A former Scotland Yard inspector says the Notting Hill Carnival is a prime example of “two-tier policing,” suggesting that officers are hesitant to make arrests due to fears of being labelled racist.
Former detective Mike Neville said the behaviour often seen at the Carnival would lead to a ban if it occurred at other events, such as football matches. His comments come as 7,000 Metropolitan Police officers are being deployed to manage the two-day event, which is expected to draw over a million attendees.
Last year the Carnival saw 275 arrests, with eight people stabbed and 80 police officers assaulted. Despite the shocking figures Neville alleges that officers are reluctant to enforce the law aggressively at the Carnival due to concerns about accusations of racism. He claimed that officers are instructed to make arrests only in the “most extreme” circumstances, citing community sensitivities as the reason.
“You see people openly smoking drugs, abusing police officers, and even incidents of dancing with female officers to the point of sexual assault,” Neville told the UK Telegraph. “If this happened at football matches, the event would be banned.”
The Notting Hill Carnival, which began in 1966 as a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture, has grown significantly over the years.
Scotland Yard has denied that it applies different standards of policing to the event. Commander Charmain Brenyah emphasised that officers would maintain a vigilant presence, using search powers when necessary to remove weapons and prevent violence.
Brenyah acknowledged the challenges posed by the event’s scale, noting that crowd management specialists have been deployed to monitor the flow and density of the crowd.
Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has defended the Carnival, stating that it is statistically as safe as other major festivals, including Glastonbury and Reading, and even safer than England football matches at Wembley Stadium.
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3 personnes ont été poignardées lors d’incidents distincts le premier jour du carnaval annuel de #NottingHill à #Londres. #NottingHillCarnival2024l’Angleterre a disparu…
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Well, if the police would dare to be ” aggressive” they would be lynch by the mob.
Numbers count
London Mayor Sadiq Khan sewer rat
The UK needs to start advertising for men, real men.
For a good salary I’d come and straighten things out, js.
The Police are not scared of accusations of racism they are just scared of being killed by the mob and the mob are aware of this and will become emboldened by it.
The UK police just like those here in NZ are politicised, its as simple as that. They are told who to arrest and who not to, based on a political agenda. I have zero respect for them these days and view them as something akin to the KGB or Stazi.