Mirror US editor Christopher Bucktin witnessed the George Floyd riots. Here, he warns that Nigel Farage is dangerously exploiting Henry Nowak’s murder to inflame racial grievance and drag Britain towards the same toxic politics of division and rage20:49, 03 Jun 2026Standing on Lake Street in Minneapolis, I watched America tear itself apart.‌Police cars burned, helicopters hovered, and entire city blocks were ransacked into destruction. People gathered outside broken shops and burnt out buildings, all asking the same question: how did things fall apart so fast?‌Six years later, watching the response to the tragic murder of Henry Nowak, it is impossible not to fear that those seeds of dark history are now being sown in the UK.‌Because after years living in America, I saw exactly where this kind of politics leads when grief, fear and genuine public anger are twisted into something uglier. And yet it appears some in the UK are now thumbing through the same playbook adopted by Donald Trump.‌PMQs: Nigel Farage grills Starmer on ‘two-tier policing’ At the centre of the chaos in Minneapolis was the killing of George Floyd - a Black man knelt on by a white police officer’s knee while he cried, like Henry, that he couldn’t breathe.The fury that erupted across America was real. So was the grief. Decades of mistrust between Black communities and law enforcement finally exploded in the most catastrophic way imaginable.‌But what followed was not simply a protest. It became something darker. Politicians, opportunists and extremists descended on the killing like scavengers. Peaceful demonstrations led by grieving people demanding justice were hijacked by fanatics who cared little for George Floyd himself.Violent far-right extremists. Political opportunists. Online agitators drunk on chaos because chaos serves their politics. They wanted America burning because burning cities create division and rage - and rage is the currency the far right in the UK survive on.Britain has already had a glimpse of where that road leads. After the horrific murders of three young girls in Southport in 2024, cities across Britain erupted in violence as mobs rampaged through streets, attacked police officers, targeted hotels housing asylum seekers, and spread lies online faster than facts could catch up.‌Tragedy became political petrol. Public grief became a weapon. Those who could have calmed tensions instead poured fuel on the flames. Now it is happening again.Nigel Farage has chosen to turn Henry’s murder into another culture war circus, all for his own political gain. On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after Henry's killer was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison, the Reform leader said the murder should be met with “pure cold rage”. His meaning is open to interpretation, but within hours of speaking, a rage erupted in Southampton, where the killing took place.Today, at Prime Minister’s Questions, he claimed Henry’s death was evidence of a “two-tier culture” where white people’s rights somehow “matter less than those of ethnic minorities”.‌He demanded answers on so-called “two-tier policing”. While speaking, Farage refused repeated calls from nearby MPs telling him to "condemn the violence" that Southampton had seen.Instead, he doubled down, feeding precisely the anger and resentment already spiralling online. He wrapped himself in the language of concern while cynically inflaming exactly the divisions Henry’s grieving family had publicly begged politicians not to inflame.‌Sir Keir Starmer was right to confront him directly. The Prime Minister reminded Parliament that Henry’s family had explicitly pleaded for their son’s death not to become a source of hatred and division.“Exploiting this tragedy to create grievance and division would be wrong in any circumstance,” he said. “But to do it when the family are expressly saying ‘please don’t’ is unforgivable.” He was right.Because Henry was not a racial category. He was a human being. Trying to force his death into some grand national racial conspiracy does not honour his memory. It exploits it.‌Farage was elected to help govern this country, not spend every waking hour searching for the next grievance to weaponise. Britain needs less outrage theatre and more seriousness. Less performance and more public service.The true lesson of this awful case is painfully simple. A murderer lied when he said he was racially abused. Police officers appear to have failed. A young man died. That tragedy is already devastating enough without Farage and Reform trying to turn Henry into a prop for their political campaign.I watched Minneapolis burn because America spent years tolerating politicians who fed grievance, resentment and division until the country barely recognised itself anymore. Britain cannot make the same mistake. We are better than this. And Henry deserves better than this, too.‌So let us be absolutely clear that the 18-year-old was not killed by anti-racism. Nor was he killed by diversity policies. He was not killed by wokeness or a ‘two-tier’ policing system.He was killed by a violent man obsessed with knives. The killer chose to carry a weapon. He chose to stab an innocent teenager. He chose to lie to the police and point the finger at the young man bleeding on the pavement.‌That responsibility lies with him and him alone. Not with an entire community. Not with Sikhism. Not with immigrants. Not with some imaginary national conspiracy.Equally, the police response was appalling. The bodycam footage of seeing Henry handcuffed is agonising as he repeatedly said he had been stabbed. He said he could not breathe. Yet precious minutes slipped away while officers focused on the wrong person.His family deserve answers. The public deserves answers. And if catastrophic mistakes were made, those responsible must face scrutiny without fear or favour.Article continues belowBut this is not evidence of institutional racism against white people. It is evidence of institutional failure. Bad judgment. Poor policing. A collapse of basic common sense. Police officers are supposed to investigate facts, not assumptions.That is the scandal here.