Police, antiviolence groups roll out J’Ouvert, parade safety plan in Brooklyn

Police and violence prevention groups are making plans to keep residents safe at the West Indian Day Parade and the pre-dawn J’Ouvert carnival this weekend, just two weeks after a mass shooting in Brooklyn killed three people and injured 11 others.

Police have not arrested any suspects for the Aug. 17 shooting. Mayor Eric Adams said retaliatory shootings could follow unless violence prevention groups work with family members of the victims to prevent them.

Hundreds of nonprofit staffers will be out in neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn this weekend, according to a spokesperson for the city department that oversees them. They’ll work to address minor infractions like loud music and double-parked cars, and walk with revelers at early-morning parades, two leaders of the groups told Gothamist.

The West Indian Day Parade and J’Ouvert are the city’s largest annual celebration of West Indian heritage, drawing enormous crowds of revelers to Crown Heights and surrounding neighborhoods. But the events have also been marked by violence, such as when a gunman shot five people along the parade route last year, including a 25-year-old man who later died. No one has been arrested for that shooting.

This weekend's festivities come at a critical time for the Adams administration and public safety in the city. Adams, who is running for re-election in November, has boasted that shootings and homicides are at historic lows. But recent news events threaten to derail that narrative, including the Aug. 17 shooting in a Crown Heights hookah bar and a second mass shooting in a Midtown office building on July 17.

The stakes are especially high both for Adams and the city after the Trump administration sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C. and has signaled it may do the same in other cities, including New York, in what it says is an effort to combat crime.

The nonprofit workers who will be out in force this weekend are hired by the city to provide community-based solutions to violence, according to contracts reviewed by Gothamist. Part of that work is done by violence interrupters, who are supposed to canvas shooting hotspots and build relationships with people likely to commit violence. They’re also responsible for conflict mediation – which can be both planned and impromptu – to lower the risk of potential violence, according to the contracts.

Working to ensure a peaceful celebration

The official J’Ouvert parade will step off at 6 a.m. Monday near Grand Army Plaza, according to the city. But the celebration on Labor Day actually kicks off hours prior in neighborhoods across Brooklyn, with cookouts, parties, and street festivals.

Al Mathieu, the CEO of Brownsville Think Tank Matters, said he’ll be out early that morning with members of his nonprofit working to ensure a peaceful celebration. The group provides a host of services to residents of Brownsville and Flatbush, including outreach and educational programs designed to reduce violence.

Mathieu said he and members of his staff will be walking with a Haitian band that plans to set off from Prospect Park South around midnight and march through the streets of Flatbush. That parade can draw hundreds of people and last for hours, Mathieu said.

He’s accompanied the group for several years, he said, and has never seen violence break out during the procession.

“We just like to see people have a good time and nobody get hurt,” Mathieu said.

In past years, he and his staffers have intervened when arguments have broken out.

One of the benefits, Mathieu said, is that he and his colleagues are able to engage with people in the crowd, while police officers who follow the group tend to stay on the edges.

If an argument does break out, Mathieu said he and his team will use the crowd to their advantage. They’ll usher the two sides into different places in the crowd and speak to them until they cool off.

“They look around and they don’t even see each other any more because the crowd is that crowded,” he said.

Camara Jackson, who heads another nonprofit called Elite Learners, said members of her organization will be out canvassing specific areas where they have the strongest community ties.

Part of their effort will be to communicate with people who may be committing minor infractions to prevent the NYPD getting involved, she said. She said her staffers will encourage people to obey the law and “abide by the rules so that we can assure there's no conflict not only amongst each other, but between community and NYPD.”

Jackson said she’s been working with the city for the past six months to create an effective safety plan for the weekend.

“We are for our community members being able to party, being able to celebrate the culture and having the freedom to do so,” she said. “However we understand that New York City has rules and regulations and laws, and we have to as citizens abide by laws.”

More police than Times Square on New Years Eve

At a press conference Friday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there will be more police deployed at the West Indian Day Parade than at any event this year, including the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square. She said that will include “thousands” of uniformed and plainclothes officers, as well as drones and helicopters.

She also said officers would be deployed to local parks. Parade spectators will be scanned using portable metal detectors, and alcohol, weapons and large bags and backpacks will all be prohibited, she said. She also said there will be an additional layer of barricades along the parade route.

Adams had previously said that officers normally at the West Indian Day Parade were being redeployed to the Bronx in the wake of several recent shootings there. When asked by a news reporter whether that was still true, Tisch said the reporter “misunderstood,” and that no officers were being redeployed from the parade to the Bronx.

In statements to Gothamist, spokespeople for City Hall and the commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development, which oversees violence prevention groups, touted the nonprofits’ efforts to ensure community safety. They said about 200 violence prevention workers will be out in the neighborhoods starting on Thursday night.

“These credible messengers will engage directly with the community, providing street outreach, conflict mediation, rapid response and safe community gathering spaces,” Commissioner Keith Howard said in a statement.