David Vance SubstackRead More
If you have been in London these past few days, I do hope that you survived the Notting Hill “Festival”.
More than 400 arrests have been made over the two main days of Notting Hill Carnival including two stabbings, the Metropolitan Police have said. There have been two reported stabbings, in Powis Terrace and Oxford Gardens. Neither resulted in life-threatening injuries.
Wow, that’s a bit of luck. So the stabbings weren’t really *that* serious and the 400 arrests are just really good natured banter. Here is what we are allowed to know.
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32 assaults on police
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46 possession of offensive weapons
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70 possession of cannabis
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32 possession of Class A drugs
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44 drug supply offences
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5 robberies
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4 incidents of violence with injury
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36 other violent offences
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18 sexual offences
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136 other offences
I have been speaking to a retired Metropolitan Police Officer. He was telling me that the crime figures for this Event are cynically manipulated. For example, only crimes that are committed precisely on the designated route are counted. Even one street away and that is not included. A crime can be committed ON the route, the culprit apprehended OFF the route, and that is not included. The main priority for senior Police Commanders is to ensure the “optics” of the Event are kept as good as is possible. It’s all a crafted con job. As you might expect.
Here are some views of actual Met Police Officers who have been involved in the policing of this “joyous parade”!
• “Punched, kicked, hit with objects including bottles. Spat at and sexually assaulted.”
• “It is a dangerous environment with no concern for officer safety.”
• “As an ethnic minority, I often feel anxious about policing carnival.”
• “I would rather crawl naked through broken glass.”
• “I dread this event every year, it gets more violent each time. How many more officers have to get injured or innocent members of the public killed before anything is done?”
And as for the actual “Carnival”, I offer you a couple of instances of the “celebrations” of Caribbean culture which we are told impress the entire world and makes London so desirable.
Drugs. Violence. Crime. This is feral.
That’s what this annual Event has become.
The Police know it. The politicians know it.
But no-one is allowed to come out and say it.
London would be immeasurably improved were the Notting Hill Carnival axed.
