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Why Henry Nowak's murder sparked a debate on race and policing in the UK · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Global News podcast from the BBC. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Valeries Anderson and I'm joined by our political correspondent Rob Watson. Rob.
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  Speaker 1: There's been a huge backlash here in the UK about
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  Speaker 1: the police treatment of an eighteen year old called Henry Novak,
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  Speaker 1: who was murdered by a young British Sikh man.
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  Speaker 2: So yes, Valerie. The murder happened on December the third
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  Speaker 2: of last year in Southampton, which is in the south
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  Speaker 2: of England. Now, the reason why it's become such an
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  Speaker 2: explosive issue in the last few days is because it
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  Speaker 2: was only on Monday of this week that the court
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  Speaker 2: found that Victrum Diqua, twenty three years old, was guilty
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  Speaker 2: of murdering Henry Novak, who was eighteen. As you mentioned,
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  Speaker 2: But what has made this case so sensational is that
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  Speaker 2: the family of Henry Novak agreed to release the footage
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  Speaker 2: from the body cameras of the police and what that
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  Speaker 2: showed was quite extraordinary and quite desperate. And if anyone
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  Speaker 2: is going to look at it, Valerie, I really strongly
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  Speaker 2: suggests they prepare themselves because essentially the young man is
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  Speaker 2: dying of a knife wound. He tells the police that
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  Speaker 2: he's he's been stabbed, that he can't breathe, but they
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  Speaker 2: still handcuff him and he dies essentially in their hands.
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  Speaker 2: At the same time, the body camp footage shows that
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  Speaker 2: the man who actually carried out the murder vicrum. He
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  Speaker 2: says he's been the victim of a racist attack at
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  Speaker 2: the hands of Henry Novak. Now that the court case
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  Speaker 2: found that was absolute lies and that he was the perpetrator.
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  Speaker 2: Now the reason why it's exploded in this way is partly,
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  Speaker 2: of course, just that just the sheer horror of this
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  Speaker 2: video if you watch it, and millions of people have
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  Speaker 2: watched at Valerie, is this sort of idea that somehow
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  Speaker 2: the police, the police essentially were more concerned about being
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  Speaker 2: accused of being racist. They were responding to a call
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  Speaker 2: that suggested that essentially a white person had perpetrated a
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  Speaker 2: racist attack than saying that someone was dying in their hands.
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  Speaker 2: And that is what has made it so explosive.
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  Speaker 1: And rob This has become a political lightning rod, hasn't it,
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  Speaker 1: not just at Westminster itself, but also on the streets
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  Speaker 1: of Southampton where Henry Nouvac died.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, we saw some pretty violent protests in Southampton,
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  Speaker 2: A pretty large crowd gathered outside the whether police headquarters
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  Speaker 2: is in Southampton, and who knows that there may be
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  Speaker 2: other such protests that were certainly pretty violent, pretty violent
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  Speaker 2: and angry stuff. As to the political reaction, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: by and large the mainstream parties, by which I mean
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  Speaker 2: the governing Labor Party, the main opposition Conservatives and Liberal
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  Speaker 2: Democrats have said, look, it's really important not to make
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  Speaker 2: a bad situation worse. That it's important to try and
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  Speaker 2: bring people together. We don't want societal tensions, we don't
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  Speaker 2: want divisional although actually all of those parties except what
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  Speaker 2: if you like is for some the central concern here
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  Speaker 2: that perhaps now the police have overcompensated after years of
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  Speaker 2: being accused of being institutionally racist, perhaps they're now too
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  Speaker 2: worried about so worried about being called racist, that they
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  Speaker 2: behave in a way that perhaps most people would find puzzling.
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  Speaker 2: But over off on the right of British politics, by
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  Speaker 2: which I mean that the sort of populaces of reform
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  Speaker 2: and restore, they're making a different point. They are saying
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  Speaker 2: there is quite clearly two tier policing in Britain where
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  Speaker 2: white people are not treated as well as non white people.
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  Speaker 2: And actually they make a rather broader point that society
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  Speaker 2: has gone in such a way, in a wrong way,
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  Speaker 2: as they would say it, that actually it's not just
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to policing, it's in all other areas
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  Speaker 2: where where white people are treated sometimes not as well
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  Speaker 2: as non white people as as they would see it,
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  Speaker 2: the state bends over backwards to make up for past
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  Speaker 2: allegations of racism.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a feeling that this is exacerbating racial and
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  Speaker 1: cultural tensions that were already existing here in UK society.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and of course what reform and restore the parties
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  Speaker 2: on the rights is this is the fault of mainstream
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  Speaker 2: politicians because they don't recognize how angry white British people
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  Speaker 2: are that they say that they've been made to feel
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  Speaker 2: like second class citizens, and they would make the case
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  Speaker 2: they have in fact been making the case varied that look,
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  Speaker 2: imagine if the victims had been not white. Imagine or
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  Speaker 2: remember how politicians in Britain behaved, including Kirstarma, the Prime Minister,
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  Speaker 2: when you had black knives matter, when you saw him
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  Speaker 2: taking the knee. But they're not doing that now. That's
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  Speaker 2: the sort of argument on the right of British politics.
