The difference in coverage is hard to ignore, and it’s impossible to excuse.
“I can’t breathe” became a rally cry for people everywhere in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. The words appeared on signs, murals, Instagram — you name it. Floyd’s death was framed by the corporate press not merely as a tragic event, but as a catalyst for a “reckoning” over race, policing, and systemic injustice — even if that “reckoning” included violent riots that damaged or destroyed the lives of huge numbers of people.
Less than six years later, those same words were spoken by 18-year-old Henry Nowak as he lay dying in Britain after being stabbed by a Sikh man. Video footage shows police responding to the scene and dismissing Nowak’s repeated statement that he had been stabbed. Police instead handcuffed him while ignoring his pleas that he could not breathe because the murderer falsely accused Nowak of being racist, which apparently is a higher priority for police than the dying teen.
With the George Floyd riots, the propaganda press treated them as an understandable “reckoning.” But amid rightful public outrage following Nowak’s murder, those same outlets are accusing the protesters and politicians who have spoken alongside protesters as “politicizing” or “hijacking” Nowak’s death.
According to The New York Times, Floyd’s death “spurred nationwide protests against police brutality and a reckoning over everything from public monuments to sports team names.” But when people protest egregious government behavior in the context of Nowak’s death, The Times framed it this way: “Murder Case in Which Police Handcuffed Victim Fuels Outrage in Britain.”
“The authorities in Britain are investigating police officers who handcuffed a student, Henry Nowak, while he was dying, in a case that [has] been increasingly politicized,” the subhead read.