A former Metropolitan Police officer has called for the Notting Hill Carnival to be “abolished or moved” over rampant crime at the London festival.
Speaking to GB News, Norman Brennan said the level of violence and offending associated with the Carnival had “gone too far”, with members of the public being warned about the risk of sexual assaults.
“What does this say about an event when you’ve got to warn the public, and in particular females, that there’s a good likelihood that they’re going to be indecently assaulted?” he said.
“It would deter people going. It will make people feel unsafe.”
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Mr Brennan said that criminality at the event had now reached a point where its future must be reconsidered.
“I think Notting Hill has reached the point where it’s either abolished or it’s actually moved,” he said.
“Last year there were 525 crimes committed. Dozens of police officers were assaulted. Dozens of weapons were seized, and many crimes are not even reported.”
The former officer, who policed the Carnival as a shield unit officer, frontline constable and detective, said managing the event was especially difficult.
“Let me tell you now, none of us enjoys policing Notting Hill Carnival.”
“It’s often full of murders, stabbings, rapes, serious assaults, and the only thing that we enjoy about a Notting Hill Carnival day is double time.”
“We can’t wait for the event to finish.”
He described the scale of the policing operation required, with specialist officers, detectives, vehicles, CCTV and an airborne police helicopter deployed.
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“We monitor everyone and the huge cost and the strain on policing is — it’s got too far.”
“The sad reality is too many attend and destroy it and ruin it for all the people that turn up for the right reasons to behave themselves.”
Delving into why the Notting Hill Carnival had such a problem with criminality compared to other large events, Mr Brennan blamed gang culture.
“The biggest problem, and it’s always been a problem, is that we’ve got 4,000 gangs in Britain, 200 in London,” he said.
“And they see this as an annual event where they can take out retribution attacks, because many of these gang members actually attend these events.”
Mr Brennan pointed to weapons seizures made by the Metropolitan Police ahead of the Carnival.
“When you look at my colleagues in the Met over the last week, they have seized 70 zombie knives.”
“That’s how the police see it, and that’s how serious Notting Hill Carnival is,” the former officer said.
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