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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to feel deeply unsettled by the Southampton protest scenes?

1000 replies

HopelessPessimist · 02/06/2026 19:02

Southampton protest against police, huge crowd, Tommy Robinson whipping everyone into a frenzy and saying "this IS about race"

Other speakers declaring that England is a Christian country. The Lords Prayer chanted by every speaker. The leader of UKIP saying he will deport all migrants and make government Christian. The leaders of the protest saying they are being pushed by the police cordon, while the camera angle shows the police haven't moved. The leaders of the protest mocking the female police officer who are taking over a shift from another police officer in the cordon "They're replacing all the men with women!"

This is awful. It feels like the start of civil war. Maybe human beings just aren't supposed to go decades without a fight.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
141mum · 03/06/2026 00:12

youalright · 02/06/2026 19:30

So a couple of officers make a mistake and 100s of other officers should get attacked and assaulted for it because thats exactly what's going to happen. If one of your colleagues made a mistake would you be OK with 1000s of people to come after you for it

A mistake !!!!! A mistake is a spelling or parking in a wrong bay, not ignoring someone who said he had been stabbed

LuckyHazelFox · 03/06/2026 00:15

141mum · 03/06/2026 00:12

A mistake !!!!! A mistake is a spelling or parking in a wrong bay, not ignoring someone who said he had been stabbed

The downplaying of everything related to this murder is from posters who take the moral highground when trying to label everyone and anyone as racists.

lornad00m · 03/06/2026 00:29

FlyingWithBingoWings · 03/06/2026 00:09

And do you apply this to the BLM marches and rioting and the Pro Palestine thugs?

I'm going to guess not.

Then you guessed wrongly.

KnitFastDieWarm · 03/06/2026 00:30

youalright · 02/06/2026 19:30

So a couple of officers make a mistake and 100s of other officers should get attacked and assaulted for it because thats exactly what's going to happen. If one of your colleagues made a mistake would you be OK with 1000s of people to come after you for it

yeah, just like Stephen Lawrence’s death was ‘a mistake’. Can you hear yourself?

The parallels between these two cases are huge, right down to the fact that both were innocent young men who the police didn’t believe had been stabbed and who were left to die in the street. Because they had the bad luck to fit those officers’ idea of a ‘bad guy’ - based, in part, on their race.

I don’t give a FUCK what race or religion or nationality someone is - we ALL deserve fair, unbiased, competent policing. I have three white British teenage boys who have friends of every colour, race, and religion and I cannot sleep peacefully at night until ALL of those boys and all the other law-abiding lads like them are safe from being victims of this sort of horrific police negligence, bias, and stupidity.

Rest in peace Stephen and Henry - young men with bright futures taken from them by thugs.

Purplerubberducky · 03/06/2026 00:33

HumunaHey · 02/06/2026 19:39

What are the other cases?

I honestly don't get people saying "can you imagine if it was the other way around, there'd be uproar". There IS uproar and, yes, there should be. People need to be held to account. This shouldn't happen again.

The whole reason there is also uproar when minorities are on the receiving end, is because it has happened time and time again. Fortunately, I can't provide a shopping list of names of white boys who have died at the hands of police. I can name a fair few black though.

This country is in a terrible state. People can be willfully ignorant to wrongdoing until it happens to their own.

Edited

This! It is awful, but this sort of thing happens to minorities A LOT more. Look at the guy killed by security guards last week.
The family of this poor boy have asked that his death isn’t used to stir up racial tension and hatred.

Also, we have seen how bad racism still is within the police force! There was literally a documentary about it a few weeks ago. This should never happen, but it’s far more likely to happen to a black person than a white person.

KnitFastDieWarm · 03/06/2026 00:37

CaesarAugusta · 02/06/2026 23:55

Was it a total failure? Yes, for approximately three minutes they failed to make basic checks on a victim who said he had been stabbed and was clearly in some distress, handcuffed him and treated him like a criminal. That part was indeed an utterly dreadful and tragic failure.

But then there was a swift and thorough investigation leading to the arrest of the perpetrator and other members of the family, and then leading to charges being brought, evidence being carefully prepared to get a conviction, a prosecution being properly pressed forward, and the murderer being convicted and sentenced. I don't think any of that was a "total failure".

oh well that’s fine then, I’m sure that all that ‘carefully prepared evidence’ totally makes up for his parents having their child’s last moments on video as he bled to death while being called a liar by those who were supposed to protect him. It’s ’lessons will be learned’ and it’s just as meaningless.

