It’s not even two-tier justice; it's multi-tier injustice where privileged groups, indoctrinated elites, and the powerful and wealthy combine to create a society where injustice flourishes. Lord, have mercy on us.
David Robertson writes on https://substack.com/@theweeflea
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