My reflection on the political reaction to Vikrum Digwa’s conviction for the murder of Henry Nowak can be summed up as :
There have now been four wrongs in relation to the horrific murder of Henry Nowak.
1. The murder itself
2. The deceit by the murderer aided by family to attempt to cover up.
3. The failing of the police in their treatment of Nowak.
4. The weaponising of the incident by those seeking to stir up further division and hatred.
All we can do is cry out “Lord have mercy”
In his statement following the trial, Nowak’s father appealed that his memory should not be forgotten and that there should be motivation from this horrific murder to deal with the problem of knife crime. He asked that his son’s death not be used to stir up division and hate in our society.
What was the political response? Chis Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary claimed that the police were more concerned with the accusation of racism and the possibility that Digwa was injured than with the attack on Henry Nowak. Meanwhile, Robert Jenrick demanded that the Home Secretary used the phrase “White lives matter.”
Nigel Farage wrote on Facebook:
“Henry Nowak was the victim of a sustained attack. He was stabbed five times. His attacker accused him of using a racial slur. The police considered this to be more serious than an act of murder.
This is proof that we are living in a two-tier culture of anti-white prejudice. If we cannot acknowledge this, then we risk ripping our society apart.
It’s a moment to take a long, hard look at ourselves as a country, and what we’ve become. All the values and standards of living in a free country, where everybody is judged equally before the law, have been trashed and thrown away.
This has to stop now. White lives matter too.”
Each of those statements are examples of a failure to listen to the father’s plea. They are about finding points of division, weaponizing a death in order to supply soundbites in support for their political agendas.
Further, in pursuit of those agendas we see a carelessness around the facts of the case because the priority is to get a narrative out. The false accusation made against Henry Nowak was not that he had made a racial slur. Indeed, if we are to honour his memory properly and ensure full justice, we should recognise how serious the false accusation was. The call to 999 by Digwa’s brother stated that there had been a racial attack and Digwa had been punched. The false accusation was of assault and battery. It is important to recognise how far the lie went and it is important too to understand the level of misapprehension the police were under. This was why they were concerned about physical injury to Digwa, not out of some concern to racially porofile but because Digwa had presented himself as the victim of violent assault.
We need to acknowledge that there remain unknowns about that fateful evening. We still do not know exactly how the confrontation started. There is also much that we may find bewildering about what happened afterwards. What led Digwa and his brother to call the police. Did he really, genuinely believe he was the victim or was this an eleaborate attempt to cover up his crime. Why didn’t he flee the scene? Did he fear that his victim might survive the attack? Did he not expect the extent and cause of the injuries to come to light? Did he feel a level of partial resource. Only Digwa himself really knows the truth on those matters. We do well to stick with what we do know.
Secondly, the claim of two-tier policing has been picked up by Farage in other comments. He also suggested that the judge had given a lenient sentence because Digwa was carrying the knife legally as a ceremonial symbol. It is important to again be accurate about what the judge said. Sentencing reflected the judge’s understanding that Digwa had not set out with intent to murder.
It is well worth remembering that whilst many of us may disagree with the sentencing policy, some may desire longer prison sentences for such crimes, others might seek a return of the death penalty, that Digwa’s punishment will be much more than his prison term. Even when he leaves prison, his true sentence will finish. He will continue to carry guilt and shame. His face and name has been prominent in the news, not to be forgotten, Indeeed, I suspect that within the Sikh community, a honour-shame dynamic will be at work. There will be the sense that he has misused a religious symbol and so brought shame on the community.
As Christians we will want to reflect on a world where there cannot be atonement, where there is no forgiveness, no restoration and where it is impossible to pay the penalty for your deeds. This should awake in us a fresh gratitude for the grace of the Gospel. God’s word identifies each of us as thieves, liars and murderers at heart. We cannot atone for our own guilt and shame. Praise God, we have a saviour, a great high priest, a sacrificial lamb who has made atonement.
On a personal note, I have skin in the game when it comes to the perspective of the victims of murder and their bereaved families. It was about this time 21 years ago that we were at the hospital as my Great Aunt died. She had been attacked in a violent robbery and suffered fatal injuries. I’m sure that there are those around who would have wanted to speculate (wrongly) about the racial profile of her assailant if the crime happened today. I sadly suspect that because the case would not have fitted that kind of profile that they would then have quickly lost interest. I remember too that at the time, understandably, people I knew expressed a desire for vengeance that went beyond the criminal justice system. Our desire as a family was for justice but also that there should be the possibility of forgiveness and we did not want her death to be in vain.
Returning to the main theme of this article though, politicians who make this a cause about racial and sectarian division are not respecting Nowak’s family’s wishes. I would encourage them to focus on how we deal with knife crime and on ensuring too that the police learn the lesson from their errors.
Faithroots 