On Labor Day many of the residents of
Brooklyn celebrate by marching or watching the West Indian American
Day Parade. It's called J'Ouvert (day opening) and it's about
expressing Caribbean culture. The marchers dress exotically and the
spectators wave flags from their home country in the Caribbean. It's
colorful and noisy and well-attended. I never saw it. I only heard
it.
The Friday before Labor Day weekend,
the police put spotlights at troublesome corners which they turned on
every night as a sort of hint that NYPD would be present and
watching. The day of the parade, there was a strong police presence
at street corners and inside the subway stations. Ocean Avenue was
barricaded at Parkside Ave. and at Eastern Bl. and many other streets
blocked the same way. You could still enter Prospect Park on foot.
I didn't go there either. I went to lunch in Queens with a friend.
The parade used to start at 4 a.m., but
in a futile attempt to avoid violence, the parade start was pushed to
6 a.m. this year. There is a pre-parade of revelers with drums and
whistles and horns that went down Flatbush about 5 a.m. The noise
woke me and it was still dark outside, but I didn't look at the
clock. It was distant - past the subway ditch and another block, but
still it was enjoyable and short-lived - and I went back to sleep
afterward. These revelers pass by and then go somewhere else and
back to the beginning of the real parade.
The parade starts at Grand Army Plaza
and marches down Flatbush to Empire Bl and turns there to continue
marching. Then, I guess, there is partying in Crown Heights because
I saw some fabulously feathered men and women late in the afternoon
and evening walking down Ocean Avenue, presumably going home. That was a beautiful sight - hours and hours of exotic, tropical birds walking down the street. No crowds and lots of smiling face.
The extra security didn't prevent
violence. At the beginning of the parade two men were shot (not
killed) and another man was shot during the parade. Two other people
were stabbed. In areas of Brooklyn not too far from the parade
route, two men were shot to death. Fin du jour.
