US government weighs in on Nowak murder with the same old fascist lies

With grim predictability, the far-right US government has waded into the controversy surrounding the tragic death of Henry Nowak. A US State Department post on social media offered mealy-mouthed “condolences” to Henry’s family, though only after a tight string of fascist dogwhistles.

In particular, the Trump administration repeated Farage’s ridiculous ‘two-tier’ anti-white policing claim. This is fitting, given the Reform UK leader shamelessly exploited Nowak’s murder to attack DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) initiatives.

As the Canary previously pointed out, Farage clearly received this talking point directly from Trump’s fascist America. In the UK, ‘DEI’ is better known as ‘EDI’ (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion).

Beyond this, the ‘two-tier’ policing claim is also a classic example of the abuse tactic reversing the victim and offender, writ large. Two-tier policing very much exists, only to the clear detriment of Black and Brown people across the UK.

Disgusting weaponisation of Henry Nowak’s murder

On the night of 4 June, the US State Department posted on social media:

Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline. They must be rejected across the West.

The United States sends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.

As we keep having to repeat, Nowak’s family expressed their wishes that their son’s death wouldn’t be used to spread hatred and division. However, it’s completely unsurprising that the US government is doing just that by repeating dogwhistle claims of ‘two-tiered policing‘.

Likewise, the claim of “civilizational decline” is, at its heart, a fascist talking point. As Oxford professor of modern history James McDougall pointed out just before Trump’s first term:

Fascism brings a masculinist, xenophobic nationalism that claims to “put the people first” while turning them against one another. […]

A view of the world is presented that is centred on fears of “national suicide” and civilisational decline, in which whites are demographically overwhelmed by “inferior” peoples, minorities and immigrants.

‘Two-tier policing’

Meanwhile, the claim to ‘two-tier policing’ in the UK is obviously correct, though in the exact opposite manner to which Farage and his fash buddies intended it.

On 4 June, Stephen Parkinson – director of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service – explained that:

There is disproportionality in the criminal justice system. There’s an evidential basis for that. We have published research by Leeds University examining prosecution decisions. We updated that the end of last year.

It does demonstrate conclusively that there is disproportionality, by which I mean that there’s a greater likelihood of being prosecuted if you come from an ethnic group that is not white British.

Your starting point was two-tier justice, and I think recent publicity has been along the lines of: are people from ethnic minorities favoured in some way? The evidence that I’m aware of around disproportionality goes the other way.

That two-tier justice favouring white people is particularly evident in the Hampshire police – the same force which arrested Henry Nowak for a fabricated racialised assault, even as he lay dying of five stab wounds.

As the Guardian highlighted, the most recent policing data shows that officers across England and Wales are 3.8 times more likely to use stop and search powers against a Black person than a white person. However, in Hampshire, that disproportionality shoots up to 5.1 times.

Worse still, the problem has only increased in recent years. In 2023-4, Hampshire police were 4.1 times more likely to stop a Black person. That rose to 4.8 times in 2024-5, and then to 5.1 times in 2025-6.

White supremacy

The UK’s police force is an institutionally racist arm of an institutionally racist state, and rotten to its very core. Figures like Farage, who claim that even half-hearted efforts at reform are evidence of ‘anti-white racism’, actively endanger the pitiful progress towards equality the UK has tried to make.

The Reform UK leader, the Trump administration and their ilk know exactly what they’re doing. They want to ensure that the racist status quo remains, that it becomes even more firmly entrenched. They’ll use any lie, trick, and power at their disposal to do so.

Anything to continue to expand white supremacy.

Featured image via Getty/Jonathan Bachman