Our police are meant to police without fear or favour, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that they don’t – think of how they hold, or too often do not hold, the ring impartially between supporters of Israel and Palestine, Muslim and Christian preachers, supporters and opponents of trans rights, or whatever.
Does all this matter? The Nowak case, with an obvious victim, shows clearly that it does
There is a tendency for the great and the good to say this is no very big deal; the police are doing their best in difficult situations, complainants are normally tiresome culture warriors or enablers of hate speech. Events in Southampton Crown Court over the last two weeks show how wrong they are. Partial policing can potentially be deadly.
A Sikh man, Vickrum Digwa, is standing trial for the murder of a Polish student, Henry Nowak, who died from loss of blood after being allegedly stabbed by him in a run-down student quarter of Southampton. Of Digwa’s guilt or innocence we say nothing, since he denies the charge of murder and the trial continues. But whether or not he is guilty, the account in court of how Nowak died is enormously worrying.
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