The annual two-day carnival in Notting Hill has become something of an end-of-summer rite for thousands of Londoners who flock to the racially mixed area to hear West Indian steel bands and dance to calypsos through the narrow old streets. Last year, however, there were also some 800 complaints of theft, so Scotland Yard decided to send in 1,600 bobbies, five times as many as in 1975. To many revelers, the huge police presence, complete with helicopter chuffing overhead, was an irritation. But many police, too, seemed irritated at having to spend their holidays in crowd control, and they began officiously...
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