Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Happy Saturday. Brooklyn is celebrating West Indian culture this Labor Day weekend with its annual J’Ouvert and West Indian Day Parade. Public safety is always a big concern 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 Ben Feuerherd has been reporting on what police and violence prevention groups are doing to prepare. Ben, just remind us what this event in central Brooklyn is all about.

Ben Feuerherd: It's a really festive couple of days that culminates with the West Indian Day Parade along Eastern Parkway and Crown Heights on Labor Day. 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. There's also amazing food everywhere.

Janae Pierre: Amazing food as--

[laughter]

Ben Feuerherd: As you would expect. [laughs] 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. In the night prior to the parade, there's traditionally been this carn called J’Ouvert that's like a street party, but it also has its own parades. Just extremely festive party atmosphere.

Janae Pierre: Yes, definitely. J’Ouvert's a vibe. The West Indian Day Parade is a vibe. Why is public safety such a concern during a celebration like this?

Ben Feuerherd: It's, I'd say, two main reasons. First, there's been instances of violence in recent years at both J’Ouvert 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. One of the people who was shot died, and police still haven't charged anyone with that crime. There's also been a number of shootings during J’Ouvert in recent years.

Years ago, a lawyer and aide to former Governor Andrew Cuomo was hit by a stray bullet in Crown Heights, and the night before the parade during J’Ouvert, and he later died.

Janae Pierre: I'm guessing the other public safety concern comes in due to the shooting that happened in Crown Heights just a couple weeks ago.

Ben Feuerherd: The parade was planned just two weeks after a mass shooting in the neighborhood at a hookah bar 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.

Janae Pierre: 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 label Labor Day weekend. 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. I'm wondering, what are the NYPD and anti-violence groups doing this year to prepare?

Ben Feuerherd: The mayor and officials from the NYPD held a press conference Friday, and they went over their plan for how they're going to protect everyone. Here's what the NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, had to say.

Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Our police presence will include our emergency service unit, our mounted unit, canine 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. 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.

Ben Feuerherd: 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 Mathieu. 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 Rah-Rah, 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.

Al Mathieu: Try to mediate best as possible. Nothing really ever broke out, but we had those type of situations, we explain, like, this is a large crowd. Somebody's going to push you. Getting upset because somebody ran into you or pushed you, it's not worth. It's just bringing it back to a normalcy to the person.

Ben Feuerherd: 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 drinking outside or playing loud music. The idea is they'll talk to the people in the community before the police have to get involved.

Janae Pierre: 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?

Ben Feuerherd: 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. 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. 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. He suggested he might do similar things in other cities across the country, including here in New York.

Janae Pierre: Yes, but how likely has that been?

Ben Feuerherd: I did another story about this a couple weeks ago. Trump has these special powers in DC because it's DC, it's a federal district where he has powers that he wouldn't in other cities. His powers to do similar things in other cities, including here, are limited. He can do things like call the National Guard, which he has done in LA, or send federal law enforcement to patrol federal areas in the city, where there are some, like one person I talked to said, "Our waterways that are patrolled by the Marine Corps of Engineers could be an area or national parks in the city are federal lands."

Janae Pierre: To be clear, Governor Kathy Hochul also reached out to President Trump about his threat to send Guard troops to New York City. Right?

Ben Feuerherd: Yes. This week, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, met with the NYPD commissioner, and the NYPD Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, has been really clear over the weeks that the National Guard is not needed here; we have it.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Ben Feuerherd. Thanks a lot, Ben, and have a good holiday weekend.

Ben Feuerherd: Thanks. You, too.

Janae Pierre: Thank you for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back on Monday

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