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.

If you want irreparable damage to race relations and the potential of riots in protest..cancelling the carnival would do that.

I find it too crowded. I went when I was younger. DD18 went for the first time yesterday... I'm glad she came back safe and sound.

"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..."

This year police have confiscated 49 knives and 70 offensive weapons total

The knives are, of course, included in the total number of offensive weapons.

There seems to be considerable confusion as to figures. Looking at the various news outlets, it seems that some are confusing the number arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon with the number of weapons seized. According to the Met, 36 weapons were seized. That does not include any seized by the BTP but suggests the total is less than 40.

In a typical day, London sees 19 offensive weapon offences and 70 wounding/GBH offences. In total there are 2,266 offences classed as violence against the person in London per day.

It is easy to look at the statistics for the Carnival in isolation and say how bad they are. The real question for me is what the total figures across London look like for the two days and whether there is any evidence that the Carnival causes an increase.

Regardless of how significant these figures are, I would not personally be in favour of cancelling the Carnival. The figures justify taking measures to keep the Carnival safe but, in my view, are nowhere near bad enough to justify cancellation.

Oh yes and residents who have lived there for five minutes shouldn't actually have the ultimate say on the event. Given it was there before them and they knew that when they moved in.

Oh yes and residents who have lived there for five minutes shouldn't actually have the ultimate say on the event

Who should?

It is important to note the sheer number of people who attend, its about a million people which is the same as the whole population of Birmingham.
A quick google shows that one person was stabbed at Carnival and one person was Stabbed in Birmingham (well, West Bromwich). So it's statistically no worse than any other large group of people. Finances are a bit of a mess though www.ft.com/content/4a212894-a6d8-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff35b

@deepsea I appreciate the cultural heritage but looking at it from both sides it attracts lots of negativity which loses the community spirit, which is sad as a minority spoil it for the majority. If drugs and knives are an issue then this should be addressed and tighter controls put in place. The Police are often working their rest days for this event. Would it work better if it was a ticketed event? It has grown over the years and behaviours change but drugs, knives and ASB are not acceptable.

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

I literally don’t give a shit about adults taking drugs in festivals which have a security perimeter and are ticketed events.

I do give a shit about knives, acid and violence in an open, urban street area where local residents are scared and and have their property damaged.

Witch that may work, as long as they can justify it to the people who have to pay. Anyone who has to pay will want to know why other people are getting in free. I've also never heard of a ticketed parade.

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.

Shouldn’t be expensive tickets - but either free or nominally priced like £5 a go with s large number of free comets for community groups.

I wouldn't go personally - looks like my idea of hell.

If people want to go, then that's their lookout & they know the risks they're taking (no matter how small).

It's the people that have no choice in the matter I feel sorry for - the residents & shop owners who are affected negatively.

That's the big difference between this & a festival.

Wish people would stop bringing race into it.

The event has outgrown the area it's in, it's not the right space for it, it needs to be moved.

Stop comparing other festivals to NHC. Things like Glastonbury arrests are not comparable, the majority of these are drug offences and not violent crime, I'm not looking up the stats because I have a life and I frankly cannot be bothered.

Although as I recall there was a festival this year which was cancelled for its 2nd day after teens overdosed on drugs - so yes other events have been cancelled due to the actions of a few.

It's just madness to carry on repeating the event every year the same bad things keep happening! 70 weapons were recovered (How many more just were not found!) yes there were 1 million people but if you carry a weapon I think you must have an intention to use it. So that's 70 + potential stabbings/injuries - why should we risk that!!!

Other festivals are just as much as a pain in the arse for local residents - I live in a town with one of the ‘big’ annual festivals and it’s full of people wandering round town absolutely off their faces. Locals always board up their properties because otherwise people piss or pass out on their doorsteps. There have been deaths; and 2 days later there’s still rubbish and abandoned camping gear strewn all over town. I grit my teeth because it must bring in a lot of money, and it’s only a nightmare for 2 weeks or so of the year. I try and go away for the weekend to avoid the worst of it.

There’s very little news coverage about my festival stirring up outrage. Now, I could make some observations about all the young white people attending this festival, but that would be “making it about race”, wouldn’t it?

you can't not bring race into it. although everyone is welcome its a carribean event. how is that hard to understand??

right so about the 100 stabbings that you mentioned earlier Ms "I'm not looking up the stats" Logic?

If you don't want to look up the stats, stop making silly sweeping statements.

I agree. Needs to be cancelled or moved to a non residential area such as Hyde Park. I’m tired of not being able to go anywhere all weekend and not be able to walk my dog due to loud, drunk and disorderly people on my street. Not being able to sleep until gone midnight due to various house parties in the area and people roaming the streets. It’s not fair on people who live here and should be moved ASAP.

because Birmingham will have had a fraction of police covering the area that Carnival had. And Carnival had lots of security measures in place Birmingham did not have. And still someone was stabbed.
I don't think it should be cancelled, but I do think it should be moved to an open air space, rather than streets. I do understand that the point of carnival is to parade through the streets, but it is too large now to do that safely.

on the other hand, NH wouldn't have got so trendy and popular without Carnival would it?
So all these trend seekers move into an area, and then want to change what brought them there in the first place.
Do you see what I mean?
On the other hand, maybe Hyde Park is not a bad idea.

you can't not bring race into it. although everyone is welcome its a carribean event. how is that hard to understand??

And yet to me when I discuss it, race is utterly irrelevant. It's a large event, that's too big for an unsuitable venue and has negative impact on those residing there. I couldn't care less who attends it. How is that hard to understand? Why are you insisting that it's racist or about race?

@sara move then! you think we should cancel years of history and cultural heritage so you can walk a fucking dog?? that is too ridiculous for words

Dyrne There have been threats to cancel Glastonbury in the past. That is why there were major changes to the security and number of police on site. It went through a few years where it was dangerous, and the police said if they didn't clean up their act, it would not get a licence.

You're being ridiculous @Ummmmgogo. This isn't one person and one dog as you very well know, it's literally thousands of such inconveniences AND much more serious ones, to thousands of people and costing millions of £££. All of which could be alleviated by a slight change in venue.

It only got trendy over the past 20 years.

The Julia Roberts film really 'helped' (the number of times I've been asked for directions to 'the door'...). Before that it was more a poor white English/Irish/black area.