Unamusement Park

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In December 2011, the NYPD faced intense criticism over comments posted to a Facebook group, “No More West Indian Day Detail,” intended for “NYPD officers who are threatened by superiors and forced to be victims themselves by the violence of the West Indian Day massacre,” referring to the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, New York.

“On Facebook, City Police Maligned People at West Indian Day Parade” (nytimes.com, also available at theerant.yuku.com):

They called people “animals” and “savages.” One comment said, “Drop a bomb and wipe them all out.”

Hearing New York police officers speak publicly but candidly about one another and the people they police is rare indeed, especially with their names attached. But for a few days in September, a raw and rude conversation among officers was on Facebook for the world to see — until it vanished for unknown reasons.

It offered a fly-on-the-wall view of officers displaying roiling emotions often hidden from the public, a copy of the posting obtained by The New York Times shows. Some of the remarks appeared to have broken Police Department rules barring officers from “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” about race or ethnicity.

The subject was officers’ loathing of being assigned to the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn, an annual multiday event that unfolds over the Labor Day weekend and has been marred by episodes of violence, including deaths of paradegoers. Those who posted comments appeared to follow Facebook’s policy requiring the use of real names, and some identified themselves as officers.

“NYPD Facebook Group on West Indian Parade: ‘Filth. It’s Not Racist If It’s True’” (gawker.com):

Some of the comments:

• An observation that the parade should be “moved to the zoo.”
• A description of parade detail as “ghetto training”
• “Let them kill each other,” one officer wrote.
• “Filth,” was a comment attributed to Nick Virgilio, a name the Times says “matches that of a police officer.” Another responded: “It’s not racist if it’s true.”
• “Welcome to the Liberal NYC Gale, where if the cops sneeze too loud they get investigated for excessive force but the ‘civilians’ can run around like savages and there are no repercussions.”
• “‘They can keep the forced overtime,’ said one writer, adding that the safety of officers ‘come before the animals.’”
• “‘I say have the parade one more year,’ wrote a commenter who identified himself as Dan Rodney, ‘and when they all gather drop a bomb and wipe them all out.’”

See also “NYPD Facebook Group Reveals Contempt For West Indian-American Day Parade” (gothamist.com) and “NYPD Group, ‘No More West Indian Day Parade Detail’, Calls Paradegoers ‘Animals’, ‘Savages’” (huffingtonpost.com).

This webpage documents the violence and mayhem at not just the West Indian Day Parade, but most parades involving large numbers of blacks (USA/Europe), Hispanics (USA), or Arabs and South Asians (Europe/Canada). As you read, keep in mind those discourteous, disrespectful remarks by the “racist” New York cops:

Savages. Animals. Filth.

After all, as one commenter pointed out, it’s not racist if it’s true.

Contents

1. West Indian Day Parade, 2011: Mass Shootings, Stabbings, Mobs
2. West Indian Day Parade, 2009: Two Fatal Shootings
3. West Indian Day Parade, 2007: Shooting
4. West Indian Day Parade, 2006: Stabbing, Shooting
5. West Indian Day Parade, 2005: Fatal Shooting
6. West Indian Day Parade, 2003: Stabbing, Fatal Shooting
7. West Indian Day Parade, 1999: Three Crushed to Death
8. MLK Day Parade, 2012: Beating, Shooting
9. Puerto Rican Day Parade, 2000: Mass Sexual Assaults

West Indian Day Parade, 2011: Mass Shootings, Stabbings, Mobs

This was the year NYPD officers created their infamous Facebook group, “No More West Indian Day Detail.”

“Night of Violence Injures Many and Claims Life” (crownheights.info):

An inseparable part of the West Indian-American Day Parade is a nighttime celebration called J’ouvert. It is a night feared and dreaded by the police, both for their own safety and the amount of people who get shot and stabbed throughout the night. This year was no different, with a number of fatalities as well as people shot and stabbed all around the area.

The following is an incomplete list of some of the violence that marked this year’s celebrations:

