Organizers and officials for the popular pre-dawn Caribbean festival of J’Ouvert in Brooklyn, New York are moving the event to daylight hours to curb deadly violence, DNAinfo New York reports:
“The Labor Day event, which is a precursor to Carnival and the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway, has been marred by fatal shootings for three years in a row, including the death of Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s aide Carey Gabay in 2015. [Two young people, including 22-year-old Tiarah Poyau, were fatally shot last year.]
In response, the NYPD and those responsible for the official J’Ouvert parade are moving the festivities to 6 a.m., rather than its previous 4 a.m. start time, [on Sept. 4] according to Police Commissioner James O’Neill.”
Police, elected officials, parade organizers, clergy members and groups that focus on combating violence were all involved in discussions about how to make the event safer, The New York Times reports.
“We’ve been working on this since the day after J’ouvert last year,” O’Neill told The Times about the parade, which includes thousands of people celebrating in the street and backyard parties from in Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn.
J’Ouvert Caribbean Parade Moving To Daylight Hours After Fatal Shootings was originally published on newsone.com
