Man stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival

Police are looking for witnesses after a man was stabbed in Ladbroke Grove, on the fringe of the Notting Hill Carnival, yesterday.

Photographs of the scene show the 20-yr-old victim lying on the ground bleeding through his shirt whilst another man, wearing a hoodie, runs from the scene with what appears to be a knife in his hand. One witness tried to trip the man shown in the photograph as he ran away but unfortunately failed.

Ambulance crews attending the scene found the victim suffering stab wounds to the abdomen and hand. He was taken to a central London hospital where his condition is described as serious but stable.

Detectives investigating the circumstances arrested four men – three aged 20 and one aged 21 – and one 16-yr-old child in connection with the stabbing. They remain in custody at various London police stations.

The rest of the carnival passed relatively peacefully. Police made a total of 245 arrests during the two-day event, slightly up on last year’s 243 arrests.

Commander Bob Broadhurst of the Metropolitan Police said: ”Crime and arrests appear to be down this year. Our officers were out there working hard to make sure this was the case. We had a highly visible presence out on the streets of Notting Hill to make sure those troublemakers who thought violence and crime was an option were met by a swift response.”

Armed police from the specialist CO19 firearms command, aided by Territorial Support Group (TSG) officers, were operating around the edges of the carnival with ANPR equipment to prevent known troublemakers from entering the event. A total of 6,500 police constables were deployed to the carnival, with another 4,000 on duty around London over the Bank Holiday weekend,

Game Overdose 02: Deus Ex Human Revolution… review?

Hi all, this is semi a review and semi a Game Overdose of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Lambeth top borough for firearms arrests

New figures released by the Metropolitan Police show that Lambeth was the borough with the most firearms-related arrests last year.

The Freedom of Information request to the Met disclosed the number of arrests for unlawful possession of a firearm and broke down the number of arrests by ethnicity. The data covers arrests made over the last ten years.

134 firearms arrests were made in Lambeth in financial year 2010/11. Across the capital some 1,500 people were arrested for unlawful possession of firearms.

Afro-Caribbean people were the most likely to be arrested for possession of a firearm, with 759 people from that ethnic group being arrested last year, followed by 526 white Europeans who were arrested. In contrast, just 11 Chinese and Japanese people were arrested for firearms possession.

The borough with the least number of arrests was Richmond-upon-Thames, which had just five firearm-related arrests last year.

Over the last ten years Lambeth was the ‘top’ borough for firearms arrests in every year except 2002/03. That year Hackney had a total of 109 arrests, compared with 105 arrests in Lambeth.

Arrests for firearms-related offences in London peaked in 2006/07 with 2112 arrests being made.

Image via Smarterlan, Flickr.

Protest marches banned in five London boroughs

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has authorised the Commissioner of the Met Police to prohibit protest marches from taking place in five London boroughs during September.

The decision comes as the English Defence League announced plans to march through Tower Hamlets. EDL marches tend to be directly confronted by the Unite Against Fascism group, amongst others, which has led to disorder in the past.

“Having carefully considered the legal tests in the Public Order Act and balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected,” said the Home Secretary, “I have given my consent to a ban on all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for a 30-day period.”

The neighbouring boroughs are Newham, Waltham Forest, Islington, and Hackney.

Static demonstrations are not affected by the ban, however, and the EDL plan to hold a static gathering instead. Neither the government nor the police can ban a static demonstration unless it is held on private property.

Chief Superintendant Julia Pendry, of the Met Police, said: “We have made this decision based on specific intellgence and information, and our message is clear, we do not want people coming into the areas to attend these events.”

Section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986 gives the Met Commissioner the power to make an order banning marches and processions in London, subject to permission from the Home Secretary. If a prohibited march goes ahead, the organisers can be arrested and fined £2,500 or jailed for 3 months. People taking part in a banned march can be fined up to £1,000.

A march can only be banned where the police consider that it would result in serious public disorder and that placing restrictions on it – for example, on its duration, location and size – would not be enough to prevent disorder. The local council must support the police assessment before a formal application can be made to the Home Secretary.

The ban on marches does not apply where the procession is one commonly or customarily held in the police area in which it is proposed to be held. Funeral processions are also exempt.

Image via Jerry Daykin, Flickr.

London’s black cabs voted the world’s best taxis

A survey of 5,000 people for Hotels.com has rated London’s iconic taxis as the best in the world. Travellers from 23 countries around the world rated the black cab top for the 4th time running, with 28% of the vote.

Out of the seven categories in the survey London’s cabs came top in five: safety, friendliness, cleanliness, quality of driving and knowledge of the area.

The other top five cities were New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.

Taxis are often a tourist’s first introduction to a country as they leave the airport and set off to their hotel. 70% of Australian tourists quizzed said they would take a taxi straightaway after arriving in a foreign city; well above the international average of 54%.

Over a third of Australians claimed their pet hates were taxis being too smelly, along with cab drivers being too distracted (27%). Smoking at the wheel is frowned upon across the globe with exactly a third of British tourists and half of the French contingent naming it as a pet hate.

