Booze and large bags will be banned from the J’Ouvert parade this year, screened through a dozen NYPD checkpoints to be set up along the route, officials and police said.

Police: Checkpoints and Alcohol Ban at J’Ouvert

From DNAinfo by Rachel Holliday Smith:

Booze and large bags will be banned from the J’Ouvert parade this year, screened through a dozen NYPD checkpoints to be set up along the route, officials and police said.

The changes are part of a new safety plan for the celebration that includes moving its start time to daylight hours following years of deadly violence on or near the pre-dawn J’Ouvert parade route.

Revelers attending the parade — which runs from Grand Army Plaza, down Flatbush Avenue and east on Empire Boulevard — will be subject to metal detector wand searches at 12 checkpoints along the route, according to police and a notice from Assemblyman Walter Mosley.

No alcohol or large bags and backpacks will be allowed past the checkpoints, an emailed statement sent Monday from Mosley said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill confirmed the new safety plan Tuesday. At an unrelated press conference at a Park Slope school, the mayor said “we needed to something different.”

“From the beginning there was a decision to fundamentally change the reality, including the hours — to daylight — and the level of screening to make sure there are not weapons anywhere nearby,” de Blasio said.

Mosley, who called for the event to be canceled outright last year after shootings killed two young people on the parade route, said in a statement he is “thrilled that the NYPD has taken the concerns of the community seriously.”

“Over the past few years we have experienced senseless and tragic acts of violence that has marred an otherwise vibrant and uplifting celebration of culture and history,” he said.

A total of 2,000 police officers will be patrolling the parade route and working at the checkpoints and light towers will be installed there, as well, police said.

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9 Comments

  • crazy parade!!

    Every year we dread it!!
    Why here???
    Most of the people dont even live here!!
    Its disgusting, people are dressed provocative and inappropriate. It does not bring to anything positive but senseless craziness.

    This parade MUST GO!!

    • must go

      we will have to wait until the white liberals decide that since we the jewish community have no say here in ch

  • hopeful

    But Israel can’t have metal detectors? What a foolish and dangerous move Israel made by removing them.
    A gun or knife is small enough to fit in a pocket. They thinking explosives? Sound ridiculous to me. Why is this parade not moved to a different neighborhood altogether.

  • moshe der g

    our community leaders (or whatever we call eli cohen chanina sperlin)

    why cant they arrange that our community should not be held hostage on labor day

    we should have access to drive in and out of crownheights

    they block off access to drivers from empire to eastern parkway .. from rochester to flatbush

    it is a disgrace that we cant go in and out until 10 pm at night ..

    SHAME SHAME

  • The kangeroo

    All Caribbean Island people should protest and seek an alternate site.The banning of booze and the placing of metal detectors violates the status quo.The white people are trying to dominate the great parade.

  • DeClasse' Intellectual

    move the parade and its unwanted hanging ons to the financial sector in downtown Manhattend of story and end of problem

  • The kangeroo

    Caribbean people do not let the whites control your parade! Boycot it do not show up!Show him who is boss man