‘It’s horrible how scared people were’: Southampton picks up the pieces after night of violence

The cleanup was quick. The day after an anti-police demonstration turned violent in the Portswood area of Southampton, workers cleared up broken glass and fixed fences that had been torn down to use as missiles against officers.

But the psychological impact is likely to last much longer.

People who live near the scene of the disturbances described their fear and anger. Many said they were sure that the family of Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed by police as he bled to death after being falsely accused of racism, would be horrified at what unfolded. Members of the Sikh community also said they were facing threats because of the violence of Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, and the failings of the police.

Sophie Martin, who lives close to where crowds clashed with officers in riot gear, was fixing tarpaulin over the back windows of her family’s two smashed cars.

“My kids’ car seats are covered in glass,” she said. “I saw [people holding] signs saying ‘protect the kids’, ‘safety is a privilege’. Well, I didn’t feel safe last night.”

Satvir Kaur, the Labour MP for Southampton Test and the first Sikh woman to become a UK government minister, was knocking on doors to check people were safe. She regretted having to have a security guard alongside her, but said she had had threats to her life.

“I want to be able to talk to my friends and neighbours without having someone there trying to protect me from people that want to cause me harm, cause my family harm,” Kaur said. But she felt she had no choice but to have security in the streets she grew up on. “Some want me dead,” she said.

She described Digwa’s murder of Nowak with what the sentencing judge called a “Sikh sword” as “evil”, and said it had shaken the community. “They don’t deserve to have their homes, cars and streets vandalised. It’s really horrible how scared people were last night.”

Kaur said the majority of people who took part in the violence were not local. “Which is really sad,” she said. “And at a time when we really need to unite, we’ve got people that should be showing leadership instead sowing divisions and pitting one community against another. Henry’s father himself said he didn’t want his son’s murder to be used to further grow divisions and hatred.

“Of course questions need to be answered and I want to ensure those questions are answered, but we have to approach it in a really calm way and ensure that due process can be followed.”

Nearby at the Gurdwara Khalsa Darbar – the Southampton Sikh Resource Centre – police community support workers paid a visit to offer reassurance. As always, food was offered to all visitors: spinach, mixed veg and chapatis.

A spokesperson for the gurdwara, who asked not to be named, said: “Sikh people are facing a lot of discrimination in public places. The general public are making racist comments. We’ve got a person who works in a care home where someone refused to be cared by them because they wear a turban. Someone was just in Tesco shopping and someone said rude words to them: ‘You don’t need to be here.’”

She said the whole Sikh community had condemned Digwa’s actions. “This is the act of one individual. It does not determine the religion, the faith or community. At the point of his crime he was not representing Sikhism. All of a sudden everyone who is wearing a turban or has a beard is labelled as being Vickrum Digwa.”

Volunteers have been posted at the gurdwara to provide extra security. “At prime times we’ve got extra people on a volunteer basis to be around,” the spokesperson said. “The police really need to work harder on building their own trust because nobody has trust in anybody at the moment.”

The disturbance followed a demonstration at Southampton central police station on Tuesday evening attended by far-right activists including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. After hearing speeches, some of the demonstrators marched to the suburban neighbourhood of Portswood, where Nowak was killed and where Digwa lived.

Eddie Thomas, 22, a university graduate now working as a waiter, said he understood the anger at how the police had treated Nowak. “What happened was so awful. The misconduct was insane.”

He had gone to take a look at the disturbance when he saw it unfolding on TikTok. “I hear Tommy Robinson came down. That’s not just local people getting upset. A lot of them were young, looking for trouble, covered up in black.”

Anthony Burns, a construction worker who also witnessed the trouble, said he had sympathy with the demonstration at the police station. “Voices need to be heard. But I don’t think the parents of Henry would have wanted to see bricks being thrown, bins being thrown. I don’t think Henry would have wanted that.”

The leader of Southampton city council, Sarah Bogle, was also in the area checking on residents’ welfare. She said: “We really do not welcome that weaponisation of what is a huge tragedy.”

Bogle said she had heard that Sikh people were being forced to make changes to their routines to stay safe. “It’s just as old as the hills, blaming the other, blaming other people, but it’s totally unacceptable.”

Andrée, a retired art teacher, stopped to express her sorrow: “I taught people of all races for 40 years. This is a nice mixed community and most of the time everyone gets on well. This so uncalled for, so sad.”