HOPKINTON, MA - It’s rare at Law Enforcement Today that we cover news stories from other countries: we’re focused on stories involving or affecting police and first responders in the United States. While there’s always stuff from abroad we could report on, the usual takeaway is either thank God for the First Amendment or thank God for the Second Amendment. Often both.
That’s especially been the case in regards to stories from the United Kingdom. If you haven’t been paying much attention, they’ve enacted some truly Orwellian speech policies while simultaneously adopting some ludicrous immigration policies. To summarize: import thousands of people (mostly military-age men) from wherever and then shove them in like sardines with the native populations of the towns and villages they are remigrated to with little to no regard for the current residents’ stay in the matter. Then if you complain about it, you get a visit from the police.
It’s nuts. It makes me thankful to live in the country I do. Even if crime is a serious problem across America, there is still the general sense that the police are on your side and operating in your best interest.
But then sometimes you’ll see a story that gives you the ominous feeling that there are people in our government that see the UK as the example, and who are leading us down the same disastrous path.
As reported by the Gateway Pundit, Hopkinton Public Schools in Massachusetts has updated its weapons policy to explicitly allow initiated Sikh students to carry a ceremonial knife known as a kirpan on school grounds. The district maintains a strict no-weapons rule that bans knives, guns, replicas, toys, and pretty much anything that could cause harm for every other student.
The policy, formally adopted in March 2024, requires the kirpan to have a dull blade no longer than 3 inches, remain sheathed and secured under clothing at all times, and stay completely out of sight. Sikh students wishing to wear the blade must maintain a record of “good behavior,” demonstrate a “deeply held religious belief,” and sign an annual agreement with administrators.
Superintendent Carol Cavanaugh noted that some Sikh students were already carrying them discreetly as a required article of faith, citing the district’s “changing student population.” Sikh advocacy groups praised it as a victory for religious rights. It makes Hopkinton the first district in the state to formalize this exception.
If you only ever read Law Enforcement Today, you may not have heard the full story of Henry Nowak. We haven’t covered it on the site before because our focus remains squarely on U.S. law enforcement and first responders. But with this Massachusetts policy coming to light, let’s take a quick refresher of the facts of the Nowak case as we know them.
On December 3, 2025, 18-year-old British university student Henry Nowak was walking home in Southampton after a night out when he was fatally stabbed five times by 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa. Digwa was carrying both a small kirpan and a larger 8-inch dagger associated with the Nihang order of Sikhs.
Immediately after the attack, Digwa and his brother falsely claimed Nowak had racially assaulted him and pulled off his turban. Police initially believed the attacker, handcuffing the bleeding Nowak, who repeatedly pleaded that he’d been stabbed and notably that he “can’t breathe.”
The police not only denied Nowak aid, but instead put him in handcuffs and left him to bleed to death at the scene. The officers’ now-notorious bodycam footage even shows the arresting officers mocking Nowak, responding to Nowak’s pleas that he had been stabbed by saying, “I don't think you have, mate.”
Last month, Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years. The judge slammed Digwa and his family for lying to the officers and emphasized that carrying a kirpan comes with heavy responsibility.
In the short time since the full, disturbing nature of the crime was revealed, it has ignited outrage in the UK over the clear and obvious two-tier policing and biased enforcement of the law the case illustrates.
There are several things that the Nowak case shows us are wrong about the way the UK polices its own citizens, everything stems from the fact that any legal right that applies to one citizen must apply to all, or else you are not living in a fair and just society. The British disarmed themselves to try to stop violent crime, and in effect just made themselves unable to defend themselves from dangerous people who mean to do them harm.
In Massachusetts, as diminished as gun ownership rights may be, the Second Amendment still exists and guarantees your right to own a means of self-defense. But inside Massachusetts schools, it’s like the UK: no weapons allowed. Except for Sikhs, now.
What could go wrong?
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