NYPD plans heavy security for Brooklyn Caribbean parade and J’Ouvert — gun violence marred past festivities
Along with the reggae, soca and dancehall music that will fill Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Labor Day for J’Ouvert and the West Indian-American Day Carnival Parade there will also be large police presence.
Expect to see NYPD checkpoints, bag searches and metal detectors in an effort to curb the gun violence that in previous years has marred one of the city’s biggest annual celebrations.
”We’re not looking to go out there and be heavy handed. We’re not looking to enforce laws with zero tolerance,” NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said Friday in Brooklyn. “We’re here to ensure the safety of the celebrants.”
Cops will have 13 checkpoints in place where parade participants and people attending the events will be searched with handheld metal detectors. Bags will also be searched. Alcohol and large backpacks are barred from the events.
Light towers and video surveillance will be two major tools used to keep the events secure, Assistant Chief Michael Kemper said.
”We fully expect thousands of people to watch, celebrate, and once again take part in this traditional celebration of joy and freedom,” Maddrey said. ”We want to make sure that this amazing celebration goes off in the next few days with no problems and goes forward in the future.”
Maddrey was joined by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — who himself was arrested by cops at the 2011 event.
The parade and the party, which have been put off for the last two years because of the pandemic, is the largest ethnic celebration in the city. It stretches from Ralph Ave. in Brownsville down Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, touching Park Slope at Grand Army Plaza and then snaking down Flatbush Ave. to Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
The party is an approximation of the Carnival celebrations that each Caribbean island celebrates in its own way with special foods, like flying fish cakes, jerk pork and chicken and oxtail.
J’Ouvert, an early morning celebration that usually follows a night of heavy drinking, has seen a number of deaths to gun violence over the years.
Violence has been so common that it was revealed in the Daily News that officers were betting on how many shootings and stabbings that here would be.
In 2015, Carey Gabay, a former aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was shot and killed in the cross-fire during a shootout between warring gang members in Crown Heights.
In 2020, the party was canceled because of Covid-19 — but five people were shot during an unofficial J’Ouvert party.
In past years, cops have been caught on camera dancing a little too close with parade-goers. The NYPD’s message to officers this year: Have fun, but be professional.
“I’ve worked this event every year,” Maddrey said.
“At some point during the parade someone dances with me. We know the boundaries. These are professionals. You might do a little two-step, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you’re not off-duty, you’re not in the club.”
J’Ouvert begins 6 a.m. Monday south on Flatbush Ave. from Grand Army Plaza, followed by the parade which starts at 11 a.m. at Ralph Ave. and runs west along Eastern Parkway.
People who show up for J’Ouvert after 11 p.m. Sunday on Flatbush Ave. will also be subject to screening.
