It’s widely considered that the Police do an amazing job at Carnival these days, which, considering the numbers of people they have to control (I prefer the phrase “look after”), I’d say they do.
It wasn’t always the case as the iconic image of Police having to defend themselves with dustbin lids in 1976 showed, but after much experimentation, including a truly bizarre one in 1984 whereby they placed barriers right down the middle of Portobello Road, they seem to have worked out how to maximise the flow of bodies while minimising the need to tell them what to do.
The thing to understand about Police at Carnival is that almost none of them are the cool ones that normally work in the area. They’ve been bussed in from other parts of the country (literally, some of their coaches are parked in the car park by Wormwood Scrubs) and and in many cases it’s their first experience of Carnival and they look quite scared.
What’s for sure is that it’s the one day of the year when there’s no point in asking a cop for directions. They will whip out a crumpled map, probably upside down, and stare at it with a puzzle expression.
Anyway, I say go easy on ‘em.
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