Cancel the Notting Hill Carnival!

[Witchofwisteria]

AIBU. This year police have confiscated 49 knives and 70 offensive weapons total, including ACID and stun guns plus one stabbing. Over 400 people were arrested, up from 313 last year and I am starting to wonder when enough will be enough.

The streets are left in a state after the event and the cost to taxpayer is astronomical. I feel like the Notting hill carnival has lost its way and turned into a breeding ground for opportunistic thugs. The thought that someone was wondering round with ACID, willing to throw it into a crowd and scar however many tens of people it sprayed on is beyond sick. We are quite happy to say terrorists are a major threat to Londoners but these groups are a MUCH worse threat to our daily lives and it's just too risky to have this event when we know it's going to attract these nasty individuals and gangs.

I'm totally not a fuddy duddy and appreciate that things like rubbish being left and dirty streets are always going to happen with big public festivals (like Brighton Pride) but Notting hill is just seeming to get more sinister each year.

Time to cancel the festival for 1 year, sit down and re think how this could be made into a ticketed festival in 2020. The price of the ticket will help pay for the extra policing and security, fencing and security around the cordoned off area and contribute towards charities the festival supports. Think Hyde park concerts in the park type event, we need to keep people safe.

As a resident of the carnival route I completely disagree.
This years vibe was very chilled.
The carnival brings loads of money to the area and London (I read in the region of £150m with the spend being £6m).
As for the random stop and searches and racial profiling I believe further reading would prove insightful. Police go there looking for arrests Imo- but this year better than last with that ridic facial recognition program!
Also, the clean ups almost done.
Not everyone is going to like it, but it has its place culturally and it's a wonderful event for the community.

YABU. There'd be a riot.

" We are quite happy to say terrorists are a major threat to Londoners but these groups are a MUCH worse threat to our daily lives "

which "groups" do you mean? in fact what do you mean? Do you have a problem with logic?

Fekko my DM was one of them, before they lost the shop. We always tried to be out of town when Carnival was on, when I lived at home.

They stopped St Paul's for a few years, did ticket events for locals and a few fundraisers. It was back on this year and great. Seemed to lose a fair bit of the rowdy crowd in the process, reclaimed it as a community event.

@billysboy ok the graffiti- some shop fronts pay to have them done (surprisingly my chemist?!) and then on Thursday and Friday some residents and shop owners walk around with cans and do a bit themselves. It's actually quite fun.
My daughters nursery got the older kids to "decorate" their plywood door...
just a different perspective

Witch the reason it exists is because Caribbean immigrants started it to celebrate their culture. Of course it's about race. If you cancel the Carnival, you're saying a big "FUCK YOU" to that community.

" We are quite happy to say terrorists are a major threat to Londoners but these groups are a MUCH worse threat to our daily lives "

which "groups" do you mean? in fact what do you mean? Do you have a problem with logic?

"Groups" = Groups of people that carry knives and other weapons. No matter what their race or religion.

Hope that clears it up. Not sure where you are getting the problem with logic?

because if someone was stabbed with a knife, there would be ONE victim.
A terrorist bomb kills many more.
Therefore to say that Carnival is more dangerous than terrorism , for London, is just illogical and a bit silly.

PhilomenaButterfly.

Yes that's why I'm suggesting moving it to being a ticket only event. It shouldn't be cancelled but it shouldn't be allowed to just go on and on every year with the same results. There has been a lot of people on this thread reporting everything from burglary to police assaults and the need for the residents every year board up their homes. That is unacceptable.

To be honest I don't think the cons of upsetting the carribean community by cancelling the event for 1 year whilst plans are put in place to move the event out weigh the pros of preventing all this horrific crime. I am sure the family of the guy who was stabbed this year would agree.

I don't think it should be cancelled. I just don't like it but that's fine, I doubt they'd miss me!!

But if it's ticketed, the very community who started it won't be able to afford to go. I don't know any well off black people personally. Ordinary working class people won't be able to afford it.

I don't think it should be cancelled, however it should be relocated and ticketed for better security.

"It's pathetic making it about race"?! Of all the spectacularly stupid things I've ever read online, that has to be top of the list. Maybe read about the origins of NHC before you make yourself look ridiculous with a comment like that.

It's been going since 1976, in those 42 years there have been five deaths, that's fewer than one every eight years. Still too many but not as many as you might be led to believe. It's two days out of 365 and attendance isn't obligatory.

I never thought that the older I got, the more intolerant society would become but that's the way it's going. It seems that all the advances we've made are being unravelled.

Four fried chicken ...

"because if someone was stabbed with a knife, there would be ONE victim.
A terrorist bomb kills many more.
Therefore to say that Carnival is more dangerous than terrorism , for London, is just illogical and a bit silly."

Oh as long as there is only 1 victim that's ok then.

There has been over 100 people killed in London this year so far by stabbings and random attacks. There has actually been no one killed in 2018 by a terrorist in the UK not even London.

Headline on the daily mail is very similar to the op, all the focus is on the negative side of large events.

It is a community event why should the many be punished because of the few? The history has to be looked in context to carnival & no it should not be cancelled, it’s part of London history & our culture in west London. Annoyingly this program isn’t on iPlayer but it explains a lot about the area, if it comes on again it’s worth watching

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b6q2sh

An alternative - A positive news article:
metro.co.uk/2018/08/28/notting-hill-carnival-pictures-reveal-incredible-and-adventurous-costumes-7888559/

Philomena Butterfly

I take your point about affording it. Perhaps there would be free tickets given to Carribean groups, community workers and organisers. Maybe anyone on the floats or in the parade could be given 5 tickets each to give away to family and friends to make it fairer. I am not suggesting the event be held to make profit but you need to sell tickets to create a system.

the carnival nay sayers always come across a bit racist tbh. they have no problem with violence and drugtaking when done by white people.

This really irritates me. These constant claims of racism if you have a problem with Carnival. Why is it so hard to understand that there's big differences between a festival taking place in a wide open space and Carnival, which takes place in a residential area, literally thousands of homes and families and their belongings are affected. You can't even go out to walk your dog for two days. I live a couple of km away and would avoid leaving the house or letting my teen out during that time and yes I have been, a couple of times actually.

@Witchofwisteria so black people on floats can perform for the white folk who can afford to go!!! WHAT??? And what about the people who live there and wouldn't be able to go?
No, its a community event.
I feel like you are very parted from reality of what the carnival is, how it started and what is means...

Talking about the origins of carnival are a bit irrelevant as its grown into something completely different.

Another blissfully ignorant post. Take second place, Twistella.

I love the way that you point out to someone how illogical and silly their post is, and they just ignore you, because they know you are right.

" there has been over 100 people stabbed.."
and how many of those were within the streets where Carnival takes place, within that 2 day time frame?

Another blissfully ignorant post.

Eh? Why? Are you saying that the thousands of people pissing in gardens and getting off their nut give a shit about the lovely Caribbean origins?

I've been to ticketed events where the tickets were free.

It just means that you have to be organised in order to go... not that you have to have money. Usually tickets are given to local groups to distribute, so charities related to the event, youth groups, schools, local businesses etc. then the rest are made available to anyone else who wants.

In my experience it does work to cut down the number of people just out to make trouble.