The Caribbean Carnival in Manchester has been held since 1971 ....
... but like its big sister Notting Hill Caribbean Carnival in London, it appears that over the years the large congregations are just an ignition point for some to start shooting at each other, or anyone else.
In 2018 a mass shooting incident in Claremont Road in the Moss Side district of Manchester, shortly after the main Caribbean Carnival had finished, injured 12 revellers and left them in hospital, with the victims suffering (including a 12-year-old child) "minor to major injuries". Armed police were called to the shooting at about 02:30am, when it was found that a shotgun had been fired into a crowd. The motive for the shooting was not believed to be gang related, but rather something more personal.
That years Caribbean Carnival was meant to have been a celebratory event on the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush generation. The Moss Side council ward in Manchester has always been represented by Labour Councillors, and is child of the neglect that Labour often shows to its natural areas of supporters. In the 1970's the South Manchester areas of Hulme, Rusholme and Moss Side were largely a mixture of a White majority (mostly in Rusholme - with a large Irish community, and Moss Side), and a substantial Afro-Caribbean community (largely concentrated in Hulme, but also increasingly in Moss Side).
I know this as I am, or rather was, very familiar with all these council wards, as I used to live very nearby. I also worked in the whole area, often amongst all the communities, whilst socialising in the Rusholme area for a long period up to the mid 1980's (when I left the city for good). I regularly went to pubs on Claremont Road, and frankly, in that part of Moss Side and Rusholme, there was little visible street crime, although the drug gangs were getting active deeper in to area, particularly Moss Side.
But during the mid 1980's, and right through the1990's, the reputation of the inner city southern areas, started to worsen, as a certain amount of 'white flight' (as more immigrants moved in), changed the ethnic balances, and gang crime, fuelled by drugs, crept in. Moss Side, particularly suffered from its association with gun and gang crime. Although crime levels fluctuated, there was a continued steady rise, so that by 2006 and 2007, there were a number of very serious gun and weapon incidents in Moss Side, including gang-related murders in the area known as "gunchester". One policeman for that period said that "shootings used to be an almost daily occurrence".
These increases in crime levels mirrored a marked percentage increase in the Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani Asian, Somali, Chinese and Eastern European communities (between 2007 and 2015), and this has raised tensions amongst some communities. The gang culture that these tensions give rise to is divisive, and saps any sense of community spirit.
For the outside world, the first view they often get of this is in the 'Curry Mile' in the Rusholme district centre, which is an area that suffers one of the highest levels of street crime in the city of Manchester. The incident in the 2018 Caribbean Carnival was just a reflection of those issues, that have only been really been masked over by the work of the council trying to reinvent the areas image.
Manchester Council says it has "worked really hard to make sure the area has moved away from its unfair reputation". The council has tried to re-brand the Moss Side and Hulme areas, and encouraged families and young professionals to live there, but this aim was greatly been aided by the steep rise in house prices in suburbs such as Didsbury, and Chorlton, which have priced young professional people out of their preferred destinations, and have moved them into the inner city areas for cheaper housing in recent years.
Anyway, two men, one from Fallowfield and the other from the Baguley area were eventually arrested for the 2018 shooting .... but in a sign of how little we care these days, anaesthetised as we are by postcode gang crimes in the capital and elsewhere, the news reports haven't named either of them, nor have they seemingly gone to trial. The incident reports were just so much fish and chip paper within a month, and no news outlet bothered to follow up on the story.
Another man was arrested, and was charged with possession of an imitation firearm at Manchester's Caribbean Carnival in 2019 .....
.... Cheslyn Nys, of Blewburton Walk, Bracknell Forest, Berkshire held the fake gun (which he claimed to have found at the carnival park), to a mans head, after he refused to give him a cigarette ... he was jailed for 27 months for possession of an imitation firearm at the time of the commission of an offence, and attempted robbery.
The 2020 physical event was officially cancelled (but held virtually over August 8 and 9), but we are assuming that this years 2021 event will be held (but hey, who knows?), however there's no guarantee that it will be anymore peaceful than previous carnivals.
