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‘Most Extensive Security Ever’ promised for West Indian Day Parades

City Officials: Carnival Routes Will Be Brighter and More Heavily Policed This Year to Ward Off Violence

September 1, 2016 By James Harney Brooklyn Daily Eagle
A picture from the parade in 2014. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese
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Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced tough new security plans for this year’s J’Ouvert and West Indian-American Day Carnival parades, to deter a repeat of the fatal violence that marred J’Ouvert in 2015.

“You will see the most extensive security ever at this year’s J’Ouvert and [West Indian Day] parade,” de Blasio said at a Wednesday press conference held in Prospect Park not far from where the parade route culminates each year.

Bratton said the NYPD will literally be doubling down on its presence at the Labor Day celebrations, deploying twice as many officers as in previous years.

The police commissioner said that, “for the first time in its history,” the J’Ouvert parade had to apply for and be issued a city permit. He added that the route of the pre-dawn march will be much brighter than ever before, with 200 floodlight towers in place, instead of the 40 towers used in previous years and will be watched by an additional 42 security cameras.

De Blasio said the beefed-up security measures are being taken with the lethal violence that occurred during last year’s J’Ouvert in mind. A 24-year-old man was fatally stabbed, and Carey Gabay, 43, an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was shot and killed in what was said to be gang-related crossfire.

As a result, Bratton said the NYPD will be heavily monitoring gang activity and “chatter,” as well as checking the status of parolees and probationers known to live in or frequent the area in the days leading up to the Carnival events.

Last week, fliers bearing the logos of the NYPD, the Brooklyn DA’s Office and parade sponsor J’Ouvert City International were posted in the Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens neighborhoods where the parades will travel, warning that “Every act of violence will be fully investigated and prosecuted.”

And yet another city agency has become involved in Carnival-related safety measures.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said crews removed two pedestrian islands at Brooklyn and Kingston avenues along Eastern Parkway “due to safety concerns involving parade participants and large vehicles.”

The J’Ouvert celebration and parade is expected to draw 250,000 revelers and is scheduled to kick off at 4 a.m. Monday, Sept. 5 and wind along Nostrand Avenue to Flatbush Avenue and end at Grand Army Plaza. The West Indian-American Day Carnival parade is expected to be attended by over 1.5 million spectators and is slated to begin at 11 a.m. Monday at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue and culminate at Grand Army Plaza.

 

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