Those feelings are legitimate and genuine. Henry should, right now, be enjoying his studies in Southampton, meeting new friends and playing football for the two university teams he joined.
But throwing bricks at officers, setting bins alight and sending them careering into police lines, and damaging Portswood residents’ homes and cars, does nothing to help this city come to terms with the horrific facts of a case that have only fully emerged in the last few weeks.
The violence and disorder that played out on Tuesday night instilled fear in ordinary people. The crowd did nothing to help scrutinise police actions on the night of Henry’s death.
National attention is already on Hampshire Constabulary and the handful of police who responded to the 999 call on December 3 last year. Violence will not speed up the search for answers as to how an 18‑year‑old could die in the street, with no dignity, surrounded by those officers who had falsely been told by his killer he carried out a racist attack.
As Henry’s family has said, Vickrum Digwa, who armed himself with an 8in knife, is solely responsible for his murder. He has been held accountable, convicted by a jury of murder. Hampshire police must now answer for their actions.
Those in the mob last night must now be held accountable for the damage wrought to the collective grieving of Southampton, and for the violence meted out toward those many officers who stood bravely doing their duty in the face of rage.
So too must the politicians and activists, who stirred up hatred in Henry’s name, be held accountable for their words that inflamed tensions so much that they erupted on the streets.
Two arrests have been made for what one Southampton MP calls the “grotesque and cynical spectacle” that left 11 police officers injured. More, we are told, will follow. They should.
Southampton, and most of all Henry’s family, must be allowed to mourn the tragic loss. It will not be easy. Difficult questions being asked by politicians, the police watchdog and the press, including this newspaper, will no doubt yield more disturbing answers that will require this city to confront painful truths.
There is only one way forward: through unity. There is no room for people who wish to come to Southampton – as some proudly boasted last night of driving four hours to join the protest – to incite violence and hatred.
We must now have a collective resolve to respect Henry’s memory.
We must move forward without letting the understandable fury over his death spill out into violence.
We must scrutinise and hold accountable without sowing division in our communities.
Southampton has suffered in this horrendous murder. We must not inflict further pain.