Beyond Kennington: A roundup of rioting

A quick roundup for posterity.... This morning, I along with hosts of other Londoners, are rubbing bleary eyes and wondering how to make sense of it all. Kennington was mostly clear of violence, but due to the difficulty of accurately naming places in London, you'd not have believed it from reading Twitter.

A cleanup of Walworth Road is being organised (is underway), although one report suggests there's not as much to do as was previously imagined.  If you're nearer somewhere else and you have some free time, you can take a look at your nearest cleanup from the cleanup map here.

I was first aware of trouble last night when I was driving through the Walworth area at approximately 18:55.  As I pulled out of Manor Place and into Browning Street, I saw hordes of people running north up Walworth Road towards Elephant and then more scared people running up Browning Street.  I turned the car around further up the steet as I was trying to get down Walworth Road, only to see the flimsy orange police barrier knocked to the ground, and a number of police on Walworth Road milling around.  I decided not to stay around and gawk so I have no photos, and I headed back to SE11.

I spent much of last night on Twitter, trying to establish where/if we had any trouble spots.  The problem with Twitter is that completely untrue rumours spread very quickly, so much time was spent reassuring people that there were no real problems in Kennington.  On the whole, that's correct, although there's an area to the east of Kennington tube station slightly south of Walworth Road which some people call Kennington.  I've no idea what it's called, but some trouble over there gave the impression that we were over-run with rioters, when that was not the case.

After I returned home, the first Tweet I saw at 19:13 was:

At 19:32, @meccleshall Tweeted from Tesco on Kennington Lane to say that it was closing early and that shoppers had been asked to pay and leave.  At 19:33, @Nooskibooski noted that they'd seen two masked teenagers loading a TV into a black BMW in Kennington, but I was unable to discover which road. 

At 19:47, we saw a worrying Tweet about youths with ammunition in Kennington, but you'll note they were headed to Walworth Road, so can only assume that this was east of Kennington tube station.  Nobody else corroborated:

At 19:49, somebody Tweeted to say that Argos in Kennington was being looted.  I informed them that there was no Argos in Kennington, but from that we assumed that the Argos in Walworth Road was being raided.  Of course, that and other Tweets just sparked off more tweets about trouble in Kennington which various people disputed.  Kennington Park Road (A3) was said to be running smoothly with no traffic or queues.

At 20:06, we learned that "they" were now in Kennington, but since I couldn't get information on any given road, it was unclear to discern precisely where.  However, some Tweets at 20:07 and 20:10 re. Kennington tube station cleared up any misunderstanding.  I can only presume that trouble briefly escaped into Kennington Park Road because these were the only tweets about any issues escaping from Southwark over the Lambeth border (in Kennington) all night.  I retweeted to say that the tube station was closed:

But at 20:18, @Slicktony3000 (who was very helpful with information last night) reassured everybody that the only people he could see on Kennington Park Road were joggers!  So you can see that it was very difficult to determine whether any trouble was occurring at all (in the meantime, lots of panicky Tweets were all saying that trouble had reached Kennington).

At 20:31, after my request that people specify road names when they claimed problems in Kenington, @acediscovery said it was quiet in Alberta Street (just north of Kennington tube).  But at exactly the same time, @MsWildThyme tweeted to say that 8 riot vans and black armoured vehicles had been seen headed down Penton Place.  Other than that, it was quiet around the Pullens Estate.

I believe that's probably what generated these somewhat bizarre videos of riot vans on Walworth Road.  What on earth were they doing??

Another video was available here with some very scary screaming.  The video looked as though it had been taken from within the riot, with a voice asking the officers to "please calm down".  Unsurprisingly, it has now been removed. 

I kept Tweeting that we were experiencing no issues in Kennington, and that problems were acknowledged in Walworth Road when I caught a Tweet saying a stabbing had been reported on Kennington Park Road.  This turned out to be untrue and unfounded.  At 20:39, @msraddi said that riot police were running down Manor Place.  More messages were received to say that Kennington Cross, Kennington Road and Kennington Lane were fine (as they were all night).

