Arek Jóźwik
Arkadiusz "Arek" Jóźwik, a Polish man killed in Harlow, Essex, England in August 2016. His death, two months after the Referendum in which the UK voted narrowly to leave the EU, was seized by some sections of the press as proof that Brexit was caused by racism and creating more xenophobia. It was called "a Brexit murder", "A political killing," "An act of Leave-fuelled xenophobic hatred." The BBC, EU officials and the Polish ambassador denounced it as a "hate-crime" but after a full inquiry it turned out to have been nothing of the sort.[1]
The Facts
On the evening of Saturday 27 August, Jozwik, aged 40, was out drinking with two friends. At around 11.30pm they walked to a row of takeaway food stores in the center of Harlow, where they clashed with some local teenage boys. There was an argument and one of the teens, then 15, punched Mr Jozwik in the head. He fell and hit his skull on the pavement, suffered serious brain injuries and never regained consciousness. He died two days later in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
The trial
Witnesses told the court that the Polish men had been very drunk and had made insulting remarks, including racist remarks, to the people they met. A brawl had ensued in which Jozwik had been an active combatant. The youth who punched him did so out of panic and was only charged with manslaughter, not murder. The Crown Prosecution Service decided there was no grounds to treat the matter as a "hate-crime".
Aftermath
When the verdict of manslaughter was announced in September 2017, it got very little media coverage compared to the original outcry. The pro-EU narrative of a racist, xenophobic murder, part of a "surge in hate-crime" following Brexit, was fixed in the minds of the public. [2]