How the myth of ‘two-tier policing’ took hold

The death of 18-year-old Henry Novak, stabbed by Vikram Digwa and left dying while police dismissed his pleas for help, has been weaponized by the far right to promote the myth of 'two-tier policing'—the false claim that white people are systematically discriminated against by UK law enforcement. Despite the Novak family’s explicit plea to avoid division and their call for action on knife crime, figures like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson have seized on the tragedy to fuel racialized rhetoric, falsely asserting that minorities receive preferential treatment. This narrative, rooted in decades of far-right discourse and amplified by mainstream media and global influencers like Elon Musk, exploits genuine public anger over systemic failures while distorting the reality of institutional racism in policing. As anti-racist campaigners warn, the far right is now co-opting the language of civil rights movements—chanting 'no justice, no peace' and 'I can't breathe'—to position themselves as victims of oppression. Yet data shows Black Britons are seven times more likely to die after police restraint and overrepresented in use of force, proving the opposite. The real danger lies not in fairness to minorities, but in the erosion of trust in institutions and the normalization of conspiracy theories that serve political agendas more than justice.