On Monday, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, the annual West Indian American Day parade was set to kick off. Locals describe this event as "notoriously violent," and this year is proving no exception; even before the parade kicks off, three people have been stabbed, with one in critical condition.
This raises a number of questions. First, the stabbings themselves.
Three men were stabbed in Crown Heights, Brooklyn early Monday morning — just before the notoriously violent West Indian American Day parade was set to kick off, according to police.
A 32-year-old man and 23-year-old man were stabbed in the neck and a 36-year-old was stabbed in the face near Carroll Street and Utica Avenue around 5:48 a.m., cops said.
EMS responded and rushed all three to Kings County Hospital, where the 32-year-old man remains in critical condition.
The 23-year-old man and 36-year-old man were listed in stable condition, according to police.
No arrests have been made, cops said.The stabbing happened just blocks from the pre-dawn J’Ouvert Festival, which begins at 6 a.m. and runs until the parade kicks off at 11 a.m.
Now, the real question is this: If this event is, as claimed here, "notoriously violent," why is it still going on?
Parades and festivals require permits from the municipality, from the city or county, depending on location; in this case, the permits and permissions would presumably come from the city of New York. There are good reasons for these requirements; these events use city resources, they take place on city streets, which generally have to be closed to regular traffic, and they consume city resources, not the least of which is law enforcement, especially, it seems, in the case of "notoriously violent" West Indian American Day.
So, with that being the case, why is the city still issuing the necessary permits and permissions to the organizers of this event and the parade that follows? Why ask for this kind of trouble? Is this community so violent that the city fears their reaction should permits be denied? If so, what does that say about the community, and the city's response to previous years' acts of violence surrounding it?
This event does indeed have a bad history, and this year, like previous years, the NYPD is surging officers into the area to try to keep things to a dull roar.
Police said the parade will be promptly shut down at 5:30 p.m. — a decision made after six people were shot during last year’s festivities, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
“Thousands of NYPD cops will be on the parade routes and in the surrounding neighborhoods from Sunday night through Monday. This is one of our department’s largest deployments of the year at this time,” she said Friday.
The annual festivities, which celebrate Caribbean culture, have been marred by violence over the years.
Is shooting and stabbing people part of Caribbean culture?
People have rights under the First Amendment; that much is certain. These rights include the right to assemble peacefully, with "peacefully" being the operative word. This event, evidence from recent years has shown, is not peaceable. For whatever reason, it seems to draw violence; in 2015, even an aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Carey Gabay, was fatally shot in the head during one of these events. That's not a peaceable assembly. That's not "fiery but mostly peaceful."
It seems the logical measure to deny this event any permits or permissions until the criminal element is dealt with, but it's a certainty that the communist Mamdani administration will do no such thing. So, the violence will continue.