The senseless murder of teenager Henry Nowak on a cold, dark British street is doubly tragic: he was both the innocent target of a determined knifeman and the victim of incompetent police officers indoctrinated in anti-racism dogma.
Nowak, who was white, bled to death as he lay helpless on a gravel driveway, handcuffed and arrested by police who disbelieved he had been stabbed multiple times in favour of his killer, who was brown and played the race card.
Parallels to George Floyd
There are parallels between the deaths of Nowak and George Floyd five years earlier, and a more troubling connection — it was the death of Floyd in Minnesota in 2020 that gave rise to the so-called progressive anti-racism training that proved so flawed and disturbing on a U.K. street last December.
Senior police chiefs in the U.K. have vowed to revisit an “Anti-Racism Commitment” document compiled last year by experts with — no surprise here — “decades of experience of working on diversity, equality and inclusion issues in policing.”
The document, along with the accumulation of years of anti-racism policies since the death of Floyd, sowed the seeds for the tragic events that led to the death of 18-year-old Nowak, a first year university student described by his family as smart, funny and kind.
DEI Creed in Policing
The document is studded with the DEI creed. “It is not enough for us to not be racist or to claim not to be racist,” says the document, in a preamble to what we know is coming. “Anti-racism demands that we are proactive.”
And so under the heading “Our commitment to racial equity” the document talks about treating ethnic minorities differently in order to produce “equality of policing outcomes.” The shocking, and perhaps the only conclusion from this policy, is stated baldly: “It does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind’ (racial equality).”
It is no wonder that Britain is now being gripped by a debate about two-tier justice and reverse racism. But Canada is not immune from this debate as police chiefs here have incorporated many of the same anti-racist policies.
Canada's Similar Policies
“Anti-racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains equity between racial groups,” reads document before the equity, diversity and inclusion committee of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. As in the U.K., equity does not mean equality. The document also notes that being “colour blind” is merely a way to deny racism.
Another CACP teaching guide says being “anti-racist” is more than being “not racist” and that reverse racism targeting white people “is not possible.”
It is unfortunate, but with the same anti-racism policies in place in the U.K. and Canada, Nowak might well have received the same treatment here. Nowak was walking home after a night out with friends — his blood alcohol level was below the legal limit for driving — when there was an altercation on the street with a Sikh, Vickrum Digwa.
