If you want a snapshot of the chronic dysfunction of social life in modern-day Europe, here's a great place to start:
London's famous Notting Hill Carnival reached its highest level of stabbings in seven years as men with knives, 275 arrests and several hospitalizations marred the two-day spectacle.
Read that carefully: "Its highest level of stabbings in seven years." So this is, um, a regular thing?
Apparently so. The carnival, which celebrates the local Caribbean community, and which has taken place since 1966 in the fashionable Notting Hill neighborhood of London, is regularly host to Third World levels of violence, including sex offenses, drug charges, weapons charges, and other crimes.
You know it's real bad, meanwhile, when the police are getting targeted at scale: Several dozen London cops this year were attacked "including six bitten, one sexually assaulted and one hospitalized."
London, of course, is one of the world's original civilized municipalities. The fact that it can't get control over a yearly festival like this is a sign of something very much not good for England, for Europe, and arguably for the rest of the world.
And yet, because this is a multicultural festival, local authorities, including the police commissioner, can't help but bow and scrape to it:
"Nobody disputes the significance of Carnival on London's cultural calendar, and the overwhelming majority of those who came will have had a positive experience … However, we cannot overlook the stabbings, sexual assaults and attacks on police officers that we have seen."
Really, you "cannot overlook" this violence? I feel like when you respond to this kind of crisis by showing your neck to a "cultural calendar," you are, in fact, kind of "overlooking" it.
The carnival will next be held on Aug. 25, 2024, just in case you want to know when to avoid that particular London neighborhood.
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