What the Police Want to Do to Notting Hill Carnival

(Top photo: Jake Lewis)

As a VICE piece put it a couple of years ago, Notting Hill Carnival is about "the piss, the police and the politics". Simply put: it's not for everyone. Half the people you speak to love it because you can party in the daytime and have your eardrums blown out while crammed between thousands of gyrating bodies. The other half hate it for the same reason.

The annual event is no small scale affair: it's one of Europe's largest carnivals, with up to 7,000 police on duty, 50,000 performers and a million visitors. The police have always been critical of the bank holiday party, but today a new report was released stating that Notting Hill Carnival poses a "real risk to public safety". At the 2016 event, four stabbings were so serious the victims nearly died, and 450 arrests were made.

In the report, The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee warns London's mayor that the event must be made safer and that overcrowding and a rise in violent crime were the main issues. "The police warn of the risk of a 'Hillsborough' scale tragedy; it would be foolish to ignore these voices," it said.

It gave one example about the Ladbroke Grove section of the route, where last year carnival floats and support vehicles caused people to be pushed to the sides of the road and police officers had to dive in to pull children and distressed adults out of the crowd.

The report said 396 crimes were recorded at the 2016 carnival, up from 343 in 2010, with violent offences against people rising from 81 to 151 in the same period. "Traditionally, the vast majority of offences have been related to theft and drugs. The number of violent crimes, however, is rising," it said.

In the past, advocates for Carnival have argued that police and the media only focus on the negative aspects of the event. In an interview with VICE in 2014, Ishmahil Blagrove Jr – author of a book about Carnival – said: "At Glastonbury last year there were 170 arrests out of nearly 250,000 people. You look at Carnival last year – a million, a million and a half people, and there were around 300 arrests. But they don't report on crime at Glastonbury; they report on the sense of unity and enthusiasm."

Either way, it's now down to Sadiq Khan to make his mind up about any changes to the bank holiday event this coming August.

More on Notting Hill Carnival:

Why I Hate Notting Hill Carnival

How To Not Die At Notting Hill Carnival

A Big Day Out at…Notting Hill Carnival