Notting Hill Carnival Violence Returns

August Bank Holiday in London means the week-end-long party known as the Notting Hill Carnival. Back in 1976, 250 people including 120 policemen were hurt as the constabulary made repeated baton charges against bottle and brick throwing mobs. By the 1980s, the carnival had become a tamer, safer affair thanks to better music and more tolerance by the police of soft drug use. This year, though, violence made a comeback.

On the whole, everyone was fine until darkness fell on Monday night. At that point around 30-40 young men decided it was time to throw bottles at the police around Ladbroke Grove, bottles that had been drained of their alcoholic content, thus enhancing the youths’ innate stupidity. Chief Inspector Jo Edwards told The Times Online, “Our officers came under attack from bottles, bricks and other missiles for two hours. There are a small minority of criminals who use the cover of darkness and crowded streets to cause trouble.”

The Telegraph said, “Police made a total of 197 arrests during the carnival - including 59 for drug offences, 25 for carrying an offensive weapon, 40 public order offences, 18 for assault, 11 for theft, seven for drunken behaviour, two sexual offences and two for robbery.” Outside the Oval Cricket Ground about 6 miles from the carnival, the police surrounded about 150 yobs and held them at a South London police station for 5 hours to “prevent a breach of the peace.”

Knife violence has been all the rage in the UK of late, and the metal detectors were working overtime to find them. London Mayor Boris Johnson rightly said, “There is no excuse for anyone to take a weapon to the carnival.” The police also tried to intimidate certain individuals into staying away by sending 200 letters to “known people advising them not to come to carnival,” according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison.

Mayor Johnson, freshly back from waving the Olympic flag in Beijing, added, “As a former resident of Ladbroke Grove, I have watched the Notting Hill Carnival go from strength to strength each year to become an internationally acclaimed event. Nothing beats the sounds of the steel pans, the aroma of delicious Caribbean food and the dazzling colours of the costume parade.” Until some moron with too much rum in him decides to act like a wanker or some cop decides the baton is the solution.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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