Today Met Police announced a huge crackdown on drugs along with gang and knife crime ahead of Notting Hill Carnival this weekend. Overnight the police announced nearly 300 arrests had been made across London, with 190 knives and 18 firearms, with activity expected to continue ahead of Carnival’s first day on Sunday.
As part of their social media coverage of the crackdown though, they also — bizarrely — boasted about the seizure of “what is believed to be a kilo of uncut heroin” in Catford, linking the bust to Carnival… despite the fact that the boroughs are more than 12 miles apart. Unsurprisingly, the tweet has been attacked for “reaching” between events with “no correlation” and has been branded as an attempt to “demonise” the celebration.
Retweeting the original post, Stormzy asked Met Police “how many drugs did you lot seize in the run up to Glastonbury, or are we only doing tweets like this for black events?” adding, “genuine question” in a follow up tweet.
Security will be higher at the two day celebration this year, which is expected to be attended by two million people, with police using facial recognition and undercover armed soldiers mingling with the crowds. In a statement from Met Police, Chief Superintendent Williams said: “Today’s operation is aimed at ensuring that those who intend to cause trouble at Carnival are prohibited from doing so.