Don’t let killjoys cease Notting Hill Carnival after cops name it a ‘war zone’

THEY’VE started early. The rush to rip up the Notting Hill Carnival has become even more of a fixture than the annual celebration of cultural unity.

Don’t listen. Its critics foam at the mouth, but for all their vitriol the truth is most people who flock to it arrive seeking fun, food, festivities and music.

So now the anti-Carnival lobby is adopting new tactics. They’ve seized on a new survey of police officers anonymously labelling the event as a “war zone” and “hell” with almost 90% of respondents insisting they’ve felt unsafe working during the event.

The survey of 486 officers appears a little light on “solid data”, according to the Carnival organisers, who say it is “driven by unsubstantiated quotes”.

Either way, let’s go with the evidence of our own eyes. Because the anti-Carnival lobby always self-combust with anger at the sight of officers positively engaging, singing, dancing or anything else which, being human, they’ve been seen to do with attendees over the years.

As recently as August, officers policing the event were actually advised by the Met Police NOT to dance with revellers. Police were even threatened, back in 2019, with a “dancing ban”. Fancy that.

Outlets reporting those edicts were able to find plenty of pictures and footage from over the years to illustrate the shared joy and the officers’ ability to embrace the spirit of the occasion. Could it be that those police men and women – who actually wanted to be there – have been replaced with those who don’t?

Because that would be manna from heaven for those who wish to divide us. Those who jump on anything to whip us into a tipping point. Humanity only matters to them if it can be used to anger ordinary people into taking their side.

One million people are estimated to attend the event, dubbed the biggest street party in Europe, each August Bank Holiday weekend.

That eight people were stabbed there this year is absolutely a cause for concern. Two people died. Our thoughts are absolutely with their loved ones.

Yet knife crime had already been an issue in that part of the capital for London’s Metropolitan Police – Carnival or no Carnival.

In addition, we can no more judge a million people by the actions of, say, 10 people, than we can all football fans by the punch-up in which dozens of West Ham supporters were involved in during last Saturday’s Premier League game against Arsenal.

That is, unless your go-to instinct on witnessing a large gathering of black people in a concentrated area is to see it as a potential crime hotspot.

At Glastonbury this year police dealt with burglary, a robbery, two sexual offences, 19 drug offences, 26 acts of theft and no fewer than 30 acts of violence against individuals.

When people are punched and women are abused at the middle class haunt held at Somerset’s Worthy Farm that somehow doesn’t seem as much of an issue.

Nor the 16 reported rapes of women at Leeds festival between 2018 and 2023, none of which so far have led to a prosecution. In 2022 at the same festival a 16-year-old boy died after taking drugs.

The final night at the Reading festival has been nicknamed “The Purge”, a nod to the American anarchic movie of the same name, with violence often breaking out among attendees.

Both Leeds and Reading festivals are attended by around 200,000 revellers. There have yet to be calls for either to be scrapped, even though research by The Spectator shows the arrest rate per 100,000 revellers per day to be higher at Leeds than at the Carnival.

There is not a public outdoor gathering in the country at which a tiny minority does not arrive looking for trouble. But the Notting Hill Carnival has a rich history of camaraderie between law enforcement and party seekers. We’ve lost so much in our society that binds us. Carnival cannot be yet another casualty.