frankPodmore

I only mentioned the 999 call as you brought it up.

Yes, and I brought it up because it's a key piece of evidence. You seem to agree; however, it doesn't demonstrate what you claim it does. Indeed, that's why I brought it up - it supports my point, not yours!

Before I continue, have you watched the police footage?

I haven't and I don't intend to. I have read several accounts of what happens in the footage, including the judge's description from the sentencing remarks. As long as those descriptions are accurate to what happened, it won't effect my line of argument that I've not watched it.

I've made several 999 calls, unfortunately, both as a witness and a victim, and I'm fairly sure I mentioned the race of the individuals concerned in all of them. Ask me now what they were wearing and I don't remember in detail: the simplest facts about them, like skin and hair colour, are what come to mind. So, no, I don't imagine it's unusual to focus on that. In fact, I would think that 'a [insert skin colour here] man is attacking me' is quite a common thing to hear on a 999 call! Those are very salient and easily memorable details, and they're the kind of thing you can spot even in poor light conditions or when there's a great deal of confusion.

In any case, you seem to be conflating the behaviour of the murderer and his brother, who did lie about a racist attack (but no one's denying that), with that of the police, who you're claiming only handcuffed Novak because of that accusation (or only handcuffed Novak because he was white, which is what you would actually need to prove in order to sustain the claim that the police were racist). But, again, there's no reason to believe this, unless you think it is unusual for police to arrive at a scene and handcuff the person who multiple witnesses are pointing at and saying: 'that's the guy who attacked us'. Imagine if the racial aspect of the situation were inverted, or if all three had been the same race. Would the police have behaved differently? I find that doubtful.

Do you think it's unusual for people to describe their attacker when they make a 999 call?

No, because the actual murderer had a witness - in fact the 999 caller - who backed him up. The police believed two witnesses over one, until it became apparent that they were lying. Race was irrelevant to that error.

That is not true. The false accusation of assault is what got him handcuffed. Unless you believe that the police don't restrain people suspected of violence unless they're also accused of racism, which is an absurd suggestion.

There will always be people who look at this and still say he should've been Prime Minister.

Agreed. As I said, I'm not defending the police.

what the actual fuck were these officers thinking?

This is a fair question, but it does have an answer: people often lie to the police about being injured in order to try and get out of restraints. It was too dark for the police to see the chest wound. Novak had a visible, but not serious, facial wound, though, and the police seem to have assumed this was the injury he was referring to.

Additionally, in this case, the actual perpetrator's brother was the one who'd called the police. It is very unusual for a murderer or an accomplice to call the police (my understanding is we still don't actually know why the killer's brother did this). The police believed they were attending a one-sided assault. When they arrived, two 'witnesses', including the person who'd called the police, pointed out Novak as the 'perpetrator', corroborating one another's stories. The police didn't realise they were lying until too late.

I am not excusing any of the above. The police routinely treat suspects poorly and that's what happened here. However, they did have good reason to believe Novak had committed a crime, and that belief had nothing to do with anyone's race.

I hope she smashes them.

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.

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.

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.