Celebrating "diversity" - Notting Hill 2008

Dont you just love it? I dont recall seeing this is my daily paper, i wonder why?

The Notting Hill Carnival, meant to be a “showcase of Britain’s immigrant community and diversity,” ended this year (again) in carnage and bloody street battles between police and black gangs, which resulted in at least 488 arrests.

Some 11,000 police officers were deployed at the event, costing taxpayers £6 million. They were attacked, glassed, pelted with missiles and confronted all day with everything from knife wielding black hoodlums and drunks, to dangerous dogs. Knives, a Taser gun, CS spray and a baseball bat were among the weapons seized during the rioting which followed the end of the carnival, billed as Europe’s largest “celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture.”

A total of 488 arrests were made during the event — 330 in the Notting Hill area and 158 around Oval, where police prevented about 160 black youths from south London entering the main carnival area.

Officers bussed 151 of them to south London police stations where they were detained until the carnival was over. Seven were arrested for possession of bladed articles or public order offences.
Police were battered near the centre of the carnival in Ladbroke Grove after 40 black youths attacked them in planned formations for two hours, pelting them with everything they could find, including bottles, bricks, steel bars and other objects. One officer was glassed in the face.
Backup had to be called in the form of fully armoured riot police, who baton-charged the black mob before order was restored.

Witnesses described a ‘war zone’. One witness said: “It was a full-scale riot. Bottles were flying everywhere. Carnival-goers and police officers were bloodied. A policewoman was carried off unconscious.”
“Another had a two-inch gash above his eye. He was staggering and supported by two colleagues. The mob weren’t scared. They were running towards the police who were chanting ‘one, two, three’ and charging them. It was like a war zone. I haven’t seen anything like it at the carnival since the early Nineties. It reminded me of the Brixton riots or the film Zulu.”

The 488 arrests were for offences ranging from assault, possessing an offensive weapon, drunk driving and theft, to public order and drugs. Even this figure is still being revised upwards.
Arrests for some of the more serious offences included: 59 for drug offences, 25 for carrying an offensive weapon, 40 public order offences, 18 for assault, 11 for theft, seven for drunken behaviour, two sexual offences and two for robbery.
Specialist dog liaison officers impounded 19 dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Black gangs in London have increasingly taken to using dogs as attack weapons.
A teen was stabbed twice in the upper back after 10 to 12 youths chased him like a pack of animals in Clifford Gardens in the final hours of the carnival. The stabbed teenager had been chased by a gang of black youths just yards from where City lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price, 31, was stabbed to death in a robbery by black youths two years ago.
Melissa Johnson, 18, said: “I heard people screaming and swearing so I came outside. He was lying on the ground on his back with his head on the side. There was blood all on his face.”
Engineer Robert Dowdy, 40, said: “They chased him up the road like a pack of dogs, yelling and screaming. They were kicking and punching and swinging at him. There were two stab wounds on his upper back.”
Chief Inspector Jo Edwards praised ‘proactive policing’, including stop and search tactics, as authorities sought to avoid a repeat of the shootings and stabbings which had dogged previous years. Last year, two teenagers were shot, while two men were murdered in 2000, and memories of riots in 1976 linger.
Chief Inspector Edwards said: “The number of arrests is up on last year, but that is predominantly because of proactive policing.” Police used stop-and-search tactics throughout the carnival and metal detectors at tube station entry points to catch potential criminals.

Tory Traitor London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “As a former resident of Ladbroke Grove, I have watched the Notting Hill Carnival go from strength to strength each year to become an internationally acclaimed event. Nothing beats the sounds of the steel pans, the aroma of delicious Caribbean food and the dazzling colours of the costume parade.” (or the sound of steel on flesh presumably?)

What he didnt say was ANYTHING that was related to the above, the fact that the police only record crime at the Carnival on the main road (anything else is recorded as local crime even its within 20 feet of the main drag - so the realistically you could double the above numbers and still be on the light side). He also stated "as a former resident of...." - well i wouldnt want to live there either Boris, but some of us indigenous folk dont have a choice. Ho hum....................