Police arrest hundreds in pre-Notting Hill carnival crime crackdown
 The Metropolitan police have arrested 656 people suspected of planning to cause trouble at Notting Hill carnival, the commander in charge of policing the event has said. Dave Musker, the Met’s gold commander for the bank holiday weekend, said: “I don’t really care what we arrest them for, I’ll be [as] lawfully audacious as I can to get them off the streets. “So whether they’ve got heroin or they’ve got other class A drugs, [are] drug dealing, [or] serious violence takes place at carnival, we will try to target them and get them off the streets.” Pre-charge bail restrictions have been used to prevent some people from coming and force some people from the north Kensington area to stay away from their homes during the event, the Guardian understands.Musker’s comments came after the Met drew ridicule and accusations of racism by publishing a tweet linking a heroin bust in south London to the carnival. The grime artist Stormzy replied to the force: “How many drugs did you lot seize in the run-up to Glastonbury or we only doing tweets like this for black events?” Musker said concrete blocks and steel barriers would surround the event area to ensure it remains safe at a time of heightened concern about the risk of vehicles being used in terrorist attacks. Officers will check members of the public for knives and corrosive substances as they arrive. However, he said there was no intelligence to suggest the carnival was at risk of a terrorist attack, nor that the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire had raised the risk of public disorder. |