• The violence erupted early, just outside of Crown Heights on Blake Street and Alabama Avenue, where a man was shot dead at around 10:30pm.
• 12:30am, two people were shot on East 54th Street and Clarendon Road. Their condition is unknown.
• 12:50am, three people were shot on Lenox Avenue and East 51st Street; one of the victims was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
• 3:00am, a man was stabbed on the corner of St. Marks Place and Rochester Avenue; police were searching for two assailants that fled the scene. A level one mobilization was called.
• 3:40am, a man was stabbed on Albany Avenue and Rutland Road, his condition is unknown.
• 4:00am, a large mob formed on Empire Boulevard and Bedford Avenue; police called for emergency backup. There were no reported injuries.
• 4:20am, police began chasing a man on a yellow dirt bike on Utica Avenue and Winthrop Street, after he shot at people indiscriminately.
• 4:27am, a man was shot on Linden Boulevard and Nostrand Avenue. A level one mobilization was called. The victim was shot in the chest and rushed to the hospital in grave condition.
• 4:30am, police chased a man in a white tank top on Rutland Road between East 95th Street and East 96th Street for firing shots.
• 4:32am, a large mob formed on Carroll Street and Bedford Avenue. Police called for emergency backup. There were no reported injuries.
• 4:59am, police arrested one man with a gun on Winthrop and East 93rd Street. Police spot the yellow dirt bike on Blake Avenue and East 98th Street.
• 5:08am, police apprehended the dirt biker on Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway.
• 5:29am, a man was stabbed in the neck on New York and Church Avenues.
• 6:00am, shots were fired inside a crowded McDonalds on Empire Boulevard, and the shooter fled down Washington Avenue towards Lefferts. Panic and mayhem ensued and a number of people were trampled in the stampede. Later, one person was found shot at the location. Update: the victim was a female who is now listed as in grave condition at the hospital.

CrownHeights.info was informed that these were only but a handful of the serious incidents, and that police were busy the entire night handling other assaults and robberies.

“Man opens fire at Brooklyn parade, toll rises to 46 shot since Saturday morning” (nypost.com):

Gunfire erupted today near the massive West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn — not far from where Mayor Bloomberg was marching — as the entire city reeled from a epidemic of shootings over the past two days.

By noon today [Monday], a total of 46 people had been shot in the city since Saturday morning, authorities said.

At just before noon, a gunman fired into the air several blocks away from the start of the West Indian Day Parade route in Crown Heights before hopping into a cab and fleeing.

The frightening incident came as people around New York City continued being shot in a frenzy that began early Saturday morning.

Twenty five people had been shot as of 6 a.m. Sunday — including three kids at a house party-turned-shooting gallery in The Bronx early Sunday.

By early Monday morning, seven more people were shot in four separate incidents in Brooklyn — one of them fatally.

By noon, another seven people had been shot — bringing the shocking toll to 46 people injured by gunfire since Saturday morning.

In one incident today Tyrief Gary, 18, was fatally shot to the chest at 12:45 a.m. at 109 E. 54th Street in Brooklyn. Three others were shot during the same incident, all of whom were in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.

Police sources believe that three of the shootings this morning are connected to the pre-dawn festivities leading up to today’s West Indian Day parade.

The traditional celebration, known as J’ouvert, has been the scene of numerous shootings in the past, although cops have had it under control in recent years.

Separately, another man was shot in the chest today at 4:24 a.m. at Linden Blvd and Nostrand Avenue. He was in critical condition at Kings County Hospital.

At 6 a.m., a man was shot in the leg in a McDonald’s at 57 Empire Blvd in Brooklyn, and was in stable condition at the same hospital.

At 11:48 a.m., a 41-year-old man was shot at 7th Avenue and W. 127th St. in Manhattan and taken to Harlem Hospital, where his condition was unknown. A 50-year-old man was in custody and being questioned.

A total of eight people alone were shot at 3:40 a.m. at the out-of-control house party on East 221st Street in The Bronx Sunday, authorities said.

The violence erupted after one man crashed the gig and then got into an argument with another male partygoer, sources said. Each opened fire on the other, spraying the panicked crowd with at least 21 bullets.

The most gravely injured victim in the other shootings was a man shot on East 93rd Street in Brooklyn. He later died.

“Gun terror rocks Carib fest” (nypost.com):

Was this a parade or a firing range?

Gunfire repeatedly rocked the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn yesterday — even while Mayor Bloomberg marched nearby — as the city’s terrifying epidemic of shootings over the Labor Day weekend grew steadily worse.

The orgy of violence — including seven fatalities among the 49 gunshot victims — seemed to follow the revelers everywhere, from the parade route to nearby fast-food joints and even to their own homes.

In all, nine of the shooting victims were hit at or near the parade, the annual Caribbean-themed festival in Crown Heights, where a gunman had fired into the air only blocks from where Bloomberg had just begun marching.

Hours after the parade ended, an elderly woman was killed in the crossfire of a melee between cops and a gunman.

The parade had gotten off to a rocky start at 6 a.m., when a nearby McDonald’s — packed with 100 early risers prepping for the festivities — was the site of a senseless shooting.

A customer Kenneth Beggs, 44, bumped into a man entering the Empire Boulevard eatery and apologized.

But Anthony Carruthers, 28, allegedly refused to let the incident go and pumped bullets into Beggs’ legs.

Tempers flared after parade ended, as well, with one reveler shot in front of a crowd on Eastern Parkway.

A group of six or seven men had pummeled the victim on the ground and then an attacker pulled out a handgun and shot him in the leg.

Before the gunman fled, he grabbed a pot of steaming rice from a food vendor and tossed it onto an onlooker.

