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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cancel the Notting Hill Carnival!

373 replies

Witchofwisteria · 28/08/2018 07:33

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.

OP posts:
Bluelady · 28/08/2018 10:14

Missed the point again, Twistella. Try a bit harder.

CarolDanvers · 28/08/2018 10:14

I don't think Twistella is ignorant at all though don't agree with all of it. I do think the origins are important but I do agree that the event as it is now bears little resemblance to how it started out and so it has to change to be safer and have less impact on the area it's held in and those who have to keep it safe.

FupaGlory · 28/08/2018 10:18

These 100 murders happened this Carni weekend yeah?

Carni is a street parade. Carni is about race and has always been about race. Plenty enjoy the community feel to it. Some ruin it but that's not enough to cancel it!

Twistella · 28/08/2018 10:19

If you think carnival today bears any resemblence to how it started then it is you that is the ignorant one!

Oakmaiden · 28/08/2018 10:19

I guess you could do free tickets for local residents/workers...

But the problem isn't really the Carnival, it is the anti social behaviour from some of the attendees. I don't really know what you can do about that, other than have a large police presence prepared to make arrests. Which I understand is the case already... and make sure there is plenty of access to public loos etc...

FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast · 28/08/2018 10:21

" These 100 murders happened this Carni weekend yeah? "

no, but OP is using her stunning logic and saying, "100 knife murders have happened across London over the last year, therefore let's ban Carnival"

OK......

Bluelady · 28/08/2018 10:24

Whether it's the same now as it was 42 years ago is completely irrelevant. It was started by the Afro Caribbean community and it's their event. Ant attempt by entitled white people to make them change it will deservedly end very badly.

WorraLiberty · 28/08/2018 10:26

I do think the origins are important but I do agree that the event as it is now bears little resemblance to how it started out and so it has to change to be safer and have less impact on the area it's held in and those who have to keep it safe.

This ^^

It's grown far too big for a residential area, surely anyone can see that?

Of course it shouldn't be banned but it should be re-routed imo.

Actually come to think about it, the residents/shopkeepers should be given a vote, so they decide.

Twistella · 28/08/2018 10:29

It was started by the Afro Caribbean community and it's their event. Ant attempt by entitled white people to make them change it will deservedly end very badly.

LOL. The whole thing is full of entitled white people, usually off their tits on coke.

deepsea · 28/08/2018 10:30

Twistella The carnival bears no resemblance to how it began because it is such an iconic British event now, before it was just a small gathering. But does not change its origins or the purpose of the carnival they stay the same.

I for one am delighted to live in a country where all cultures are celebrated relatively safely and where everyone is welcome and can join in.

I am proud of the fact we live in a country where every culture has its place, is valued and can celebrate together. Under no circumstances should Notting Hill Carnival ever be discontinued, but making it safer in today's security climate would be preferential.

Bluelady · 28/08/2018 10:31

Maybe but it's not THEIR event.

abilockhart · 28/08/2018 10:31

Please have some consideration for the Daily Mail and its readers.
It's August, news is slow and they would really miss the annual outrage.

deepsea · 28/08/2018 10:32

Twistella

LOL. The whole thing is full of entitled white people, usually off their tits on coke

Your just being goady now. I am assuming you were not there this weekend then...

deepsea · 28/08/2018 10:34

Maybe Twistella is from the Daily Mail and wishes to spice up the thread into an all out bun fight. Sorry love but you are going to have try a little harder.

Faultymain5 · 28/08/2018 10:36

Yabu especially if you use stats that even the Sun haven't used. Over 370 less than 400 (373 if we're being a little accurate).

Go and trouble another festival please.

People have been trying to move it for years to sanitize it and downgrade it. Rather than focussing on the real problems of crime, their focussing on an event.

DioneTheDiabolist · 28/08/2018 10:36

Tickets don't have to cost money. In my city there are numerous free events that are "ticketed" (wrist bands, not tickets). Anyone can get a maximum of 4 tickets which are then shown to organisers in order to get into the area where the event happens.

It's really cut down on antisocial behaviour and fights. It was a simple enough measure to implement.

Gin96 · 28/08/2018 10:36

I loved the Nottinghill Carnival, I went when I was 14, which 34 years ago, I felt very safe. Why has crime in London so much worse now?

abacucat · 28/08/2018 10:36

People keep posting that article about how carnival has less arrests than other big festivals. I have read that article, the arrests at other festivals are for drug offences. I don't believe for a moment that most people at carnival taking or selling drugs are in danger of being arrested, but to be honest I don't care about drug taking.
What concerns me and others is the violence. I went one year. I have been to other festivals. Carnival was scary. There was an edge and I would never go back. If it was an event for any other section of the community, it would have been cancelled or moved somewhere else.

Twistella · 28/08/2018 10:37

I've been many times and had a flat in Ladbroke Grove.

If you are genuinely trying to say there's not a huge amount of white people pissed and on drugs at carnival then it's really not worth listening to anything else you say!

By the way, I don't think it should be cancelled (as I've said many times), I just think going nowadays would be my idea of hell.

CarolDanvers · 28/08/2018 10:38

am proud of the fact we live in a country where every culture has its place, is valued and can celebrate together. Under no circumstances should Notting Hill Carnival ever be discontinued,

Agree. Now what can be done to make it safer and have less impact on the people who live in the area where it takes place. Do you think an urban, residential area is a suitable venue for such a huge festival and gathering, over three days?

MapleLeafRag · 28/08/2018 10:39

I’m waiting for the Daily Mail report on Jacob R-M “insightful” take on the future of the event.

May be check- points for “inspections”.

abacucat · 28/08/2018 10:39

Anyway, nothing will happen, it will carry on as it is. And most sensible people will stay well away, especially in the evening.

Bluelady · 28/08/2018 10:39

Twistella, nobody said that! Do try and read what people actually write rather than what you wish they had.

user139328237 · 28/08/2018 10:40

You can't compare the amount of drugs confiscated at festivals and carnival as evidence that crime is lower at the carnival. Closed festivals with searches on entry should see the majority of drugs confiscated on entry where it is much safer for the police to do so and even where drugs on not caught at that point the searches should minimise the amount of weapons in the festival making it much safer for the police to actively intervene whereas at carnival the police have to spend the vast majority of time keeping the peace meaning they have to ignore the vast majority of drug taking even if it happens right in front of them.
With regards to other crime the typically middle class festival attendees are much more likely to report incidents to the police than the people who attend the carnival.

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