The Metropolitan Police Federation has confirmed that 74 police officers were assaulted during this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, the highest figure in recent memory.
During the last Notting Hill Carnival in 2019, 52 police officers were assaulted.
Much of the violence tends to occur on so-called ‘adults day’, which is held on the final day of the carnival.
On Tuesday, 30th August, Emergency Services News contacted the Press Beruax at the Metropolitan Police to request the number concerning how many emergency workers were assaulted.
However, the Met’s press bureau has not released the figures despite releasing the relevant statistics for prior Notting Hil Carnivals.
Instead, it was down to the Metropolitan Police Federation to release the shocking data before its chairman appeared on LBC radio.
A spokesperson for the MPF said:
’74 Metropolitan Police officers were injured across the two days of the Notting Hill Carnival.
‘These are people’s sons and daughters. These are children’s mothers and fathers. This happens every year. It’s an utter disgrace. We wish all brave colleagues a swift recovery.’
Also speaking on Talk TV, Ken Marsh said:
“This is happening year after year after year at this so-called happy weekend we are faced with. We cannot keep having this situation. It’s disgusting. My colleagues face this danger every Summer Bank Holiday.”
The MPF also said that one female officer was sexually assaulted by ‘numerous males’. Reports said the female officer was attacked after being grabbed in a headlock.
Images shared on social media also show the moments when Met Police officers desperately tried to save the life of a 21-year-old male who had been stabbed on the final day of the carnival.
Bristol rapper TkorStretch was stabbed to death after attending the event with his friends and sister. He leaves behind his pregnant girlfriend.
Mr Marsh said that officers “dread” policing the event, mainly because of the violence levels witnessed on the final day of the carnival.
One officer, tweeting about the carnival, said:
“It is heartbreaking to see people getting assaulted and unable to do anything about it because the crowds are so tightly packed together.”
Mr Marsh added:
“We’ve seized dozens of knives over the course of the two days, we’ve stopped probably 200 or 300 fights, small, sporadic fights. This is not a fun-loving weekend.
“98% of people who go there are law-abiding and want to enjoy themselves.
“The element, and there is an element, and I’m going to put it out there, because I’m absolutely fed up with no one talking about it, there is an element which go for one reason.
“That is to cause harm to others and that is not stopping, has never stopped and we need to just say enough is enough.”
Seven stabbings were reported across the carnival. Six of those were non-fatal.
As of 00:01 hours on Tuesday, 30th August, a total of 209 people were arrested.
36 for possession of drugs, 5 for criminal damage, 27 for public order, 46 for assault, 8 for sexual assault, 10 for possession of psychoactive substances, 33 for possession of an offensive weapon, 7 for drink/drug driving, 35 for ‘other’, 1 for theft and 1 for robbery.
Before you go...
WE NEED YOUR HELP.Here at Emergency Services News, we aim to tell you stories that the mainstream media are not interested in reporting. Whilst the MSM love to berate and ridicule the emergency services, who is there to report on the realities of serving on the front line?
Emergency Services News is currently a loss-making entity. But our team of volunteers, all former emergency services personnel, do not do it for the money.
We do it because we are sick and tired of the mainstream media constantly trying to undermine the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep you and your family safe.
How many MSM journalists who speak ill of the emergency services have actually dared to don the uniform and risk their own lives to save the life of a complete stranger? If you would like to help back our mission of reporting on fact-based news, then please consider helping to support us financially.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
I would have thought that at least one, it not two zeros could and perhaps should have been added to the arrest total.
I went to the carnival in 1977 where there were running battles and back then, the police had no protective equipment at all and were reduced to using galvanised dustbin lids as shields.
We could of course ban the carnival but it would probably still go ahead illegally and be even harder, if not, impossible to police.
The underlying cause for all this is the ever laxer law enforcement. This is not just a police issue, although the woke indoctrination of senior officers by Bramshill does not help, but rather a political class across the House that is forever reducing sentences to criminals. As a result, more people become confrontational, knowing full well that nothing will happen to them. So their DNA and prints are on record. Big deal. So what? Even if convicted, it is highly unlikely they will end up on jail. As a result, from the end of the 50s onward, crime has inexorably risen to the point now whereby the police do not turn out for shop thefts of under £250, up from £100.
As shoplifting increases, which it will, doubtless this level will rise again, perhaps to £500. If shop owners, large and small, tackle the thieves, they end up in trouble, so if they are big enough, simply pass the cost on. The rest shut up shop forever. Then everyone wails about the death of the high street.
Unless and until we have politicians who will mandate locking up thieves, deporting foreign criminals and generally clamping down on crime, this sorry state will continue.
Drugs are corrosive. They create addictions which forces addicts to steal to get their fix while the gangs fight each other on the streets with plenty of innocent victims who got in the way of stray bullets. We have little Olivia in Liverpool, but a few Christmases ago, there was a girl gunned down at a bus stop, caught in the cross fire.
The thrust is to go after Mr Big. This is generally unsuccessful. Going after users and street dealers would be much more effective because it would be dealing with customers and retailers. They all go to jail for a minimum period that doubles upon each conviction. I would suggest 12 months for a Class A user and 24 months for a dealer of anything. I would also be quite happy for plea bargaining, along the lines of give us your contacts up the chain and we will see to it that you only do the minimum, otherwise we will press for lots more than the minimum.
The message will be clear. After 4 user convictions, you will spend a guaranteed total of 15 years inside. Do it again and you will get another 16 years on top, a total of 31 years or much of your adult life.
We do not have the jails, I hear you cry. For early offenders where rehabilitation is the objective, they can stay in the nice prisons. For those who spurn this help, they will end up in WW2 style prison camps complete with armed guards and warning wire.
The sensible ones will mend their ways and the stupid or downright vicious ones will never see the light of day again. While I remember, no discounts and no parole.