In December, Henry Nowak, an eighteen-year-old in the British city of Southampton, was stabbed to death on his way home after a night out. The attacker, Vickrum Digwa, told police who arrived on the scene that Nowak had made racist remarks. Instead of treating Nowak for his injuries, the officers handcuffed him and treated him as a suspect, not the victim.
Nowak’s death has caused a widespread outcry because it challenges the usual narrative of policing and race. We are accustomed to stories of a black man who has been attacked by a racist thug or fallen to the jackboot of a white cop. The police are then put under the microscope for being insensitive to minority complaints. The victim then becomes a martyr for social justice, prodding society to reckon with its alleged systemic racism.