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The J’ouvert celebrations that signal the official start of New York's West Indian Day Carnival saw heightened security imposed by the city, which critics say actually hurt the festival, asserting that the claims that the festival is a magnet for violence are false.
The city's Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed the measures were in the interest of preserving the safety of its participants.
Traditionally J’ouvert starts very early in the morning — around 2 a.m. — but this year the start time was changed to 6 a.m. Participants were subjected to lengthy and detailed screenings before entry. Large bags and backpacks were banned, and people were scanned with metal detection wands. A ban on alcohol use was also imposed.
Twitter user Lashana Thomas documented the new security procedures and commented that the snail's pace of the process had delayed festival goers from getting into the J’ouvert and that they were upset with their treatment. While she acknowledged the need for security, she said it was obvious that better systems needed to be put in place.
The line is crazy and there's only one person at a time. This safety comes with a price. We need to do better. #NYC #jouvert2017 pic.twitter.com/WIC1IE1h6q
— Lashana Thomas (@shanaknowsbest) September 4, 2017
On Aug. 21, de Blasio held a press conference to discuss the security plans for J’ouvert, saying that New York was blessed to have people in the community with roots from the Caribbean and that the event was one of the biggest annual events in the city. Using two deaths that occurred last year allegedly during Carnival celebrations, the mayor went on to explain the new approach to managing the security for the event.
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Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, who is a former police officer, spoke of the new security plans at that press conference saying, "That is why we came up with a plan of what we can do on J’ouvert weekend ... and a very good plan. Moving it to the day hours, having checkpoints, ensuring that illegal behaviors are not taking place."
Adams also placed the numbers that attended last year's festival at around 200,000, so some have questioned why the NYPD would implement security measures that would require such time-consuming search requirements at the 12 checkpoints along the route, in addition to changing the time of a pre-dawn event to a daylight event. The narrative from participants is that the actions of authorities amount to an attempt to kill the festival.
This country is where culture comes to die. They want to rob POC of their identity and heritage. Let the fuckin ppl dem play mass #Jouvert
— An-Tee-Faaah�� (@BKLAMMZ) September 4, 2017
Twitter users documented the low crowd turnout for this year's J’ouvert, and have blamed it on the new security measures.
Others have commented on the media linking violence to the festival, saying that it is false, that any criminal activity that takes place around the same time as Jourvery is linked to it regardless of location.
For example, there were multiple shootings between Sunday night and Monday morning. Local channel NY1 was criticized by a New York resident Jaye Marin Skinner for linking the shootings to J'ouvert. She said, "There were four shootings in Crown Heights last night, NOT along the J'ouvert route. Why is the news (NY1) reporting it saying they were "close to J'ouvert," yet they don't know if the shootings were associated with the festivities? By "close to J'ouvert," they really just mean that it occurred in the same neighborhood. Stop trying to skew people's perceptions and report what you know!"
J’ouvert ends at 11am, and the actual West Indian Day Parade begins with its beautiful costumes and soca music floats moving along Flatbush Avenue to Prospect Park before ending on Midwood Street.
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