At 21:11, @gilboise tweeted to say that Kennington tube was open, but at 21:13, @igster noted "kids in hoodies" screaming past Kennington tube.  At 21:34, @TheRealJimShady said that he'd driven from Clapham South to Kennington and noted no problems.  Was just breathing a sigh of relief, and wondering if there was time to take a break for dinner when alarming reports of a shooting appeared at 21:41:

Established that an exchange of gunfire was taking place somewhere on the Alberta Estate.  Various Tweets were flying around which generally corroborated problems in the area.  At 22:18, @Deskibel said a friend had heard gunshots on or around Alberta Street.

At 22:26, the Guardian issued more detailed reports about what had happened on Walworth Road.

At 22:54, Cllr Mark Harrison (@SE11) Tweeted that we should strongly support our emergency services at times like this.  I agreed, and re-tweeted. @Uber0ut noted that pedestrians were back on Walworth Road.  From there on in, we started to hear reports that Walworth Road had been entirely trashed.  Tweets came in suggesting that both Stockwell and Camberwell had escaped any trouble bar an attempted-car jack on Coldharbour Lane.  (Although this may nto be true because there appears to be a cleanup taking place in Camberwell this morning).  At 23:27, @JustinPDJ reported large numbers of police headed from Kennington towards Clapham (the rest we know about from the TV).  For the rest of the night, Kennington (which houses large numbers of police buildings and vehicles) was sirens as usual.

At 00:14, BT issued a Tweet only to call 999 in an absolute emergency due to immense pressure on the number.  We learned that a few riot police were guarding the remains of the looted shops in Walworth Road. 

Finally, I received alarming reports at about 01:02 from @SW8guy and @CarolineFW that there was a fire at Southbank club on Wandsworth Road.  There was a lot of smoke, but no flames visible.  The Fire Brigade were able to bring it under control. 

Fentiman Road incident - male in his thirties died in suspicious circumstances

A 36 year old male died at a property in Fentiman Road, Vauxhall at approx. 5:30am on Monday 31st January.  Police have named him as Anthony John Bates.  The death, reportedly due to head injuries, is being treated as suspicious and another man, Gary Speight (aged 30), has been charged with his murder. Police have been guarding the property on Fentiman Road in Vauxhall since the morning of February 1st, and were still at the scene a day later.  At least 6 forensic officers investigated the flat wearing face masks and full protective clothing.

The property is still covered in police tape and the northern end of Fentiman Road (opposite Vauxhall Park) was initally closed off. The incident was first linked to a gas leak, but this has not been confirmed. The information above has been released through the Police Press Bureau. However, police on the scene have been advised to tell residents that a "serious incident" has taken place, but are not giving out further information.

Trouble at the White Bear Theatre / Pub?

On Saturday, I decided to skip a week at the awesome Oval Farmers' Market, which you must visit if you haven't because the food is good, prices reasonable, stall-holders friendly and it involves considerable less effort than trekking up to Borough!  I dared to leave Kennington, a mistake, considering that I was then unavailable to investigate Tweets about trouble at the White Bear Theatre. 

It must be stressed that trouble at the White Bear is very unusual.  There are generally regulars drinking outside and people watching sport, but it's a pub in a residential area with a theatre attached.  How rowdy can that be?  Considerably, it seems:

Does anybody know what happened?  Were there any witnesses?  Was it planned?

New statistics on Lambeth: CPCG Police and Community Safety 2010 (part 1)

Every couple of years, just as the local area census data starts to look old, somebody commissions a report that sheds light on current trends and produces a new fascinating set of statistics.  On this occasion, it's the turn of the Community Police Consultative Group. Catriona Robertson (their project manager and report writer) has produced a superb account on the state of Lambeth community/police relations.  (Ms Robertson has her own blog and is also on Twitter).  I love statistics, (although my analysis skills are non-existent, so I'm just going to add some commentary in bold type).  I really welcome additional data about the area.  The report, Whose Shout? : Engagement on Community Safety in Lambeth, can be found here. 