Some of the shootings were clearly “associated with the parade,” [Police Commissioner Ray] Kelly said. “Quite frankly, this is something that does happen with this parade.”

“2 Cops Among 67 Shot in Weekend Violence; Teen and 56-Year-Old Bystander Killed” (nbcnewyork.com):

Three people were killed and two police officers were wounded in a shooting a few blocks from the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, capping a violent holiday weekend in which nearly 70 people were injured by gunfire.

In the police-involved shooting Monday near the parade in Brooklyn, bullet fragments hit one police officer in the left arm and chest. He was hospitalized but was expected to survive. Another officer was grazed by a bullet.

One shooter in that Crown Heights melee was killed along with a bystander, 56-year-old Denise Gay, who was shot while sitting on a stoop with her daughter nearby just two doors down from the exchange of gunfire. …

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday the city should not consider shutting down the parade, which often sees violence and had fatal shootings in 2003 and 2005.

“I don’t think it’d be wise to close it down, but it’s just unfortunate that there seems to be every year some violence attended to it,” he said.

“Shot Dead on Her Stoop, Caught in a Rush of Violence Over a Holiday Weekend” (nytimes.com):

Police data shows that 52 shootings from Friday through Monday claimed 67 victims around the city, resulting in 13 deaths, in a spike of gunplay that has alarmed the Bloomberg administration even though the number of citywide shootings this year, through Sunday, is down 2 percent compared with the same period in 2010.

The police have tied three of the shootings and five victims to the West Indian Day Parade, and say the tally could have been higher had officers not seized 14 illegal guns and arrested 16 people during J’Ouvert.

Watch more: “Violence at West Indian Day Parade” (abclocal.go.com).

West Indian Day Parade, 2009: Two Fatal Shootings

“Parade Ended in Violence” (pravda.ru):

It’s difficult to remember the West Indian Day Parade not marked by incidents. This year wasn’t exclusion. An all-night barbecue celebrating ended in bloodshed early this morning, leaving two men dead and two others injured, police and witnesses said. Partygoers ran in panic when the gunshots rang out at 5:45 a.m. at the seemingly peaceful gathering held in an alley on Chester St. in Brownsville. Three men were shot, two fatally, according to police. … Police said the fourth man injured was punched in the face but not shot. … The West Indian Day parade, held Monday along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, has been marred by violence several times in recent years, including non-fatal shootings in 2007 and 2006, and a homicide in 2005, Daily News reports.

West Indian Day Parade, 2007: Shooting

“Man Shot Twice At West Indian Day Parade” (nysun.com):

A man was shot in the leg at the 40th annual West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn yesterday, police officials said. The victim, a black 26-year-old, was shot twice at the corner of Troy Avenue and Eastern Parkway at about 4:15 p.m. He was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.

Three people had been taken into custody for questioning yesterday evening, police said.

The shooting was the only major act of violence during this year’s West Indian Day parade, which travels through Crown Heights along Eastern Parkway.

West Indian Day Parade, 2006: Stabbing, Shooting

“Man shot at West Indian Day Parade” (abclocal.go.com):

Last year [2006], police had two reports of violence: a man shot in the leg and another person stabbed.

West Indian Day Parade, 2005: Fatal Shooting

“Man shot at West Indian Day Parade” (abclocal.go.com):

In 2005, a man was shot to death.

West Indian Day Parade, 2003: Stabbing, Fatal Shooting

“Brooklyn Man Held In Killing at Parade” (nytimes.com):

The suspect in a fatal shooting during the Sept. 1 West Indian American Day Parade, tracked to Columbia, Md., by Brooklyn detectives, surrendered on Thursday, the police said. He was returned to New York yesterday.

The suspect, Louis Wingate, 18, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Anthony Bartholomew, 21, during the parade in Crown Heights, the police said.

“I don’t think he knew the victim at all,” said Capt. Patrick McAndrews of Brooklyn North’s major crimes unit. “People were dancing, and our victim evidently bumped into the shooter and shots rang out. Now whether our victim bumped into him, or somebody else did and he missed his intended target and hit our victim, we don’t know.”

Roosevelt Bartholomew of Canarsie, the victim’s father, said, “There were different people pushing and shoving, and some guy pulled out a gun to scare people off and Anthony was an innocent bystander.”

“The real outrage” (nypost.com):

Past parade violence includes a man shot in the leg in 2007, another leg shooting and a stabbing in 2006, a man shot to death in 2005 and in 2003 (besides the fatal shooting from the float) a stabbing in the neck.

West Indian Day Parade, 1999: Three Crushed to Death

“Man shot at West Indian Day Parade” (abclocal.go.com):

In 1999, two children died when they were pinned between floats, and hours later a man was run over by a float and killed.

