Bumping,Grinding & Bullets

"Why can't we just bump and wind down the damn parkway?






Labor Day Monday marked the 44th anniversary of the *famous* West Indian Day Parade in Crown Heights; Brooklyn, New York.......But guns?


Every Year Canadians and Floridians of Caribbean descent neglect paying their bills to ensure they can afford the trip to New York to take part in this famed event.
Every Year women and men go broke spending hundreds of dollars on elaborate costumes in order to play mas alongside floats representing the greater and lesser Antilles islands.
 Every Year more than 3 million people come out to see the feathered and sequined bikini clad bodies that come grinding down the Eastern Parkway accompanied by some of the most popular reggae & soca artists.
And nearly Every Year someone gets shot.

One news report reads that three people were shot after the parade, four during the parade, and four others including one fatal in East Flatbush. This includes a police officer as well as children and the arrest of a city councilman. 

Several years back the sale or consumption of alcohol was banned from the parade because it only added to the mayhem that ensued with the large crowds. But gun control is a tricky and far more complicated issue

Acts of violence and violent behavior have become a regular part of this famous parade. Not two consecutive years have passed in the last decade where a violent act, usually involving gun play, hasn't occurred. And fatalities aren't that uncommon.  

So why not make this year the last year for the parade and pull the plug on the festivities? Probably because the city of New York would lose the millions of dollars in tourism revenue that the West Indian Day parade earns annually.

So for now parade goers can continue to bask in the revelry - but watch out for those bullets.