From the report, I discovered that there is a State of the Borough Report (2008) which is perhaps worth examining further, and the GLA may also have produced additional figures in 2009, which help us identify who lives in the area, what they do and what opportunities are open to them.  In the mean time, I've mined the CPCG report for the following statistics, which I think you might find interesting:

* The annual turnover of population in Lambeth is 22% or 27%, if you include people who move within the borough (p5)
[This is exceedingly high, but not sure how it compares to London as a whole.]

* The population in Lambeth in 2007 was 285,580, although those registered with GPs in March 2009 was 352,762.  (p6)
[Assuming that there hasn't been a sudden rise of 68,000 residents in a year, that means that there are a lot of "hidden" folk in Lambeth.  Are these asylum seekers?  Undeclared relatives?  Folk from neighbouring boroughs who want to keep using Lambeth GPs?].

* Lambeth is the most ethnically diverse borough in London, with 52% of population beign white british, 14% being white (other), 34% being black, Asian and other. (p6). 
[It's probably worth exercising some caution here, since these figures are based on the 2001 census, and if we've got an annual turnover of 22%, I don't expect these figures to remain unchanged.  I say "hurrah" for diversity, but I'm intrigued to know whether the Borough is integrated enough, or whether some people live in unintentionally segregated groups.  I ask, on account of some recent comments on the blog, and some of the comments raised at the recent KOV meeting.]

* 60% of Lambeth is Christian, 5% Muslim, 8% other, and 29% preferred not to answer. (p6) 
[Seems to total over 100%, but nevermind.  I'd be really intrigued to know the breakdown of the 8% "other", assuming it's not Jedi or something silly.  I've a vague theory that Lambeth seems to have a higher than average number of Buddhists.  I suspect the 60% Christian figure is much higher than the national average, even once you factor out people who answer C of E by default.]

* Reliable sexual orientation data isn't available, but local surveys suggests an LGBT population of 3%-5%. (p6).  Homophobic crime rose by 46% during 2009-2010 
[Perhaps that's true of Lambeth as a whole, but my view is that Princes, Oval and parts of Stockwell wards have a significantly higher LGBT population, which I don't think is accounted for with this figure, which seems to only reflect national percentage.  The rise in homophobic crime is atrocious, but /could/ result in greater willingness to report crime.]

* Crime fell over 30% in Lambeth over seven years to 2009, although Lambeth remains a high crime area, with the third most recorded offences of all London boroughs 2008-2009. (p6) 
[I'm really suspicious of measurement of crime statistics because every few years, the police alter the definitions of certain crimes.  Also, many people still fail to report crime (especially if they're not supposed to officially be here), making this very difficult to track.  A 30% reduction, however, is probably high enough to be significant.  See here for my controversial view that knife crime is worse in North London than South London.]

* In 2009-1010, gun crime is up 33% in Lambeth and rape by 25%. (p6)
[I believe that the Borough Commander recently explained that the rise in gun crime is as a result of commercial incidents eg. bank robberies / holdups.  Obviously, that doesn't really excuse it, but I think it is worth noting that this is not necessarily gang related.  The rape statistic is very very concerning.]

* 16% of Lambeth population have a long-term limiting illness. (p7) 
[Is it me, or is this a horrifying statistic?  Surely 16% of the UK doesn't have a long-term limiting illness?  Perhaps this ties in with the recent statistic that Lambeth is the top London borough for unemployment  (9.3% of Lambeth /working age/ people are unemployed).  I suspect that the limiting illness figure is related to obtaining benefits, and that more money is available if you can demonstrate illness.  But from that figure, I want to be careful of drawing Daily Fail type conclusions.  I suspect that in Lambeth, many people draw benefits to care for older and ill extended family members and prefer to raise their own families (instead of buying in labour).  This likely reduces the bill to the state on child care and adult care homes.  However, I suspect the Tory/Lib Dem coalition may not interpret things quite as charitably!] 

* There is a much higher prevalence of mental illness in Lambeth, compared with the country as a whole.  around 37,000 (over 10% of the population) were being treated for anxiety and depression in 2008. (P7) [Again, this is a very high figure.  I wonder whether people who suffer from mental illnesses tend to live in boroughs where they know that they can seek treatment, or whether those who suffer from mental illness seek one another out, or whether mental illness is better diagnosed in Lambeth or even whether there's some kind of environmental factor that results in the higher correlation between living in Lambeth and mental illness.]

