Calls mount against Notting Hill Carnival in the U.K. after violence that left one person dead
The carnival was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVIS pandemic, but once again resumed this year to celebrate Caribbean culture.
The Notting Hill Carnival in the United Kingdom is once again the site of mass violence, which saw over 200 people arrested, 74 police officers injured, and one person dead over the weekend.
Calls to permanently cancel the annual open music event are mounting with this year's violence. The carnival was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, but once again resumed this year to celebrate Caribbean culture.
The carnival has an established reputation of being a weekend-long event full of criminality, including rape, assaults, and thefts – but advocates for the festival argue that the event highlights the beauty of multiculturalism.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the event, saying the “vibes are immaculate.” It is a claim that stands in stark contrast to the reality of the Notting Hill Carnival, and one that Brexit leader Nigel Farage singled out on social media with a video of the violence.
London Mayor @SadiqKhan says the #NottingHillCarnival vibes were “immaculate”.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 30, 2022
There were over 200 arrests, a stabbing, several sexual assaults. A total and utter disgrace.
Watch this video for the truth! https://t.co/Ltrx06sHQY pic.twitter.com/sElJgsgSdb
As detailed by the Telegraph, 74 police officers were injured, two female police officers were sexually assaulted, police recorded eight additional sexual assaults, six stabbings, and one murder.
Police also seized hundreds of knives in 441 stop and searches and performed 209 total arrests.
According to The Telegraph, the chairman for the Metropolitan Police Federation, Ken Marsh stated, “For the last two years my colleagues have spent the August bank holiday not being assaulted in large numbers. Why not? Because the Notting Hill Carnival did not take place.”
Marsh also said:
But today we are having to again face the fallout from policing the event. The tragedy is that someone has been killed,” he added. “But also 34 of my colleagues have been hurt after coming under attack. One female officer was grabbed in a headlock and sexually assaulted.
This is completely unacceptable. Every year we argue that this event should not take place but we are not listened to.
There were 11,000 officers on duty across the weekend. For lots of them this was their first experience of policing the carnival and they have been left extremely shocked by what they have seen and been subjected to.
We are simply not listened to and those who support the carnival do not seem to care what happens to police officers. The violence my colleagues face when policing this event seems to be the price we have to pay and that is a completely unacceptable situation.
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