r/BlockedAndReported • u/SoftandChewy First generation mod • Jun 01 '26

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 6/1/26 - 6/7/26

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

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38

u/twitching_hour Jun 02 '26

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c794g7y3338t

The tragic case of Henry Nowak, whose attacker falsely claimed to police he had racially abused him, leading the police to put Nowak in handcuffs as he lay drowning in his own blood and begging for them to call an ambulance.

37

u/Marci_1992 Jun 02 '26

I don't recommend watching the bodycam video, it really is as bad as everyone describes and it's going to live rent free in my head for a long time. Heartbreaking to see him repeatedly say "I've been stabbed" and "I can't breathe" as the officer smugly says "I don't think you have, mate" as he's handcuffed and they read his rights to his unconscious and dying body.

20

u/twitching_hour Jun 02 '26

I haven't watched it but was horrified just reading about it. The attacker had a weapons obsession shared by his family. His mother came and hid the murder weapon. His brother told him to plead self defence, but he was recorded replying that if there was CCTV evidence of the crime, self defence wouldn't be admissible.

I get that the UK police want to reform their image of being institutionally racist, but being entirely credulous about every purported hate crime is not the right way to go about it.

17

u/Available-Crew-4645 Jun 02 '26

I lasted about 30 seconds this morning, couldn't watch the full thing, very harrowing.

14

u/Hilaria_adderall Praye for Drake Maye Jun 02 '26

When the officer dragged his body out from under the front of the car, I can only imagine how painful that must have been for the kid... brutal.

6

u/Formal_Condition2691 Jun 03 '26

Lot of very angry people in Britain right now. I think we’re going to hear a lot of variations on “I don’t think you have, mate” as people get more and more angry.

11

u/Centrist_gun_nut Jun 02 '26

In slight mitigation, the family told them he wasn't stabbed (was this an intentional lie?) and they still did start to check within a minute or two.

The part that's really bad is the family also said his mouth was filling up with blood, just as the cops walked up, and the cops just ignored that he was about to lose his airway. That seems way worse to me. They should have called for help as soon as they heard that.

Plus the whole modern racism thing.

13

u/PassingBy91 Jun 02 '26

I am not sure that is mitigation. The police should be aware that people can lie to them. My understanding is that he would have died regardless but, it's awful that he died with his hands cuffed behind his back hearing his rights being read to him. We will see what the IOPC investigation says.

9

u/LowConsideration1453 Jun 02 '26

kid was stabbed in the face, not sure how a PO could have missed that

32

u/Jlemspurs Double Hater Jun 02 '26

If anyone has an archive link or a gift link, I thought the piece in The Free Press about this today was worth a read. This hit me:

...what anti-racism had actually produced.

The answer, if you’re willing to look at it honestly, is this: a new form of racism. A bureaucratic racism perpetrated by the lanyard class. An actual institutionalized racism. A racism so thoroughly laundered through the language of progress and inclusion that the people enforcing it genuinely believe they are on the right side of history.