* Lambeth is the 5th most deprived Borough in Lambeth and the 19th most deprived borough in England (2007).  (p7)

This is part 1 of my summary of the Whose Shout? report, and really just contains the headline statistics and the points (with my commentary in blod) that I find most interesting and which I've not seen elsewhere.  I've not commented at all upon the police / community consultative angle of the report, and I'll do that in part 2.  The report comes in at a whopping 91 pages, and I doubt it will reach a wider audience unless it's summarised somewhat.  It's very useful on account of its length, but I think that there are some other conclusions that readers of this blog might be interested in, without needing to read the whole thing.  Expect part 2 in the next few days.

An evening with Chief Superintendent Nick Ephgrave - KOV Meeting Part 1

Today's offering is divided into two parts, on account of the fact that last night's Kennington, Oval, Vauxhall forum meeting was very long.

The first section of the meeting was an introduction and Q&A section with Nick Ephgrave, who is the Chief Superintendent for the Borough of Lambeth and who has been in place now for nearly a year.

Ephgrave's 3 aims for the Lambeth Police force are:
1.  Reduce crime and disorder
2.  Build public confidence in policing service
3.  Make sure the police working environment is healthy and effective.

There were 3 issues, concerning north Lambeth citizens, that had been drawn to the Chief superintendent's attention.  These were sirens, gang involvement and dangerous dogs.  The chair added the visibility of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (henceforth known as SNTs) in Oval/Vauxhall to the list, and Ephgrave promised to look into trying to base the team further south (as opposed to Waterloo, where they're currently based).

Sirens:
Q:  A woman suggested that directional sirens for police cars have been produced, but the manufacturer said they'd not been tested by any police authority.  Apparently, as they have to be mounted outside of a vehicle, a Home Office official felt their use would affect fleet re-sale value, and that was the end of the matter.  The question asker suggested that, since directional sirens are used in reversing vehicles, on vehicles at the Olympic site and on Heathrow buggies, that the police might consider their use.

A: NE was very sympathetic and said he wouldn't want to live next door to a police station.  He promised to go and look at the police's position on directional sirens, but noted that it would be a central, rather than a Lambeth decision.  Ephgrave also noted that there had been 10 serious collisions this year and officers had to make a personal choice about when to use sirens to avoid accidents.  Finally, he said that there are a number of different units that might need to pass through SE11 to reach their destination; the bomb squad and armed response unit to name a few, and so it's likely that the trunk roads here might experience more noise than other areas.  (That's hardly a comfort to those of us that live here, but it's an interesting observation).

Police Communication:
Q:  A man asked Ephgrave what he was doing about enabling the police to talk to one another, and whether there were issues with intelligence not being shared.  It transpired that the mugging incident which I blogged about in Hotspur Street had been preceded by two nights of disturbances on Vauxhall Gardens Estate.  When the man had telephoned the SNTs on the Monday after the weekend, they knew nothing of any of the events.

A:  NE responded that the Borough had so much police activity that they needed 3 radio channels, so not everybody knew everything that went on in the area.  Despite that, the units are all briefed before they go out, but not everybody's experience is perfect.

Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs):
Q:  (This was more of a ramble than a question, but one man was concerned that two passing female PCSOs were talking to one another, instead of stopping a crazed/drugged man, when he'd asked them to intervene.  He wanted to know why the PCSOs didn't stop to talk to people like him (probably because they'd be stuck all afternoon) and finally he concluded that the PCSOs were making themselves look stupid on account of the fact that the grammar on their leaflets was not very good.  Said chap then volunteered to check their material before it hit the press.  (Anybody listening might have thought that we Lambeth was free from significant criminal elements, and that the most serious crime in the area concerned apostrophe misappropriation).

A: NE responded by admitting that he was a strong fan of police offiers patrolling alone (so that they didn't chat, and would be fully cognisant of their surroundings), and that he too was also an apostrophe freak (he didn't quite put it like that).

