31
Aug
2016
By Calvin at 09:59 GMT, 9 years ago
Yesterday I wrote about my personal experience at the Notting Hill Carnival on Monday and later I started to read about the violence and the drugs and the calls to relocate the event into a park.
Here’s a summary of the crimes/injuries from this year’s events (various sources)
- 454 arrests were made over the two-day carnival, with twice as many on Monday compared to Sunday. This is more than ten times the number of arrests at the Glastonbury Festival and is the highest number since 2008
- 25 attacks on police
- 90 knife-related incidents
- 38 people arrested using nitrous oxide (laughing gas) – balloons are filled from a large canister of the stuff. Street value of a large cannister £150,000
- 7,000+ police officers were employed at a cost of £6 million+, which is roughly £6 for each of the attendees
- London Ambulance treated 1,000+ over the two days of the festival, of which 170 were taken to hospital – up 20% on last year. Most illnesses and injuries were related to alcohol. 4 people wounded in stabbings
- 43 police officers were injured, eight of whom required hospital treatment
- Pictures painting a thousand words http://metro.co.uk/2016/08/30/six-stabbed-at-notting-hill-carnival-as-440-are-arrested-6098230/
Readers should bear in mind that both the crime and injury figures, whilst useful for a year on year comparison, are certainly not a true picture of the actual amount of crime and injury that would have taken place at the event.
I think the problem with the carnival is that it has outgrown its space; something that happened a long time ago. Many of the streets are simply not suitable for the many floats and dancers and the crowds that come to see them and with densely packed crowds (that will always include a few thieves and morons who get stoned and blind drunk) there are bound to be problems.
That being said I would hate to see the end of it, but maybe now, after 50 years, it is time to relocate the event to a place that is not only safer, but allows the carnival procession and all those who have worked incredibly hard to be involved in it to take centre stage. I want the fun and the colour of the event to be the headline; not the crime and Hyde Park is only a short distance away.
Of course, lots of people will not agree with me, so what do you think?
