NYPD To Increase Security At This Year's West Indian Day Parade Festivities
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD is putting new safety measures in place ahead of this year's West Indian Parade in Brooklyn on Labor Day.
In the predawn hours last year, Carey Gabay, an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was shot and killed before the parade. He was walking with his brother when authorities said he was gunned down in the street following J'ouvert Celebration festivities leading up to the West Indian Day Parade on Sept. 7, 2015.
As WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported, police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Gabay's death was a wake-up call.
"The legacy of that death is the fact that we will try to ensure that going forward, what happened to him never happens to anybody else at this event," Bratton said.
J'ouvert is a celebration of Caribbean culture. NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill said revelers will notice a difference this year.
"We are going to increase the size of the uniform detail and the plainclothes detail also," O'Neill said. "We are going to end up doubling it."
Also for the first time, organizers will need a permit.