Incident response times:
Q:  One man said that he lived on Vauxhall Gardens Estate and that he and his neighbours had experience a number of violent incidents where the response times from police amounted to about 20 minutes (long after perpetrators had fled).  He also thought that people didn't report crime on account of the fact that they were scared, or thought that nothing would be done about it.

A: NE said that there was a police commitment to a 12 minute response time, which included the time taken to make the phone call, by which the police should be on the site of the crime.  That target is hit about 85% of the time.  People can report crime online, by phone or to their local SNT, if they're too scared to report it any other way.

Resourcing:
Q: One person noted that they'd asked for more resources at night, but had been told by police that it could not be done.

A: NE said 3pm-6pm, and 12pm-2am were crime peaks in which police resources were focused on the places that they felt incidents might take place.  He added that he felt that there are resourcing issues.

Police response to crime:
Q: One man noted that he couldn't get hold of the SNT and that they didn't respond to messages.  In the last few months, he'd experienced a knifing, a car jacking and the mugging of a close relative and that he'd still received no response, to the point that he felt that there was no point in reporting crime.

A: NE said that robbery was a huge priority for him (as well as statistics, and gangs) and that he was disappointed that the police response did not happen in the incidents described by the man.  He said that he'd take the man's details (which he did) to look into the matter.

Dangerous dogs:
Q:  One woman described her situation in which she has a particularly gentle dog, and she felt that she was safer to walk alone, on the basis that this didn't attract dangerous dogs.  This particular individual felt that the dangerous dog problem had diminished somewhat, but wondered whether it was possible to attach ASBOs to persistent offenders.

A: NE said that 20 dogs had been seized in the last operation.  Some of them had been microchipped, but had to be given back, on the basis that they weren't prohibited breeds.  One condition that is sometimes applied is that the dog must be made to wear a muzzle in public.  The superintendent advised trying to get information about dogs and their owners eg. a name/address, if possible, as it's not possible to report rumours to the police.  ("I saw a nasty dog in Kennington Park and it looked as though it would eat my puppy" is not acceptable, but "The man that lives at 3 Smith Street, SE11, has a dog that looks dangerous" is information that can be acted upon).  At that point, things became farcical with the woman asking if it were possible to issue ASBOs to children with large dogs, when the dogs weren't badly behaving and the children were in control of them.  NE erred on the side of, erm, human freedom, and pointed out that this would probably constitute harassment!
Gang crime:
Q: One local estate secretary said that they'd experienced a spate of gun crimes recently, and what could NE do?

A: NE launched into an answer about gun crime, and how it was up on the basis of commercial armed robberies, before it became apparent that the chap had actually asked about /gang/ crime.  NE said that there was an operation in progress to disrupt gang crime using online material and use of ASBOs, which could be issued, even if it could not be proven that somebody had committed a crime.  ASBOs can have conditions of association and place attached to them, which can disrupt people from meeting together.  A number of guns had been recovered from people posing on Youtube with their guns, and a lot of work was co-ordinated by the intelligence unit, working mostly in Tulse Hill and Brixton.  Finally, the police are trying to work with children on the cusp of primary/secondary school about the consequences of gang membership by the age of 30 (killing somebody, being killed or in prison for an offence).  NE added, "Ultimately, the solution lies within the communities themselves.  I worry about the future of young people in this borough because I don't have the answer."

Community solutions:
Q: On a related note, one woman asked, what exactly the community could do to prevent crime in the area(something readers will know is close to my own heart), and whether NE could cite any effective community initiatives that had been put in place elsewhere?

A:  NE mentioned a pastor who ran a youth group had found a way of connecting with young gang members, and suggested that faith might be an answer.  There's also Kid's Company, for those who are in Southwark.  Finally, he suggested that Lambeth Council's program, Young and Safe, working with high risk people, offering them a way out of a criminal lifestyle was quite effective.  When it was pointed out that Lambeth Council's program wasn't really a community initiative, NE said that it did have a number of 3rd parties associated with it, but ultimately commented, "I will have to go and think about that.  I don't know what the answer is."  (Perhaps it's not a police priority to think up community initiatives, but his answer is indicative that perhaps the police and the community could still work more closely together.)

