Two things can be true at once. We can be horrified and angered by those incidents, also not use the incident to push a disingenuous narrative.
What I object to is the singling out of these incidents to give the impression that crimes perpetrated by non-white immigrants refugees or migrants are the 'majority' of crimes taking place. It is being used by extremist groups, pushing the narrative that 'our women and children need protecting' (in reality they don't care about women or children as they become incredibly aggressive when challenged by women who disagree with them, many at these types of 'protests' have DV on their records which has been widely reported after other such protests) when in reality, it's scaring children, it's harming communities and seeding divisions.
I've worked in large urban schools for a long time, immigrant and refugee children have, by and large, been such hard workers, respectful of education (which is highly valued) and determined to get top grades in spite of the fact they often have a language barrier too. They have an entirely different cultural view of education comparatively with British children.
The divisions and reactions to incidents like what happened to Henry Nowak are being used by some people to disingenuously push a narrative about non-white people, immigrants and refugees.
The police should be investigated and it should be determined the catastrophic failings that night so nothing of the sort can ever happen again, the rules around kirpans/ ceremonial knives should also definitely be reviewed by the government in light of this incident and also the fact that knife crime is a key issue in many cities, however, I believe the perpetrator had been flagged multiple times to various different agencies - that should also be followed up, why were those reports allowed to fall through the cracks?
People can be angry at the failings here, upset for Henry's family, find horror in it and still not use this incident to push a narrative full of hate towards those of different races and cultures who, by and large, are living in the UK working hard and being part of our communities.
I remember studying Sikhism for GCSE years ago and know even from then, Sikhs are peaceful people who will be abhorred by what has happened and will probably be on the receiving end of backlash because of the actions of this one man.
People have the right to protest. When Sarah Everard was unjustly murdered, many women went and protested/ held vigil after what happened. It was a peaceful protest although I seem to remember women were still arrested due to 'gathering' laws or something. Nothing was thrown at police, no fighting happened.
We can be angry, we can find horror, we can protest, we can want change, we can feel awful for Henry Nowak and his family...we can do all of these things and not cast aspersions about whole groups of people or use the incident to push hate filled rhetoric and seed divisions within our communities.
The children in our schools work as a diverse community and wouldn't blame many people for the actions or behaviour of one. There is no need for some of the violence, physical aggression against others and damage being done to property under the guise of pretending it's about justice for Henry Nowak. That is what I have a problem with.
Anyone with children in our schools should feel the same, as it causes tensions in communities for our children and their friends.