Police incident in Kennington on Black Prince Road / Hotspur Street

I've had an email from a Kennington Park Square resident, wanting to find out if anybody has more info. concerning the following disturbance:

At about 9:30pm last night (22nd May), there was a police incident on Hotspur Street between Aragon Court (the new Kennington Park Square development) and Manley House.  At least two police vans, three police cars, one ambulance and about twenty or so police officers were present.  The word on the street is that one of the Kennington Park Square residents was mugged outside of the Black Prince pub (but this is speculation).  Due to the number of police called, that there is further speculation about whether a weapon was involved.  Much of the police activity centred on the balconies of Manley House, with a considerable number of police officers restraining a youth, amidst a crowd of onlookers.

Despite the size of the incident, apparently very few of the Kennington Park Square inhabitants were aware of the disturbance (it was a warm night, so I suspect that many people were still out and about).  The resident who emailed is concerned about the close proximity of their home to a suspected mugging, and further concerned that it happened so near to such a busy pub.  Do any blog readers know what took place?  Did anybody witness any trouble yesterday night?  Does anybody know whether the victim is ok?  Please contact the Met Police with further info. on 0300 123 1212, if you observed anything, but feel free to leave a comment here too.

With the advent of summer and the arrival of this warm spell, it seems likely that many SE11 locals will walk back to their homes late at night and it's known that warm weather correlates with gang / criminal activity in Lambeth.  I'd urge all local residents to be extra vigilant and contact the police if worried.  In general, the fear of crime tends to frighten people more than it ought, considering that the number of violent crimes that take place are quite low. That knowledge obviously doesn't stop us being afraid, especially if one happens to witness an incident or its aftermath, but we may all need to do more to build a stronger community locally.  I suspect that this is very definitely the case where a brand new set of homes, designed and priced for young professionals is placed back to back with a building on an estate that has already hit the headlines due to previous crime.   

If anybody has any ideas on how locals might encourage cohesion between different members of the community, now would be a good idea to share them.  I posted on this matter last time there was an attack on Glasshouse Walk, and I strongly believe that if we're able to meet together and get to know one another, the levels of crime will decrease.  My belief is backed up by a 2006 Home Office study, which states, 

"A sense of community rather than a sense of attachment is the most important predictor of lower levels of crime. This is good news for areas with high population turnover, particularly because this sense of community is not only linked with lower levels of violent crime (the type of crime most often linked with social control), but also with other types of neighbourhood level crime such as burglary from dwelling, theft of and from motor vehicles and the overarching ‘all reported crime’ measure."  

I'm not sure how to go about increasing our "sense of community", but maybe readers will have some ideas...