In recent days, while Britons have been in an uproar over the December 3 butchery of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton by a knife-wielding Sikh, who was convicted of the murder on May 28, many Norwegians have been worked up over a similar crime. Late on the evening of May 17 – which in Norway is Constitution Day, a festive occasion celebrated around the country with parades and parties – an 18-year old boy, as yet unnamed by authorities, was brutally beaten by four individuals, strangers to him, who were aged between 15 and 17. Unlike Henry Nowak, the victim in Bergen survived the assault, which was completely unprovoked. At the time of the incident, he was dressed in a one-piece blue outfit that identified him as a “russ,” a person who is about to graduate, or who has just graduated, from secondary school. By all accounts he did nothing to provoke the attack, which was filmed by one of two witnesses who then shared the video on social media.