Police stations:
Q: One man, who identified himself with a local planning forum, pointed out that there's a ring of police stations in Lambeth, with a hole in the middle where Vauxhall falls, and pointed out that there was perhaps an opportunity (with the new developments being erected) to get the police a space in Vauxhall.

A: NE felt that the place for PCSOs is on the streets, and not in buildings.  On a related note, he made it clear that he was not aware that a "Welwyn Garden City" sized development (a reference to the Nine Elms Development plan) would lead to any further police resouces.  (Something that I'd imagine will have to be part of the masterplan).

Police harassment:
Q:  One woman felt that there's a lot of persistent youth crime in the area, but that a number of youth receive unjustified harassment from the police, who will disperse them, even when they've done nothing wrong.  The woman lived on China Walk Estate, and noted that there's nothing there for boys (who hang around together, having been to primary school together), to do.  4 or 5 times in one day, she had noticed the police "persecuting" young boys for hanging around together.  She suggested that it would be more productive to find the boys something to do eg. music/sport.  (This then descended into a bit of a battle about BME representation at the KOV meeting, and how she felt that the BME Community was not really present (which was true). 

A:  NE didn't really get a chance to get a word in edgeways.  It was pointed out by the Chair that everybody was welcome to attend KOV meetings, since they are open to the public.  A BME individual stood up and said that she had been pushing for BME representation for a long time in Vauxhall, but that people could not be forced to come to meetings, and that much local community action in her group involved the same 5 old people (quite true, for a lot of organisations, really).  (It seems to me that there's room for a larger debate about how to encourage wider community participation, but I'm fast coming to the belief that this is a London-wide problem, and not really a Lambeth problem.  If anything, North Lambeth seems to be oddly community-minded (what with all of the tenants' associations, and community organisations), but it is true that many public meetings lack racial balance, being predominatly attended by retired, upper middle-class white people.  (I wonder if this is due to the times meetings are held, lack of childcare provision and more class than race driven, but I'd be curious to know what others think).

LGBT Community Safety Questionnaire

The police are currently doing some work in trying to find out what LGBT residents, workers and visitors to Lambeth are looking for from the police on the issue of community safety.  Working on the basis that SE11 is the pinkest area outside of Soho (sadly, I don't have stats), I'm hoping this will reach a fair few LGBT people in the vicinity.

If you're LGBT, consider filling in a questionnaire (it's very short) and letting the police know whether you feel consulted and included, and how they might improve, if necessary.

Click here for questionnaire.

More on Carl Beatson Asiedu's death from Independent

There's an interesting piece from the Independent today, giving further information about the murder of Carl Beatson Asiedu, who was killed back in August in Goding Street.  I briefly mentioned the incident at the time,  here and here. The article is written by a journalist who went behind the scenes to understand how police work on murder cases.  It's not clear when it was written, but must be fairly recent because it refers to the police watching the Winter Olympics.

I had no idea that police would still be actively working on the case, but progress seems to be being made.  One of the men that police suspect killed Carl has apparently fled to Nigeria, from where there has never been a successful extradition.

Oval / Kennington door knocking scam

I think it's worth linking to an item from the Kennington Association who have been contacted by the Vassall Safer Neighbourhood team, to warn people of a scam being attempted around the Oval area.

If youths come knocking at your door, requesting money to support a sports club, ask them for ID and do not give them any money. If you can contact the local police, they will come and check to see whether the group is authorised (it looks unlikely).

See the Kennington News blog for further info.

Possible stabbing in Black Prince Road and questions about networking

Very occasionally, I wonder whether there's some form of news blackout that operates within the SE11 area. It's very difficult to find out certain pieces of information that it might be within the public interest to have made public.

A commentator yesterday remarked "I heard that there was a stabbing on black prince road on Friday 22nd May...any news?". My feeling is that this is probably not the case and nothing happened. Stabbings tend to generate a lot of hits here, with people searching for information. But the rumour of a stabbing must be grounded in something, most probably some sort of disturbance. It would be useful if there was a Lambeth police feed in which information was shared to alert residents to be on guard or remain watchful if anything was particularly amiss.

