NYC NOW - Brooklyn Prepares for J’Ouvert and West Indian Day Parade Amid Safety Concerns

Episode Date: August 30, 2025

Brooklyn is preparing for J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade, celebrations that draw huge crowds. But they have also been marred by violence in recent years. After a mass shooting in Crown Heights earlier this month, the city is relying on violence prevention groups and the NYPD to keep the events safe. WNYC’s Ben Feuerherd joins us to explain.

NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Happy Saturday. Brooklyn is celebrating West Indian culture this Labor Day weekend with its annual juvei and West Indian Day parade. Public safety is always a bit concerned at community celebrations, but it's especially true at this event, which has been marred by violence in recent years. Last year, someone shot five people right along the parade route in the middle of the day, and police never made an arrest.

WNYC's been fewer heard has been reporting on what police and violence prevention groups are doing to prepare. So, Ben, just remind us what this event in central Brooklyn is all about. Yeah, so it's a really festive couple of days that sort of culminates with the West Indian Day parade along Eastern Parkway and Crown Heights on Labor Day. and the people who march and ride floats in the parade do dances and wear extravagant and colorful costumes and wave flags from Caribbean countries to celebrate their heritage. And there's also amazing food everywhere. Amazing food. As you would expect.

And it draws an enormous crowd on Eastern Parkway, which is this main thoroughfare through Crown Heights and through Central Brooklyn, like hundreds of thousands of people. And in the night prior to the parade, there's traditionally been this carnival called Juvei that's kind of like a street party, but it also has its own parades, just extremely festive party atmosphere. Yeah, definitely. Juvei's a vibe. The West Indian Day parade is a vibe. But why is public safety such a concern during a celebration like this? So I'd say two main reasons. First, there has been instances of violence in recent years at both Juve and the parade itself. Last year, as you said, someone shot five people along the parade route in the middle of the day during the parade. And that happened right at a central intersection in the neighborhood at Franklin and Eastern Parkway. And one of the people who was shot died and police still having charged anyone with that crime. There's also been a number of shootings during Juvay in recent years.

Years ago, a lawyer and aide to former Governor Andrew Cuomo was hit by a straight bullet in Crown Heights in the night before the parade during Jouvet. And he later died. And I'm guessing the other public safety concern comes in due to the shooting that happened in Crown Heights just a couple weeks ago. Yeah, so the parade is planned just two weeks after a mass shooting in the neighborhood at a hookabar that killed three people and injured 11 others. When police and violence prevention workers said that the shooting was connected to rival gangs in the area and they have said they're concerned about retaliation for that shooting. Ben, I know that you've been to a West Indian Day parade and that you've lived in the neighborhood. I too have been out there having a little fun on the Labor Day weekend. And the one thing I noticed the year that I attended was that there were metal detectors in the middle of the street that people had to walk through.

So I'm wondering, what are the NYPD and anti-violence groups doing this year to prepare? Yeah, so the mayor and officials from the MIPD held a press conference Friday, and they went over their plan for how they're going to protect everyone. And here's what the MIPD commissioner Jessica Titch had to say. Our police presence will include our emergency service unit, our mounted unit, canaan counterterrorism teams, field intelligence officers, and our bomb squad. Our helicopters and drones will be deployed during the celebrations to assist our officers on the ground. And the Joint Operations Center will be fully activated with all of our city, state. and federal partners, and personnel there will be monitoring fixed and mobile cameras along the route and surrounding areas.

And then also one of the ways the city has worked to curtail gun violence in recent years is through nonprofit groups that are supposed to use their community connections to work to disrupt violence in these neighborhoods. I spoke to a few leaders of these groups this week who described what they were doing over the weekend to try and make sure it's peaceful. One of them is Al Matthew. he leads a group called Brownsville Think Tank Matters. He said he plans to go out with a Haitian band

that sets off from Prospect Park around midnight on Monday, a parade called the Ra Ra, he called it, and they parade through the streets of Flatbush. He said that parade can draw hundreds of people, and he and members of his group, plan to walk with the crowd and step in if there's any sort of arguments or anything like that. You've got to mediate the best possible.

Nothing really ever broke out, but we had those type of situations. We explained, like, this is a large crowd. Somebody's going to push you, so, you know, getting upset because somebody ran it to you'll push you. You know, it's not worth it. Just bringing it back to a normalcy to the person. Another person I spoke to is from a group called Elite Learners.

She said that members of her nonprofit are going out in a specific zone of the neighborhood where they have community connections, and they plan to do things like talk to people having parties or cookouts in the neighborhood who may have things like cars double parked or maybe doing things like tricking outside or playing loud music. And the idea is they'll talk to the people in the community before the police have to get involved. Ben, I want to talk about the broader context about crime in the city. You mentioned the shooting at the hookah bar in Crown Heights a couple weeks ago. And then just this week, a couple shootings in the Bronx. Where does crime stand right now in New York City? So Mayor Adams and the police commissioner are constantly touting

how gun violence and homicides in the city are at historic lows. It's a real sticking point for Adams, who's running for reelection on a public safety platform. But all that comes after, as you say, we've had these two mass shootings in the city recently, the first at a midtown office building and the second at that lounge in Crown Heights. And then looming over all this is the Trump administration in Washington. Trump has essentially taken over law enforcement in Washington and called the National Guard in there because of what he claims is rampant crime in the district. And he suggested he might do similar things in other cities across the country, including here in New York. Yeah, but how likely has that been? So I've actually, I did

another story about this a couple weeks ago. And so Trump has these special powers in D.C. because it's D.C. It's like a federal district where he has powers that he wouldn't in other cities. So his power is to do similar things in other cities, including here, are limited, but he can do things like call the National Guard, which she has done in L.A., or send federal law enforcement to patrol federal areas in the city where there are some, you know, like one person I talked to who said, you know, are waterways that are patrolled by the Marine Corps of Engineers could be an area or national parks in the city are federal lands. Yeah.

But to be clear, Governor Cathy Hokel also reached out to President Trump about his threat to send guard troops to New York City, right? Yeah, and this week, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, met with the MIPD Commissioner, and the MIPD Commissioner Jessica Titch has been really clear over the weeks that the National Guard is not needed here. Like, we have it. Yeah. That's WMYC's been fewer heard. Thanks a lot, Ben, and have a good holiday weekend. Thanks, you too. And thank you for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Junae Piers. We'll be back on Monday.