U.K. police are coming under additional scrutiny after employing aggressive tactics against Britons protesting the death of Henry Nowak.
The protests in the suburbs of Southampton were the latest expression of outrage in the days since the release of bodycam footage showing the police response to the stabbing that left Nowak dead.
In the footage of the 2025 attack, Nowak is seen telling officers, “I can’t breathe!” as they handcuffed him following a stabbing by a man named Vickrum Digwa.
Digwa, a Sikh, told police that he had been the target of a racist attack by Nowak. Evidence later showed this to be a lie.
In addition, as the BBC noted, police refused to believe he had been stabbed.
“I don’t think you have, mate,” an officer told him on the bodycam video.
Nowak would later die, and Digwa was sentenced to life, although that means only a minimum 21-year sentence, given the U.K.’s laws.
Do you support the British lawfully showing their anger at the horrible policies that got Henry Nowak killed?
In the Southampton protest, the BBC described “a large, volatile and angry group of protesters and local youths” who came after “an earlier peaceful protest at Southampton police station” near where Nowak died.
Footage shows things getting ugly:
WARNING: The following posts contain vulgar language that some readers will find offensive.
Bins and other projectiles have now been thrown at police officers policing the flash protest outside Southampton Central Police Station.
Whilst I do not endorse violence, this is being seen by many as an inevitable reaction to the killing of our children. Our country is unsafe. pic.twitter.com/V0lvcDvQua
— Young Bob (@YoungBobRB) June 2, 2026
However, far from retreating, footage from later in the protest showed police becoming aggressive with the protesters:
We’re still here on the front lines of the Southampton protest. The police are still holding the line. It appears they are attempting to kettle protesters in, even as night falls.
But the patriots are still out here, angry over the loss of Henry Nowak. pic.twitter.com/vShxoaO4CU
— Young Bob (@YoungBobRB) June 2, 2026
The Labour member of Parliament who serves the area, Satvir Kaur, attempted to mollify both sides by acknowledging the outrage over the murder of Nowak while condemning the protests.
“The brutal murder of Henry Nowak has really shook our community to its core and people are rightly really upset, distressed and sad,” she said, adding: “And actually last night’s riots have made people scared too.
“I’m speaking to mums who are scared to send their children out and people that are too scared to actually open the door,” she said. “Southampton is a great, strong, diverse city and what happened last night does not reflect us.”
The BBC also reported that, given the racialized nature of the case, the country’s police officials “are re-examining anti-racism commitments that suggested officers should treat ethnic minorities differently in order to ensure equality of outcomes.”
In particular, the broadcaster noted that the National Police Council released a document last year talking of the group’s “anti-racism commitments” and saying that racism was a “very real issue in policing.”
The document recommended not “treating everyone ‘the same’” but keeping their “circumstances and experiences” in mind.
However, don’t expect repercussions for the officers involved; the U.K. Telegraph reported Tuesday that a police watchdog has determined that they’ve committed no wrongdoing in the case, noting that while the case “is still under investigation … all the officers are being treated as witnesses, rather than investigated over potential misconduct. This is being kept under review as investigators continue to assess the evidence.”
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