Positive discrimination is still discrimination

THE CIRCUMSTANCES around the tragic murder of Henry Nowak should not be used to encourage the woke ideology that the world is made up only of victims and perpetrators. There are not people of race and colour in our legal system, only individual human beings, who must be approached by police with caution but not prejudice.

Following the George Floyd case, authorities in Britain felt they had to issue guidance to address what was seen as an epidemic of anti-black racial prejudice. The police officer in the Nowak case was aware of this, although it will not excuse him. The left claims that racial hatred – they must always be on the lookout for someone to hate – is incited by the far right, and they place Reform in this category along with Tommy Robinson.

Town squares have been renamed after George Floyd. He has been sanctified. As far away as the UK, footballers “took the knee” as if racism were a significant problem in English football, the very multi-racial nature of the Premier League testifying that it is not. In my experience, it is rare in British society generally.

However, the Floyd case – I do not use the word “murder” – is not an example of anti-black racism. If anything, the narrative suggests the opposite. From the evidence I have seen, much of it not presented at the trial of the four policemen involved, standard police procedures were carried out. Floyd died from a heart attack while high on drugs and suffering from COVID. He complained of breathlessness before he was restrained, and an ambulance had been called.

But a short video was taken by a bystander showing a white police officer with his knee on the upper back of a black man who was complaining that he couldn’t breathe. It spread around the world within hours, and, in the public mind, the policemen were guilty on the spot. Evil racism was at large.

There could not be a better lesson in social media misuse and prematurely jumping to conclusions.

Although the controversy over the court case had been well known since it concluded, the facts are best presented in a 2023 documentary called The Fall of Minneapolis which can be viewed on YouTube. Try to view the whole documentary rather than isolated clips. The actual police and street video-cam footage is there to be seen from the moment a policeman took evidence from the swindled shopkeeper to Floyd dying in the ambulance, with one of the police officers carrying out CPR.

the consequences of the four police officers being found not guilty were unthinkable

Floyd was arrested by a black police officer, Alex Keuing, because a shopkeeper had reported him buying something with counterfeit money. He refused to get out of the driving seat of his car. He was in a very confused state and the autopsy revealed that he had taken a potentially lethal quantity of drugs, had COVID, and had a carotid artery that was 75 per cent blocked, indicating serious heart disease.

He was cuffed and carried to a police car, but he was a tall, strong man and the four officers attending couldn’t push him in. He fell to the side of the police car. A second officer, Derek Chauvin, carried out the standard departmental restraint procedure of placing his knee on his back. He died soon after of a heart attack. The autopsy said there was no bruising to his neck or back, with the officers applying the appropriate amount of force to restrain a struggling suspect.

Based on the bystander’s video, local politicians declared this a case of racism, despite two of the four officers being from racial minorities. It was impossible for a jury not to be prejudiced in such a situation, especially after the Minneapolis Police Department effectively declared their officers guilty by awarding $27m in compensation to Floyd’s family. It believed it had to do something to stop the rioting, including after a police station was burned down by protestors. Many officers were assaulted and injured while the police chief failed to send reinforcements.

The judge, a political appointee in America, refused to accept evidence from the police officers’ body cameras, only that from the bystander’s video. He also judged that the police manual, which contained an illustration of the exact procedure Chauvin had carried out, as well as a PowerPoint training presentation, was inadmissible. The black chief of police testified that he had no knowledge of such a manual.

As the mob screamed for revenge outside the courthouse, with pigs’ heads on poles to indicate what they would do to the policemen if they got hold of them, the consequences of the four police officers being found not guilty were unthinkable. Jurors from the city could not exercise impartiality and would have been in fear of their safety, although the limited evidence they were presented with made a guilty verdict easy.

While it is irrelevant in terms of the court case, Floyd had been convicted on several occasions of armed robbery and drug dealing, and had five illegitimate children he had abandoned. The arresting officers were aware of how dangerous he was as soon as he was identified. He was no saint.

Rather than the Floyd case being a cause for good, it has reinforced a racial stereotype and ruined trust in dedicated police officers. Many left the profession in frustration and fear. Crime in Minneapolis has soared since 2020. The convicted police officers are regularly stabbed by other inmates in prison.

somehow it is usually white people who are branded villains

When I recently saw two Minneapolis people shot by police while demonstrating against DOGE agents, I was reminded of the hysteria of so many locals in this mad city and noted that both protesters were toting guns.

It is racist to stereotype people or judge them by identifying a particular characteristic or background. But somehow it is usually white people who are branded villains.

The rape gangs were ignored because people in the various authorities were frightened to be called racist if they accused people in the British Pakistani community. Teachers in our schools must be extra careful dealing with incidents between white and black children, even though young kids probably haven’t yet learned to discriminate. Because, while caution around people who look different to us was once a vital survival instinct, we now live in multiracial countries where differences are commonplace and often valued.

Let’s drop all guidance on race and equality. It is virtue signalling by officialdom, which should have better things to do. Abolish all hate-crime and racist legislation. A crime is a crime without needing to interpret whether the race of either party gave us more opportunity to hate the perpetrator. Henry Nowak is tragically dead,and his murderer will serve the sentence set by the judge under established guidelines.

Let our police officers get back to applying common sense and common decency.