I understand that the issue of dangerous dogs was raised at Tuesday's hustings, dogs apparently being the "preferred" weapon of choice for those engaged in anti-social behaviour. However, I've not seen news reported anywhere on fights with dogs between youths. I heard that there have been a rise in burglaries on one local estate, but once again, no news.

My feeling is that the SE11 community is still not sufficiently networked. We have many civic organistions for linking people together, but many of them have significant overlap in committed members, and sporadic communication with those people who are not online. There's a low level of computer use/technological know how in both poorer and older communities locally (I saw a map of this that I might do a blog post about). The question is, how is this best overcome? I'm pleased with the contribution to this blog from regular commentators and anonymous lurkers, but my feeling is that there is still more local knowledge and resources to be shared.

In the meantime, don't forget the LGBT / gay hustings, which is on tonight at 7.30pm at the John Bull Community Centre. If you didn't make it to the last set of general hustings, I'm sure you'd be welcome to show up here, even if you've not got specifically LGBT questions to ask.

Police and immigration at Vauxhall station

There were about 50 Police / Community Service Officers and British Transport Police, plus one immigration official at Vauxhall at about 14:10 today when I passed through. Why might this be? Could the use of 50 policemen/women just to check oyster cards be described as "overkill"? And why an immigration official? Are they worried about people escaping from South London to Pimlico or something?

I might have been conservative in my estimates. If you click to enlarge the picture below, you'll see at least 25!

Another 6 or so officers in this one. The guy with his back to the camera has something like "Border Control Agency" on the back of his jacket in this one:

I ran away quickly before anybody stopped me taking any more photos. And I am aware of the irony of a surveillance society itself being surveilled :)

Incident at Oval tube?

According to a police officer leaving the scene, there was an incident at Oval Tube station this morning. He didn't give me any more details.

At about 8:25, everybody was preparing to leave, but I counted at least 2 fire engines, 2 ambulances, 1 services motorbike, 2 medium size police vans and 2 British Transport Police units (sort of a cross between fire engines and police units).

Apparently, buses weren't stopping at the bus stop for some time, but have since resumed. Obviously, there was quite a considerably traffic build up.

What on earth happened? Does anybody have more details?

Edit: See blog comment. Apparently, one person under a train necessitates 10 emergency vehicles.

More trouble at the Oval?

When driving through SE11 and past the Oval tube station yesterday, I noticed what looked like a memebr of the police force boarding a bus that had been stopped just outside Oval tube station. A few hours later, I drove passed again and noticed that Oval tube had an "incident response unit" outside. Also, the road around the Oval was closed.

I've no idea whether that was one, two or three events of any significance. Does anybody have any information?

Oval incident involving 173 innocent people who might have been about to commit crime

I've been offline (and will be for the next week or so) due to the house move, but heard more than the usual wailing of sirens and saw a lot of blue lights near to Oval tube station last night. There was clearly something more going on than cricket.

This morning we have the following round up:

1. The Metro reports that a "mob of 180 youths" who apparently only "planned" to unleash chaos at Notting Hill were stopped yesterday.

2. The BBC report that "About 180 youths were stopped and seven arrested outside Oval as police prevented a large group from going to the carnival". Out of the 150 or so that went to the police station, only "seven were formally arrested". Even more outrageous, "Police said they believed the group, which included many teenagers, were on their way to the carnival to create disorder and criminal incidents." And of course, it's definite that they might have been about to commit crime. After all, "Some members of the group had a history of being involved in disorder at the carnival, police said." The drama all took place in Harleyford Road, which was closed off.

3. Bathsheba at Stockwell News asked what was going on, and received reports of helicopters and police presence.

Is it just me, or does it appear somewhat wrong that a large number of {innocent} people were stopped by police, a huge number of {innocent} people were then detained, and only seven were arrested? I mean, the BBC report rather implies that these were people that only might have been about to commit crime. Can you really refuse to allow somebody to go to the Notting Hill Carnival on the basis that they might commit crime? And from all of the "intelligence" gained, why was it only possible to arrest seven people?

Of course, we're not living in a police state...