Surely The First Principle of Policing Is To Protect Life? Two Tier Policing Raises Its Ugly Head And Why the Public Have Lost Trust.
The actions of the police officers in the horrendous death of Henry Nowak will have long-lasting implications. The question we are all asking ourselves is-isn’t one of the first principles of policing to protect a life?
Henry was just 18 years old when his life was taken from him by Vickrum Digwa. This is a tragedy that has shocked the nation and left a family facing unimaginable grief.
As Henry’s father has rightly stated, this is not about Sikhism and it is not about racism. Henry was not killed with a kirpan worn as part of religious observance. This case is about the murder of a young man and the circumstances that followed.
The actions of the police now need to be looked at and are rightly the subject of an Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation. There are many reasons that have been suggested as to why officers acted in the manner they did. There will be endless debate and speculation.
But the bottom line is simple.
Henry may have died hearing his rights being read to him when, instead, he would have believed the officers were there to help him.
Rick Prior, a former Police Federation chairman, has told the Havering Daily that he believes there is two-tier policing.
“Of course there is two-tier policing. The smoking gun is the Police Race Action Plan. This is the blueprint in how to deal with people from ethnic minority backgrounds differently. This is identity politics rules.”
The actions of these police officers will remain in the headlines for months to come and, to a certain extent, that is rightly so.
“Officers on the street are scared to do their job. They are scared to undertake stop and search. Today, stop and search is a rarity. Officers are scared. They have seen their colleagues become the subject of DPS investigations and IOPC cases and now think twice. To target knife crime we need more intelligence-led stop and search. In areas where there are gangs and higher levels of knife crime, yes, of course increase the levels of intelligence-led stop and search.”, Continues Rick.
Rick is also hesitant about how policing has changed.
“Officers are scared now of how they deal with ethnic minority members. They have seen colleagues go through years of investigations and now ask themselves, ‘Why bother?’ Most have families and mortgages to pay and, when faced with that, are now hesitant to do their job.”
He is also critical of the statistics used.
“The statistics used are skewed. They are not portrayed correctly and should be localised for each area and its community.”
Whichever way this horrendous incident is debated, ultimately a young man has lost his life and knife crime must be dealt with.
Policing must take a good look at itself and the direction in which it is heading because the bottom line is that many people have lost confidence in the system.
We repeatedly write that there are countless good officers across the country doing outstanding work every single day. That is undoubtedly true. However, in this case, the Nowak family have been thoroughly let down.
Many members of the public have sadly lost trust in the police and that is extremely concerning.
There will now be countless families wondering whether the same treatment could happen to their own child. This is where policing must work with communities to rebuild trust.
Communities feel let down.
Frontline officers, too, have often felt thrown under the bus and many would argue they are also victims of political policing. The result is a situation where confidence has fallen to a level that should concern everyone. Police morale is broken and confidence in the police from many communities, has gone.
This is a very sad day for policing and for the countless outstanding officers who do a truly fantastic job across our communities.
Most importantly, it is a devastating day for the Nowak family.
Policing now needs to take a long, hard look at itself and ensure that a horrendous incident like this is never allowed to happen again.
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What happened to Henry was terrible and requires a full investigation. Of course it does. And yes, there has been two-tier policing for decades. As any black young person would tell you. The difference being that most of the many incidents involving them aren’t reported in the press. The answer can’t be more hate. More rage. It has to be about dealing with our prejudices and bias. Understanding where they come from, the things we have believed that aren’t true, on all sides. And being prepared to admit where we were wrong. But acceptance, tolerance and understanding don’t fit divisive narratives. Don’t sell newspapers. Let’s not let people with their own, often hidden agendas shape our views. What sort of community or country do we want to live in? Or want for our children and grandchildren. Are hate, rage and division going to bring that into being?
Most of the bad incident with police and black peoole are t reported in the press? Stephen Lawrence was mentioned in the news everyday fir a decade and Keith Blakelock totally forgotten and Labour Party coveted il the anti ehite racist grooming gangs and it was calling police racist on this that allowed the cover up with the ones not reporting in grooming gangs for over a decade from when Julie bi del snd Ann cryer no both first mentioned it in the year 2000 and yes there’s anti white racist two tier policing
Yes the Andre can be more hate more rage if it’s covered up playing the race card
To say it’s all sides out prejudice just allows to say whataboutery of decades old racism from police in the 79’s ignoring the dozens if cases if anti white racism and I include the grooming gangs as just one case Uber the last decade playing the race card making people to scared to reveal it covering it up to get away with it calling people racist as the white working class are trash to the middle class public sector politicians in their career moves .
Can we use AI or something to get this translated into some semblance of English please.
https://bsky.app/profile/johnpreid.bsky.social/post/3mni3gcyx6s2a Sorry yes I should have spell checked it first I re wrote it here