In police bodycam footage, Nowak is seen lying on the street saying “I’ve been stabbed” and “I can’t breathe” while an officer responds “I don’t think you have mate”
Yeah probably should have checked, I wonder how often they get bullshit claims like that.
How long did it take them to realise that he was injured?
A long time. In the clip I saw, he had stopped responding, and they were starting to get the feeling that it might possibly be the case that it was not unlikely that there was an inkling of a chance that he might possibly be injured. In case there are any racists reading this, thinking that the cops cared more about the guy who said he had been abused, they clearly couldn’t give a fuck about him either. It was shitty police work all round.
A long time
From the sentencing remarks as quoted in the FT:
[Novak] was handcuffed for about a minute before his condition further deteriorated and the arresting officer began CPR.
Not seen it and I wouldn’t jump to assume race is the first thing the police go to. Far more likely to dismiss people causing them problems, which I kinda get but they do have a duty of care if they are holding someone with injuries and should check a claim like that.
He kept saying “I’ve been stabbed”, increasingly weakly. It’s fucking horrible to watch and the police were appalling. They just wanted to arrest him and make him someone else’s problem. They didn’t consider his welfare at any point.
I wouldn’t jump to assume race is the first thing the police go to.
This is correct: it wasn’t the false racist slur that made the police ignore Novak, it was the fact that the murderer had a witness to back up his line that he was attacked.
Unfortunately, people who are handcuffed often fake injury or distress in order to get the police to free them so that they can then either escape or attack somebody. Tragically, the officers here wrongly believed that’s what Novak was doing. He had a visible minor injury and they assumed that’s what he was referring to, and that such a minor injury wasn’t something for them to worry about. Possibly the police should change their procedures in order to properly medically assess detainees who claim to be injured.
How long did it take them to realise that he was injured?
He was handcuffed for about one minute before the police began CPR, according to the judge.
At night while not visibly bleeding past clothing and trying to work out what is going on with witnesses lying to the police, isn’t really that long.
Yeah. Unfortunately it is a long time when you’re bleeding to death. It’s possible he’d have died even with immediate first aid because you really don’t have that long once you’re bleeding from a major artery.
I think this shows the police need to change their practice when it comes to how they treat suspects, though, especially those under restraint.
