In defending his decision to let J’Ouvert proceed next year despite the annual death toll, Mayor de Blasio accidentally put his finger on the core problem.
Both “the St. Patrick’s parade” and “the Puerto Rican parade . . . had long problematic histories for years,” he claimed. In fact, neither has anything like J’Ouvert’s deadly record.
More important, J’Ouvert isn’t a parade.
It’s all-the-way-to-dawn anarchy, sprawling for blocks. It’s rife with public drinking and drunkenness — and gobs of ganja, too.
The actual parade, celebrating West Indian Day, starts long after sunrise. And the NYPD, working with the community, has managed to resolve the public-safety issues there.
Not so J’Ouvert — even though the police presence was doubled this year, and massive light towers brought in. Violence still claimed two innocent lives, same as the year before — and, as The Post reported, gunfire came inches from killing an infant.
Yes, the vast majority of partiers behave responsibly, but a few gang-bangers inevitably seize the chance to run wild. As Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says, J’Ouvert “is always a disaster waiting to happen.”
One year ago today, we said the city “needs to give J’Ouvert organizers a choice: Impose more adult supervision, working with the NYPD and senior community leaders to ensure safety — or scrap the overnight party entirely.”
Sure looks like time for Plan B.