I can’t imagine the loneliness and despair that poor man - really a boy, barely out of childhood - must have felt.

canuckup · 03/06/2026 00:39

Well, 30 years ago as a teenage girl in Lancashire it didn't feel so equal. Pakistani/Bangladeshi boys ruled the roost at our school. Untouchable, apparently.

And look where that led us.

lornad00m · 03/06/2026 00:45

youalright · 02/06/2026 19:38

They looked for stab wounds and couldn't see any there wasn't a puddle of blood. They called an ambulance for him. It all happened quickly and every piece of information they had been given was wrong

"Henry told officers that he could not breathe nine times. He told them that he had been stabbed four times. Henry was pulled across the gravel, his hands forced behind his back and he was placed in handcuffs."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crlpyw05l75o

They arrested him on the word of a man with no visible injuries who cried racism.

The optics are horrendous.

People are allowed to be angry and want accountability from both the Police and Politicians.

However any rioting or racism spewed at marches is totally unacceptable.

A police image of a man lying on the floor with his hands being handcuffed behind his back.

Murdered student Henry Nowak told police 'I can't breathe' while handcuffed

An independent investigation into why Henry Nowak was handcuffed by police as he was dying is ongoing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crlpyw05l75o

Quokkas · 03/06/2026 00:47

Purplerubberducky · 03/06/2026 00:33

This! It is awful, but this sort of thing happens to minorities A LOT more. Look at the guy killed by security guards last week.
The family of this poor boy have asked that his death isn’t used to stir up racial tension and hatred.

Also, we have seen how bad racism still is within the police force! There was literally a documentary about it a few weeks ago. This should never happen, but it’s far more likely to happen to a black person than a white person.

Edited

I completely agree. And do you mean Yves Sakila who was killed in Dublin?

lornad00m · 03/06/2026 00:58

Purplerubberducky · 03/06/2026 00:33

This! It is awful, but this sort of thing happens to minorities A LOT more. Look at the guy killed by security guards last week.
The family of this poor boy have asked that his death isn’t used to stir up racial tension and hatred.

Also, we have seen how bad racism still is within the police force! There was literally a documentary about it a few weeks ago. This should never happen, but it’s far more likely to happen to a black person than a white person.

Edited

'This! It is awful, but'

Whataboutism rears its ugly head. Again. 🙄

sleepwouldbenice · 03/06/2026 01:06

YANBU OP
It is possible to agree that the police treatment was abhorrent, to know that a robust review needs to take place and for his parents to know that action is truly taken

But also its possible to also despair at the vile hate driven words and actions of NF and TR

BrooklynCroc · 03/06/2026 01:13

youalright · 02/06/2026 20:48

They didn't drag him to the ground in handcuffs he was always on the ground they dragged him from laying behind a car, and the police officer said I don't think you have mate as he was lifting his shirt and checking his back. Watch the video

Are you one of the police officers?

Quokkas · 03/06/2026 01:15

lornad00m · 03/06/2026 00:58

'This! It is awful, but'

Whataboutism rears its ugly head. Again. 🙄

@Purplerubberducky is absolutely right. What happened to Henry Nowak is infinitely more likely to happen to black, Asian or Middle Eastern people.

sleepwouldbenice · 03/06/2026 01:18

Caught up with the news
NF talking about reacting with pure cold rage and white lives matter
Whilst the victims family have specifically asked for no racial tension
They really are vile

TheTealHiker · 03/06/2026 01:18

PolkaDotPorridge · 02/06/2026 19:20

The protesters are always as thick as mince, toothless , drunk and not an active brain cell between them.

Also people are very angry generally without this awful event..
Cost of living crisis, local shops/pubs closing, sick of watching Starmer U-turning until dizzy etc.etc.
Add to that warm nights, some people sitting outside pubs drinking and you have a recipe for violence to flare up.

Quokkas · 03/06/2026 01:25

sleepwouldbenice · 03/06/2026 01:18

Caught up with the news
NF talking about reacting with pure cold rage and white lives matter
Whilst the victims family have specifically asked for no racial tension
They really are vile

Nigel Farage is a twat who hates minority groups and really wants to be PM one day so he can add to his existing enormous wealth. Let’s not give him that opportunity.