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  Speaker 2: The other part is much more making the case, look,
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  Speaker 2: let's not make a bad situation worse, and that parties
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  Speaker 2: like Reform and Restore are absolutely doing that, are and
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  Speaker 2: exploiting tensions, trying to make things worse, when actually the
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  Speaker 2: family of the boy who was killed, the man who
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  Speaker 2: has killed Henry Novak, they've said absolutely that they do
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  Speaker 2: not want his death to be a cause for further division.
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  Speaker 1: Is it your sense, Rob that there's more concern about
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  Speaker 1: social cohesion here in the UK, perhaps than there's been
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  Speaker 1: for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: That is absolutely the case. I was really struck by
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  Speaker 2: an opinion poll at the end of last year by
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  Speaker 2: a polling company called IPSOS that suggests that I'm just
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  Speaker 2: going to glance at the figures here, val that eighty
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  Speaker 2: four percent of people say that the country feels divided.
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  Speaker 2: And I think there's concern about social cohesion absolutely across
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  Speaker 2: the political spectrum in this country, and of course, depending
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  Speaker 2: on what end of that spectrum you are, you see
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  Speaker 2: the problem differently. So I mean, I guess those on
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  Speaker 2: the populist right say that the problem with social cohesion
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  Speaker 2: is because immigration has been far too high, because multiculturalism
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  Speaker 2: hasn't worked because there hasn't been enough integration where I
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  Speaker 2: think other people who think that social cohesion is stretched
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  Speaker 2: think that's partly because of populist politicians. Although this incident
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  Speaker 2: involves a British citizen, someone who was born here the perpetrator, yes,
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  Speaker 2: it of course is bound to feed into this wider
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  Speaker 2: debate about social cohesion, and there is no doubt it
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  Speaker 2: is a very big issue here, as is of course immigration,
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  Speaker 2: which is closely linked with social cohesion.
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  Speaker 1: And also concern about people's trust in institutions like the
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  Speaker 1: police and indeed in politicians and politics.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, I mean we often talk about the sort
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  Speaker 2: of long running volatility in Britain, voter volatility and a
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  Speaker 2: sort of general anger that's out there. And there is
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  Speaker 2: a public research group called More in Common which has
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  Speaker 2: done some really in depth research into what is it,
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  Speaker 2: What is it that's driving you know, this anger amongst
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  Speaker 2: the British public, And you know, part of it is
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  Speaker 2: economic stagnation, which we've had for a really long period
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  Speaker 2: now in Britain, but absolutely part of it is a
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  Speaker 2: lack of faith in institutions that includes politics, parliaments, politicians,
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  Speaker 2: but absolutely also things like institutions like the police and
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  Speaker 2: the courts. It's really widespread. So you know, incidents like this,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, one keeps coming back to the footage
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  Speaker 2: of the from the policeman's body camera. It is absolutely
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  Speaker 2: the kind of thing that enrages public opinion.
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  Speaker 1: And in the wake of this appalling murder of this teenager,
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  Speaker 1: Henry Novak, what steps is the British government taking in
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  Speaker 1: order to try and soothe these racial and cultural tensions.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's pointing everybody to the idea that there is
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  Speaker 2: going to be a very serious review of what on
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  Speaker 2: earth wents on that there will be a review of
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  Speaker 2: how the police approach race relations and the extent to
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  Speaker 2: which they do deal with their past history of racist
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  Speaker 2: allegations against them. So it's essentially the government saying, hey, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know we are going to look at this very seriously.
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  Speaker 2: There will be lessons learned. If perhaps the police are
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  Speaker 2: now overcompensating, if you'll IIK over past allegations of racism,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we will accept that and we will deal
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  Speaker 2: with that. But I mean, clearly, you know, it's obvious
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  Speaker 2: that people are going to need an awful lot of
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  Speaker 2: reassurance and because of that, lack of faith that people
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  Speaker 2: have in institutions, whether that's politicians or the police. You know,
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  Speaker 2: times like this are very precarious because you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: getting more and more difficult to reassure people after you know,
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  Speaker 2: decades of losing faith in politics, political institutions and political leaders.
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  Speaker 2: So in other words, if you like, we're in a
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  Speaker 2: sort of a vicious cycle where you know, the more
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  Speaker 2: if the more angry people are with politicians, the more
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  Speaker 2: difficult it is for politicians to calm them down again.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Rob. That was our political correspondent, Rob Watson. If
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  Speaker 1: you want to hear more on this story, just listen
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  Speaker 1: to our Global News podcast click on the link below.
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  Speaker 1: But that's it from this edition of the Global News
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  Speaker 1: podcast here on YouTube. Thanks for listening, thanks for watching,
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  Speaker 1: and by for now.