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| Manchester Carnival - Alexandra Park Early 1970s |
... but like its big sister Notting Hill Caribbean Carnival in London, it appears that over the years the large congregations are just an ignition point for some to start shooting at each other, or anyone else.
In 2018 a mass shooting incident in Claremont Road in the Moss Side district of Manchester, shortly after the main Caribbean Carnival had finished, injured 12 revellers and left them in hospital, with the victims suffering (including a 12-year-old child) "minor to major injuries". Armed police were called to the shooting at about 02:30am, when it was found that a shotgun had been fired into a crowd. The motive for the shooting was not believed to be gang related, but rather something more personal.
 |
| Claremont Road Crime Scene 2018 ... With Debris Of Street Party. |
That years Caribbean Carnival was meant to have been a celebratory event on the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush generation. The Moss Side council ward in Manchester has always been represented by Labour Councillors, and is child of the neglect that Labour often shows to its natural areas of supporters. In the 1970's the South Manchester areas of Hulme, Rusholme and Moss Side were largely a mixture of a White majority (mostly in Rusholme - with a large Irish community, and Moss Side), and a substantial Afro-Caribbean community (largely concentrated in Hulme, but also increasingly in Moss Side).
I know this as I am, or rather was, very familiar with all these council wards, as I used to live very nearby. I also worked in the whole area, often amongst all the communities, whilst socialising in the Rusholme area for a long period up to the mid 1980's (when I left the city for good). I regularly went to pubs on Claremont Road, and frankly, in that part of Moss Side and Rusholme, there was little visible street crime, although the drug gangs were getting active deeper in to area, particularly Moss Side.
But during the mid 1980's, and right through the1990's, the reputation of the inner city southern areas, started to worsen, as a certain amount of 'white flight' (as more immigrants moved in), changed the ethnic balances, and gang crime, fuelled by drugs, crept in. Moss Side, particularly suffered from its association with gun and gang crime. Although crime levels fluctuated, there was a continued steady rise, so that by 2006 and 2007, there were a number of very serious gun and weapon incidents in Moss Side, including gang-related murders in the area known as "gunchester". One policeman for that period said that "shootings used to be an almost daily occurrence".
These increases in crime levels mirrored a marked percentage increase in the Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani Asian, Somali, Chinese and Eastern European communities (between 2007 and 2015), and this has raised tensions amongst some communities. The gang culture that these tensions give rise to is divisive, and saps any sense of community spirit.
For the outside world, the first view they often get of this is in the 'Curry Mile' in the Rusholme district centre, which is an area that suffers one of the highest levels of street crime in the city of Manchester. The incident in the 2018 Caribbean Carnival was just a reflection of those issues, that have only been really been masked over by the work of the council trying to reinvent the areas image.
Manchester Council says it has "worked really hard to make sure the area has moved away from its unfair reputation". The council has tried to re-brand the Moss Side and Hulme areas, and encouraged families and young professionals to live there, but this aim was greatly been aided by the steep rise in house prices in suburbs such as Didsbury, and Chorlton, which have priced young professional people out of their preferred destinations, and have moved them into the inner city areas for cheaper housing in recent years.
Anyway, two men, one from Fallowfield and the other from the Baguley area were eventually arrested for the 2018 shooting .... but in a sign of how little we care these days, anaesthetised as we are by postcode gang crimes in the capital and elsewhere, the news reports haven't named either of them, nor have they seemingly gone to trial. The incident reports were just so much fish and chip paper within a month, and no news outlet bothered to follow up on the story.
Another man was arrested, and was charged with possession of an imitation firearm at Manchester's Caribbean Carnival in 2019 .....
 |
| Cheslyn Nys - Fake Gun Carrier |
.... Cheslyn Nys, of Blewburton Walk, Bracknell Forest, Berkshire held the fake gun (which he claimed to have found at the carnival park), to a mans head, after he refused to give him a cigarette ... he was jailed for 27 months for possession of an imitation firearm at the time of the commission of an offence, and attempted robbery.
The 2020 physical event was officially cancelled (but held virtually over August 8 and 9), but we are assuming that this years 2021 event will be held (but hey, who knows?), however there's no guarantee that it will be anymore peaceful than previous carnivals.
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