Taking The Knee

Hannes Wessels,

A little over six years ago the world erupted in anger when the international media turned all its attention on the death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department of an African-American by the name of George Floyd.

The deceased was a serial criminal who had served eight jail terms on various charges including drug-dealing, drug-possession, theft, trespass, and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He died in the course of resisting lawful arrest after trying to affect a purchase using counterfeit currency.

I was particularly interested in the trial because the testifying pathologist was Zimbabwe-born Dr. Davis Fowler and we shared alma-maters having both studied at the University of Cape Town. Despite intense, at times hostile cross-examination, Dr. Fowler insisted the cause of death was sudden cardiac arrythmia due to underlying heart disease and the presence of fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd’s system rather than pressure on his neck from arresting officer Derek Chauvin. He added that proximity to a vehicle exhaust emitting carbon monoxide at the scene may have contributed to his death.

Unfortunately for Officer Chauvin on trial for murder, the jury, the judge and most of the rest of the world were not interested in an expert opinion that contradicted the popular narrative they all wanted to believe. His evidence was duly ignored and Chauvin was convicted of manslaughter and handed a 20-year sentence.

By this time, much of the world was on its knees, led by politicians, celebrities and sportsmen and women, the world expressed unqualified outrage leading to protests, mob-violence and the torching of entire neighbourhoods in the US. In the American context Joe Biden compared Floyd’s death to that of civil-rights leader Martin Luther-King and Speaker Nancy Pelosi led the US House of Representatives and the Senate in paying their respects.

On the 3rd December last year Henry Nowak, an 18 year-old student at Southampton University of mixed Polish/British descent was making his way home after an evening with friends at a pub when he was attacked by a knife-wielding Sikh by the name of Vickrum Digwa who stabbed him repeatedly before the assailant’s mother took the knife from the scene and a call was made to the Hampshire Police by Digwa’s brother reporting a racially motivated verbal assault on Vickrum by Nowak. On arrival at the scene, the arresting officers, despite cries for help from a stricken young student, ignored his pleas, manhandled him roughly into position to handcuff him behind his back, and then sought to placate the killer. Henry’s last words were, “.. please brother, I can’t breathe.”

To any rationale mind the facts suggest a far greater injustice was inflicted upon Henry Nowak than George Floyd but his murder hardly caused a murmur from the British and international press. It was really only after the trial that followed earlier this month and the interest taken in the case by Elon Musk on ‘X’ that word spread of this horror story and the reaction from those who were outraged by the death of George Floyd, is remarkably different.

British PM Sir Keir Starmer, who famously took the knee for Floyd reserved his anger, not for the killer, or the racist arresting officers, but for Musk and others who had the temerity to express their outrage. Musk, being American, came in for special criticism as Starmer pointed out this was a matter for the people of the UK and not foreigners. Clearly the same rules did not apply to PM Starmer when he stood in the Commons and called on Britons and people all over the world to join him in expressing “shock and anger” in the wake of the Floyd death.

Deputy PM David Lammy reserved his wrath for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage who called on his followers to share his sense of “rage” notwithstanding the fact he, Lammy, had been at the forefront of the Floyd

furore expressing his “righteous anger.” When asked if he would take the knee for Henry Nowak he answered no.

Of all the rich, famous, and powerful who joined the clamour over the death of George Floyd, I know of none who have had the gumption to so much as publicly acknowledge the tragedy that ended the young life of, by all accounts, a decent, law-abiding, young white teenager. Their silence is deafening.

The moral of the story is the people who shout loudest about racism are the worst of the perpetrators. For too long anti-White racism has been officially condoned and promoted. It remains to be seen if the Nowak case is a turning point away from this worldview. I cannot say I am optimistic.