Notting Hill resident of 15 years says carnival shouldn't be on ‘people’s streets’
30 August 2022, 16:15
Caller says Notting Hill Carnival has become 'about flexing muscles'
After 21-year-old Takayo Nembhard was stabbed during Notting Hill Carnival, a Notting Hill resident shared her issues with crime the carnival brings to “people's streets”.
An earlier caller raised the idea that the Notting Hill Carnival isn’t worth having, now a 21-year-old man has been killed.
Police reported that they made 209 arrests at carnival for a variety of offences.
Sangita Myska asked Hyacinth, a resident from Notting Hill: “What do you make of the Notting Hill Carnival and whether or not it should be allowed to continue given the fact that there is often serious crime?”
Hyacinth started: “If you want to do the carnival you should do the carnival but it shouldn’t be on our streets.”
She went on to outline the various vandalism she witnessed during the event.
She said: “The streets are full of rubbish, people’s property is not respected. People got on top of a bus stop and were dancing and they crashed the bus stop down.”
Her solution: “The government and the council need to move it to a park or a big field, not on people’s streets.”
Hyacinth has been a resident in Notting Hill for 15 years.
Ex-Top cop speaks on Notting Hill Carnival violence
Sangita queried: “In the time you’ve been there have you seen the behaviour at carnival deteriorate?”
“It used to be very calm, it used to bring the community together,” Hyacinth explained.
She added: “But now; it is about fighting, it’s about gangs, it’s about people flexing their muscles, it’s about intimidation.”
Her experience extended to worrying about her family's safety.
Hyacinth, who had her grandchildren staying with her, said she didn’t even want to send them to the shop as they were being “harassed on the way to and on the way back”.
She said that on the last day of carnival “it is a known fact that there will be some kind of violence, someone always ends up stabbed”.
With the attendance of police she asked: “Why were people getting stabbed?”
She said: “It should be a celebration of Caribbean culture.”
“You see people had a good time but what remains will be the 21-year-old who lost his life.”
