Vice President J.D. Vance ruffled British feathers with a social media post interpreting the death of Henry Nowak while in the hands of British police through the lens of the decline of Western civilization.
Nowak, 18, was stabbed in December and arrested by English police as he lay dying after his killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, claimed Nowak was racist. Despite Nowak’s pleas for help, police made their priority handcuffing Nowak as he was bleeding out. Digwa was eventually sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
“Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit,” Vance posted on X.
“His murder is as tragic as it is enraging,” Vance posted.
“He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it,” he wrote.
Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few… https://t.co/e3HkjzWzwU
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 5, 2026
Nowak, Vance wrote, “was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last. Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response — the only response — is righteous anger.”
“One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership,” Vance continued.
“Anything else is an excuse. It is because we love the West that we want to preserve it. We love our civilization. We love our country. We love our children. And nobody—nobody—should ever die the way that Henry Nowak died,” he wrote.
“May God comfort those who loved him, and may God rest his soul.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer lashed out at Vance, criticizing anyone “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets,” according to the Associated Press.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrat party in Britain, was less restrained, saying “we all need to resist attempts like this to politicize Henry Nowak’s death and divide our country — whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the U.K.”
But Vance’s statement was not the only salvo from America.
“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,” the State Department posted on X.
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.
— Department of State (@StateDept) June 4, 2026
That led Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy to say “mistakes can happen in any public service,” and that amid investigations into the incident, the “system is working,” according to CNN.
“We don’t recognize the characterization of two-tiered policing,” he said.
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