When George Floyd died following a police intervention in the USA in 2020, it was met with extensive media coverage and political resolutions in the European Parliament. When 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak recently died after being stabbed and then handcuffed by police despite repeatedly calling for help, reactions from EU institutions and much of the established media have been significantly more restrained. Now, criticism is mounting against what many describe as blatant double standards.

The murder of Henry Nowak in Southampton, UK, in December last year has in recent times received plenty of attention on social media following the release of police bodycam footage. The films show the severely injured 18-year-old repeatedly telling police that he had been stabbed and that he could not breathe.

Despite this, he was initially treated as a suspect after the later convicted murderer Vickrum Digwa accused him of racism. The officers handcuffed Nowak while he tried to explain that he had been attacked. Soon after, Nowak collapsed and later died from his injuries.

MEPs Demand Answers

After the footage was made public, several conservative European politicians reacted strongly. Sweden Democrat MEP Charlie Weimers is demanding that the European Parliament act in the same way as after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

READ ALSO: Watch the video of Nowak being ignored by police after being stabbed

On platform X, Weimers pointed out that the Parliament was quick then to adopt a resolution condemning racism, police brutality, and white supremacy thinking.

– The European Parliament rushed to pass a resolution condemning “racism and police brutality” after George Floyd. Why this total silence after the murder of Henry Nowak? An innocent 18-year-old Brit was stabbed to death while police were handcuffing him after believing the killer’s lies, wrote Weimers.

At the same time, he urged the conservative and nationalist political groups in Parliament to support a special resolution regarding the case.

Other European politicians have also reacted. Tom Van Grieken, leader of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, has brought attention to the case and shared criticism of the police’s actions.

French politician Florian Philippot described the released footage of the event as “shocking” and accused the British authorities of operating within an ideological system that “reverses victim and perpetrator out of fear of offending someone and because of political correctness”.

– What a shock! A massive controversy has erupted in the UK where young student Henry Nowak, 18, died in handcuffs after police refused to listen to the fact he had just been stabbed four times by a man who accused him of racism because he was white, wrote Philippot.

Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński has described the body camera footage as “horrific”.

Criticism of Swedish Public Service

Criticism has also arisen in Sweden over the limited reporting. Sweden Democrat MP Tobias Andersson has questioned why Swedish Radio has not reported on the widely-discussed case, despite the incident receiving broad international recognition.

On X, Andersson expressed his frustration that the public service company, despite a budget of around three billion SEK, has not produced any original material on the murder or the subsequent controversy surrounding police actions.

The criticism centers not only on the murder itself but also on how little attention the event has received compared to other similar cases.

It was not until Wednesday evening that Swedish Radio reported the case, after criticisms had been leveled at the tax-funded public service broadcaster’s silence.

Parallels with George Floyd

Many critics now highlighting Henry Nowak’s death point to the obvious similarities with the George Floyd case.

In both instances, individuals repeatedly signaled that they were in mortal danger, while police inaction later became the focus of public debate.

READ ALSO: 18-year-old university student stabbed to death with a long ceremonial knife

George Floyd’s death led to widespread protests across much of the world, intense media interest, and political positions taken by both national governments and EU institutions.

George Floyd. Image: Facebook.

In contrast, Henry Nowak’s death has received significantly less attention from the same actors, even though the released footage has triggered strong reactions among many who have seen it. Critics argue that the difference in coverage is hard to justify.

Accusations of Racism at the Center

Another aspect highlighted is how accusations of racism have played different roles in the two cases. In the reporting on George Floyd, issues of racism and discrimination were central for a long time, even though the motives behind the police actions did not provide grounds for such an interpretation.

In the Henry Nowak case, however, there is a concrete circumstance that made the issue relevant – the perpetrator allegedly tried to divert suspicion from himself by accusing his victim of racism.

The police initially accepted this version of events and focused their intervention on the severely injured Nowak. Once the trial concluded, Digwa’s claims were dismissed, and he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 21 years for the murder.

Only After the Protests

In recent days, protest marches have been held in the UK demanding accountability for the police’s actions. Only then have several mainstream media outlets begun to cover the case more broadly.

For critics, this confirms the view that the incident was long ignored and deemed not newsworthy when the racist component was directed at a white person from a “racialized” individual, and the police’s wrongful conduct at the scene could not be attributed to racism against non-whites.

The question now being raised by politicians, commentators, and many social media users is why a case combining a brutal murder, serious questions about police behavior, and accusations of institutional errors did not receive the same impact from the start.

At the same time, calls for an independent review of the police intervention on the night Henry Nowak lost his life on a street in Southampton continue.

READ ALSO: Henry Nowak died in handcuffs – a civilizational collapse broadcast live