US criticises ‘two-tiered policing’ over UK murder case
The US State Department has waded into the British political storm that erupted over the murder of a student there, denouncing what it called “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing” as a symptom of the decline of civilisation.
In 2025, Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old white man, was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after falsely claiming that his killer had staged a racist attack.
The killer, a Sikh man, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday.
The video showed officers ignoring Nowak’s pleas as he lay dying; This sparked questions about why police believed the claim of racism and not Nowak, who said he had been stabbed multiple times and couldn’t breathe.
The case sparked widespread outrage in the country, as populist political leader Nigel Farage and tech billionaire Elon Musk amplified accusations that Britain practices “two-tier policing”, where fear of being called racist has led to ethnic minorities being given greater protection than others.
“Ideological conditioning and two-tier policing are glaring symptoms of the decline of civilization,” the US State Department said in X.
“They need to be rejected across the West.
“The United States extends our condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom at this troubling time.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the police had serious questions to answer about their handling of the incident, including how accusations of racism influenced police thinking, and an investigation was ongoing.
But he condemned the violent and disorderly protest on Tuesday night and said it was “inexcusable” to use the death to escalate tensions after Farage called on people to respond with “pure cold anger”.
He also told Musk on Thursday to stop meddling in British politics after the tech mogul repeatedly posted about the case and said it showed police in Britain were biased against white people.
Police deny any accusations of bias, but police chiefs have said they will review guidelines on how officers should treat ethnicities differently, drawn up in response to decades of well-documented incidents of racism in the force.
Nowak’s family, who met privately with Starmer on Thursday, described his treatment by police as “inhumane and degrading” but said his death should not be “used to create further division, hatred or tension”.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told Sky News on Friday that he welcomed the US government’s condolences to the Nowak family but did not recognize “this caricature of Britain as having a two-tier criminal justice system”.
