As many of you will know, I have been covering the Henry Nowak case rather extensively of late. Murders, alas, come and go these days. The true tragedy of Nowak’s death, however, is not just the callous indifference of those involved but what the response says about Britain, its governing class, and how far we have fallen as a nation.
Along with countless others, I have been demanding the release of the police bodycam footage from the night Henry Nowak was murdered. I do not say this lightly. There is almost nothing I would rather not see. And yet, the criticism I (and no doubt others) have received for demanding the footage is revealing. ‘Ghouls’ and ‘racists’ we may be, ‘without respect for the family’ (the family gave their permission, incidentally), although this pearl-clutching was notably absent when there was wall-to-wall live-streaming of George Floyd’s death. I guess you’re only truly ghoulish when the murder footage cannot be monetised?
That Hampshire Police have finally bowed to public pressure to release the footage (or were instructed to do so) is something of a victory. It’s worth noting, however, that the footage is incomplete. Currently circulating in the media are the first three minutes following Hampshire Police’s arrival at the scene. It stops at the point where officers realise Nowak’s pupils are not responding to a flashlight. This selective exposure itself raises uncomfortable questions: what exactly was omitted (presumably the administration of CPR), and why?
Along with Hampshire Police, we have also finally had a statement from our pompous pedagogue of a prime minister, who customarily suffers less stage fright in his sermonising. Faced with an intervention from Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, Starmer trotted out the most generic tweet he could muster, alluding to nothing more specific than the “horror of knife crime.” That his hand was forced is shameful; that this was the best he could come up with is sickening:
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