• MUGGINGS
• KNIFINGS
• DRUG PUSHING
• MURDER

WE'D ALL GOT USED TO IT. The delighted face of a TV news reader (usually female) at the end of August Bank Holiday, coming on the screen and telling us, with an air of joy and triumph, what a happy, harmonious and successful event the Notting Hill Carnival had been. There were the usual shots of grinning policemen dancing with black women, the usual reports that there had been "very little trouble." It often seemed as if the presentation of this particular news had been carefully rehearsed. One could just imagine the producer beforehand: "No, Fiona, you must look happier - a really big smile! And your voice must sound as if it's conveying wonderful news. Another take - that's better!"

The mass media's reporting of the Carnival has, for years, been one of their major propaganda projects, all carefully orchestrated so as to convey to us peasants the message of what a perfect festival of fun and pleasure this is, and how it demonstrates the great benefits to Britain of the multi-racial society.

But this year - at long last - the truth came out. Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, spilled the beans. In a statement on Radio 4 at the end of the Carnival, he said:-

‘In my experience, the level of reported crime is far below that which really happens, and the whole process is down-played for political reasons.

‘Police are actively discouraged from making arrests by senior officers for fear of sparking a riot situation, and I have seen serious criminal offences taking place while we are powerless to act... There is a significant criminal minority who exploit it in the full knowledge that the police will tread extremely lightly... The record of the Carnival is pretty appalling.’

This, of course, was just what the police top brass, the news media and the political establishment did not want to hear. It came out because Police Federation leaders are men chosen by their colleagues from the ranks and are selected because they have the respect of ordinary coppers - as distinct from chief commissioners and constables, who are almost invariably political appointees, promoted because they are willing tools of the liberal establishment.

With the cat now out of the bag, the press was seized by a rare fit of honesty. Even the Sunday Times showed itself prepared to speak openly. Behind all the revelry, its reporter acknowledged, drugs were doing a roaring trade:-

‘There was no pretence about it, no attempt at disguise. Even if the police, chatting in shirtsleeves just 150 yards away, had been able to see them there was no chance of arrest.’

The Standard reporters went on to describe another - yet more horrifying - occurrence. Speaking of a young Asian, Abdul Bhatti, heading home after visiting the Carnival, they related:-

‘A gang of youths was "steaming" the street. As many as 50 young men sprinted down the road together, punching, slashing and stealing before their victims knew what had happened. They snatched a gold chain from Bhatti's cousin, knocking him to the ground. Then they turned on Bhatti, punching, gouging and stamping as he fell.

‘Seconds later they were gone. Bhatti managed to get to his feet and stagger a few yards, then collapsed. He died later of brain stem injuries.’

Ironically; the two murders taking place at the Carnival this year were both of ethnic-minority victims - the other one being of Greg Watson, a young Black, who was stabbed during an argument with some other Blacks. These were just the tips of an iceberg of crime and violence that has become commonplace while police are seemingly impotent to do anything about it. The Standard report continued: -

‘For the Metropolitan Police, the annual festival represents more than a policing challenge. With the ghost of Stephen Lawrence - the black teenager murdered by a gang of young white men who have never been convicted - seemingly stalking every decision made by senior officers, the celebration of the best of West Indian culture looms menacingly over Scotland Yard each summer.’

Then speaking of the anger of ordinary police officers at the softly-softly policy adopted by their superiors, the report went on to say:-

‘Officers hate policing Notting Hill. They don't like walking past drug-smoking or other incidents. They can see thefts of purses and handbags but know they can never get into that crowd, arrest that person and get out again safely. They feel vulnerable. It would take next to nothing for an officer to be stabbed or shot.’

Yes, shot! The Mail on Sunday was another paper highlighting the orgy of crime at the Carnival. Its reporter described one scene thus:-

‘There was no mistake: the man was holding a gun. The thump of the music was so loud it seemed to vibrate the kidneys, the air was thick with pungent smells and the crowd was boiling with excitement and alcohol. But as the policeman looked up at scaffolding at the edge of the crowd, he saw two figures clambering upwards. And one of them had a gun.’

The Mail on Sunday then described how this was spotted by a constable. What followed was amazing:-

‘The police officer decided to act quickly. He told his superintendent he was going to move in and search the man on the scaffolding. He was going to need back-up.

‘To his astonishment, the senior officer forbade him. In the middle of this excitable crowd such a move would be " too dangerous." It might spark a riot.

‘Bravely, the constable stood his ground. He disobeyed the order and searched the suspect but the gun was gone, presumably passed to the other man, who had melted into the throng.

‘This extraordinary incident was just one example of the new "softly-softly" strategy dictated for this year's Notting Hill Carnival by Scotland Yard's politically correct policy advisers still paranoid over the charge of institutional racism levelled against them in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence debacle.’

This was just one of many incidents where the police completely abdicated their responsibility to uphold the law. In another, a man making a home video caught a scene where rival gangs of Blacks were brawling. One shot showed two wielding knives. The area where this happened was just one of many where there was no police presence whatever. Though police photo technologymakes possible blow-ups which should easily enable the men to be identified, it is very unlikely that they will ever be brought to book.

The damning exposures of what happened at the Notting Hill Carnival, beginning with the forthright denunciations of Mr Smyth, opened a veritable Pandora's box on which the lid has been kept down for many years. Even the ultra-liberal The Independent newspaper, found this too much. In a leader on the 1st September it said: "If that level of violence had occurred at any other big public event, the outcry would have closed it down years ago."