MLK Day Parade, 2012: Beating, Shooting

“Police report released in MLK parade shooting in Little Rock” (todaysthv.com):

Little Rock police released the police report on the shooting of a teenager after the MLK parade downtown.

On a day meant for peace, a teenage girl was at the wrong place at the wrong time. On Jan. 16 after the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade in downtown Little Rock, the victim got beat up by five other girls, then the shooting happened. She was struck twice.

In the report, the shooters were apparently aiming at somone else in the alley, and the victim was caught in the middle.

In the police report, a witness told police he saw the shooting. He said he was driving by the alley and saw a young woman getting beat up by five other women. He told police he got out of his car and went up to the girl who was “dazed and wobbly.” He said the other girls fled.

The victim told police that while she was in the alley, there were two men walking behind her. She said that someone in one of the vehicles rolled down the window and shouted “get down” and then started shooting. She said she was shot while she was on the ground.

A doctor with Arkansas Children’s Hospital says the teen was shot in the abdomen and arm but her injuries are not life-threatening.

Puerto Rican Day Parade, 2000: Mass Sexual Assaults

Watch a documentary on this parade at youtube.com. Watch some of the attacks caught on video at efukt.com (warning: not suitable for work or children). The victims are mostly white women; the perpetrators are all black and Hispanic men.

“Suspect Just ‘Having Fun’” (nydailynews.com):

A suspected ringleader of the Central Park wilding spree yesterday said he was just “having fun” when dozens of women were doused with water and sexually attacked. “They’re telling me that I’m bothering them and I’m bothering nothing,” Manuel Vargas said as he was led in handcuffs from the 13th Precinct stationhouse in Manhattan. “They’re telling me that I robbed someone and I did nothing,” the 18-year-old Bronx high school dropout said. “I’m sitting there having fun, you know?” he added.

Vargas and 14 other men have been charged in the rampage that ripped unchecked through the park for up to a half-hour after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday. Cops say Vargas egged on a mob of other attackers as they surrounded unsuspecting women and ripped their clothes off, shouting, “Get ‘em, get ‘em.”

Vargas appears in one grainy video tugging at a woman’s clothing as she tries to escape from a gang of pawing men, cops said. A total of 47 women – including a French newlywed, two British tourists and girls as young as 14 – have come forward to report being groped. Vargas’ father yesterday defended his son, calling him a good kid who was being scapegoated in the attacks. “He doesn’t need to do any of that stuff. He has a girlfriend,” said Andre Vargas, 44, a Dominican immigrant. At arraignments last night, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Leemie Kahng called the suspects “part of a malicious mob that literally took over the southern and western parts of Central Park . . . and horrified not only the city, but the whole world.”

… Police have identified 30 suspects in the attacks, all of whom were picked out of amateur videotapes of the spree.

“Central Park mob victims include 14-year-old” (onlineathens.com):

A 14-year-old girl has joined the list of girls and women who say they were doused with water, stripped of their clothing, groped or robbed by a mob of men in Central Park over the weekend.

At least 16 girls and women, including four tourists, have told police they were attacked by part of the crowd around Sunday’s Puerto Rican Day parade on adjacent Fifth Avenue.

Police said the attacks in the famous park involved as many as 40 men who sprayed water on women, tore at their clothes, groped them and, in some cases, robbed them. Two men were arrested.

The 14-year-old girl said she was leaving the park around 6 p.m. when a gang tore off her shirt and snatched her necklace.

“Before I knew it, I was surrounded by what seemed to be 20 guys, all pouring water on me, and I was trying to push through,” said Stephanie, a woman who was in the midst of the mob with an Associated Press reporter and agreed to discuss the incident on condition that her last name be withheld.

“They were coming at me from all directions, and they were grabbing my butt, groping my butt, and I was screaming and I was trying to get through, trying to get away.”

Some of the victims said police were slow to respond to their cries for help.

Anne Peyton Bryant, a 29-year-old victim, said an officer she approached “acted like it was nothing” and two others told her to file a report at a nearby precinct. She said she filed the report but no one offered to help her look for the attackers.

“More women, girls tell of attacks by mob of men in New York” (cnn.com via destee.com):

At least 24 women and girls — one of them 14 years old — had come forward by Wednesday to tell New York City police they were doused with water, stripped of their clothing, groped or robbed by a mob of men in Central Park over the weekend.

Some of the victims, who included tourists from Britain and France, accused police of being slow to react when they told officers what had happened to them.

The 24 women and girls, a group that includes four tourists, say the daylight assaults in Central Park occurred about a block from where New York City’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade was winding down on Fifth Avenue.

Police said the attacks involved as many as 40 men who sprayed water on women, ripped off their clothes, groped them and, in some cases, robbed them. A French man and woman on their honeymoon were attacked; the man held down while his wife was sexually abused.

Anne Peyton Bryant, one of those attacked, says she will never leave her home again during a large event in New York.