A new-found report about Notting Hill Carnival (Europes largest street celebration) shows deep-rooted safety problems for law enforcement workers
Hell. Its a war zone we are sent into year after year I would rather crawl naked through broken glass [[survey respondent]]
The report by Simon Hill and the Metropolitan Police Federation shows concerning data from their mid-fall survey: about 89% of police staff dont feel safe at work during carnival time‚ and nearly 29% faced physical attacks. The survey (which got 486 responses) looked at front-line experiences working at the mega-party that brings hundreds-of-thousands to west-London streets each August
This years carnival had some rough numbers:
- 349 people arrested
- 61 police workers attacked
- 8 knife-related incidents
- 2 deaths
Hill‚ who works as deputy general-secretary says officers work super-long hours - like 30-40 hours in just two days; which isnt good for their health. He points out that no other London event has such big problems with crime and safety
The carnival company - Notting Hill Carnival Ltd - fights back saying the report has problems: “This survey shows views of just 7% of working officers and seems to push anti-carnival ideas that come up every year“‚ they wrote in their counter-statement. They think police use carnival to cover-up their own work-management issues