Image via Garreth Wicock, Flickr.

Trade Unions protest against factory closure

Trade unionists have been campaigning against the closure of a factory in Acton which employs disabled people. 

Remploy has set out to give disabled people, and those with learning difficulties, the opportunity to work by providing sustainable employment opportunities. The Remploy site in Portal Way, North Acton, employs 36 people, 30 of whom have disabilities. Staff at the factory make a wide range of goods, from office furniture to electronic equipment.

The scheme, established in 1945 and with a network of factories and outlets nationwide, costs £36 million a year. It is owned by the government but, unlike private enterprises, is not required to turn a profit. However, if things go ahead as planned, the Acton factory may be closed for good.

On Saturday, campaigners were leafleting in Acton’s Market Place, encouraging shoppers to sign a petition against the closure.

Eve Turner, the secretary for West London TUC said: “The risk is that these local workers will be thrown on to the scrap heap. It would be another blow to disabled people, whose benefits are being cut even if they are too ill to work”.

Responding,  Angie Bray, MP for Ealing Central and Acton said:  “I was certainly struck by the positive attitude I encountered when I visited the Remploy factory in Acton last year”.

She went on to say: “Once the consultation closes in October, the Government is looking to invest in the best possible system for disabled people who want to work. The aim being to encourage an extra 35,000 people into employment.”

Pedestrian killed on Hillingdon Hill

A BMW 3 Series (stock photo). Image via Wikipedia

A black BMW 3 series struck and killed a woman crossing the road on Hillingdon Hill, Uxbridge, last night. The incident occurred at about half past ten on Thursday night.

She suffered severe injuries and was pronounced dead at 11.16pm. Her next of kin are aware and formal identification of the victim will take place in due course.

The BMW driver was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and is being held in custody.

The Metropolitan Police’s Road Death Investigation Unit based at Alperton is now appealing for any witnesses to the incident to come forward and call 020 8998 5319. Alternatively, to speak anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

LOCOG reverses Olympic shooting ticket decision

London’s Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has retracted its previous statement regarding free tickets for schoolchildren to watch the shooting events.

In a very brief statement published on the National Smallbore Rifle Association’s website, LOCOG said:

“Shooting tickets are included in the Ticketshare programme;
The Ticketshare programme includes a range of groups – schools, BOA/BPA and Tickets for Troops;
There are a small number of shooting tickets in the Ticketshare programme, and we planned to issue the tickets where the demand was greatest;
Our initial consultation with schools suggested that there wasn’t a demand for shooting tickets;
However, if schools request shooting tickets, we will provide them, subject to availability.”

The West Londoner has yet to receive a formal reply from Mayor Boris Johnson’s office regarding the Ticketshare scheme.

Ticketshare is the scheme whereby 125,000 tickets to Olympic events will be handed out to schoolchildren, servicemen and their families,and the disabled. It is not known whether LOCOG has decided to deny tickets to any other sporting events.

Gamestop Pulls Deus Ex

Image via Wikipedia

Today came the news that Gamestop, the largest retailer of videogames in the world, have pulled the new Square Enix release ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’ from shelves. This decision was made by Gamestop due to the waivers that came packaged within the box. These waivers gave customers back the difference between the retail price of the game and the price of the game on the online streaming service ‘OnLive’.

Gamestop reported that they were not told about these coupons inside the cases and as such began to open the sealed cases and remove the coupons, when customers began complaining about the broken seals caused by Gamestop’s decision, it’s reported that many Gamestop stores have taking the game off its shelves to be returned to Square Enix.

Gamestop released a statement via their Facebook page related to those stores who do still stock the game:

“Regarding the Deus Ex OnLive codes: GameStop’s policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership. Square Enix packed a competitor’s coupon within the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons. While the new products may be opened, we fully guarantee the condition of the discs to be new. If you find this not to be the case, please contact the store where the game was purchased and they will further assist.”

So, is this a bad move by GameStop, or could it work in their favour? What do you think? Leave a comment below and give your views.

Daily Dosage 25/08

I’ll keep it short and simple today.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is out tomorrow. It’s probably going to be one of the biggest gaming events of the year, and will be up there with the heavy hitters like Arkham City, Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and Infamous 2. This is not a game you want to miss.

Here’s some places you can get it…

Game

Gamestation (both sites down for maintenance… oh well, their loss.)

HMV

Play

Steam : Also comes with TF2 items.

D2D

If you like Stealth Games like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, action-RPG titles like Fallout 3 and the Witcher series, and enjoy shooters like… every other game out there! Then you will almost definitely enjoy Deus Ex Human Revolution. Multiple options for completing obstacles from running and gunning, hacking, stealth, exploding walls, etc. There’s a lot of freedom and options in this game!

And don’t worry, even though it’s technically the 3rd installment in the series it’s been said by the developers to be “kind of” a reboot, and it would takes place chronologically prior to the first one as a prequel anyway, you won’t miss anything.

The short? Go get it, I’ll probably be playing it this weekend (if my PC can cope).

Steve