Social media users have blasted a police officer who was filmed enjoying himself among carnivalgoers in Notting Hill.
There was a heavy presence of Metropolitan Police officers in West London over the Bank Holiday as around a million people attended the fabled festival which sees performers dance through the streets in colourful costumes.
The festival is a “fixture in London’s cultural calendar” and attracts similar numbers each year, the Metropolitan Police said ahead of the event.
It is one of the longest-running street parties in the UK and celebrates Caribbean culture with vividly costumed performers taking part in a parade through the streets with dancing and music.
The carnival is the biggest of its kind in Europe and is billed by organisers as “the greatest community-led event on the planet”, taking place every August bank holiday weekend.
It is also the subject of a large-scale policing operation, with around 7,000 officers on duty throughout the weekend to police the event this year.
One of those in attendance has come in for a bit of unwanted stick on social media after Emma Webb, who appears on GB News, shared a clip of him enjoying the festivities next to carnivalgoers.
She posted: “Siri, show me the authority crisis in one video”, prompting a number of people to respond.
Jonathan Wong wrote: “Testing your boundaries by invading your personal space to gauge your reaction”, while Jack Lakeland added: “They’re an embarrassment. Imagine going up to a random person on a Saturday night in a bar and doing that. Arrested.”
But others didn’t see any harm in it, saying he just seems to be having a good time alongside everyone else.
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