WhatOnEarthBritain · 03/06/2026 01:32

This reply has been deleted

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This thread is chilling. Not just because of blatantly racist posts like this one but because it shows the general level of ignorance among people who should know better and their unwillingness to inform themselves. I mean just the amount of people asking for sources to back up the fact that poc are more likely to face police brutality. It has been in the news for years. It's there in every study that has been conducted oh this topic. It's on gov.uk, data released by the UK government. How can anyone not know this? Why is it even being questioned?

I have been here for more than 20 years but now I think I need to leave. This country isn't safe for us to live in anymore.

Todayismyfavouriteday · 03/06/2026 01:39

Broccolish · 02/06/2026 19:07

I feel far more unsettled as a parent of white young adults in a country where police are more concerned about being called racist than protecting people against violence.

Edited

This, exactly.

Quokkas · 03/06/2026 01:41

Todayismyfavouriteday · 03/06/2026 01:39

This, exactly.

Police don’t generally target young while men though. They tend to go for white women or black men.

Walkden · 03/06/2026 03:10

"What happened to Henry Nowak is infinitely more likely to happen to black, Asian or Middle Eastern people."

You think bame people are infinitely more likely to be ignored by the police and left to die in handcuffs if a white person says they were racist towards them?

Dollysleftnip · 03/06/2026 03:58

Quokkas · 03/06/2026 01:41

Police don’t generally target young while men though. They tend to go for white women or black men.

Well they have and they did on this occasion

TyroneBarkleyManofValueNSOUL · 03/06/2026 04:27

Absolutely no respect for the families wishes
Kriss Donald was murdered by an Asian gang in Scotland many years ago and the BNP tried to hijack Kriss murder for their own ends.
The family gave the BNP short shrift.
A tactic the extreme far right have used for decades.

Winter2020 · 03/06/2026 04:38

TeaCupTinsel · 02/06/2026 19:58

I'm really unsettled by it too OP. I've been a teacher for twenty years and the uptick in vile racist incidents against students (sometimes perpetrated by adults!) has been awful, let alone what gets said to their adult family members.

So much hatred is seeping through and, statistically, whilst any crime is awful, the misrepresentation in the media of 'immigrant' or 'refugee' crime (often targeted at those from minority ethnic backgrounds) and frenzied fuelling of societal division is harrowing to watch, especially when some of work with children who are living in fear because of it.

The only silver lining has been watching the children band together and support each other because, thankfully, they are much more accepting and inclusive than the generations above them. I hold hope for the future generations coming up behind us but it's still horrible to live through.

I never thought I'd see it happen in the UK because our age group learnt about WW2, the rise in fascism and extreme right wing views at school and had grandparents and great grandparents who might have lived through the war or experienced the immediate effects in their childhoods.
I think we've lost something now those who experienced WW2 have gone (or are very close to being gone), we feel further removed from the atrocities and rhetoric of that time so many can't see the parallels.

Did you think that "in the UK" you would see a man from Sudan stab a young woman 23 times and then dance in celebration.

Do you think that Deng Majek, who stabbed Riannon Whyte 23 times, was misrepresented in the media?

People have a right to be angry.

youalright · 03/06/2026 04:43

BrooklynCroc · 03/06/2026 01:13

Are you one of the police officers?

No i actually watched the video which it appears most on here haven't

hay5689 · 03/06/2026 04:43

WhatOnEarthBritain · 03/06/2026 01:32

This thread is chilling. Not just because of blatantly racist posts like this one but because it shows the general level of ignorance among people who should know better and their unwillingness to inform themselves. I mean just the amount of people asking for sources to back up the fact that poc are more likely to face police brutality. It has been in the news for years. It's there in every study that has been conducted oh this topic. It's on gov.uk, data released by the UK government. How can anyone not know this? Why is it even being questioned?

I have been here for more than 20 years but now I think I need to leave. This country isn't safe for us to live in anymore.

It’s not about who suffers the most police brutality. It’s about how the police automatically believed that an Asian man was suffering racism and handcuffed the white person despite him being stabbed and dying because they are too scared of being accused of racism themselves. It’s about Henry telling them more than once that he had been stabbed but they ignored him until it was too late. Add into the equation how the grooming gangs got away with raping young white girls because of their skin colour and yes, people are angry about it. It’s also about how when a black American died politicians, celebrities and the like were clambering over each other to publicly take the knee but when it’s a white person there’s silence because no one wants to be accused of being racist. Yes there will be racist people who will use this for their own agenda but most people who have concerns are not racist, they just want the police to be treating everyone the same and not be swayed by the fear of what colour someone’s skin is.

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