Day: September 4, 2026

One suspect was described as wearing a white tank top and jeans.

New York City will end Monday’s West Indian Day Parade promptly on Labor Day Monday afternoon — a cutoff officials say is aimed at preventing the late-day gun violence that marred last year’s celebration.

The measure is part of a broader security plan that will put thousands of NYPD officers and hundreds of community violence-prevention staffers and volunteers along the parade route and surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods, city officials said Friday.

Many of the NYPD’s security measures, including drones, counterterrorism teams and controlled entry points for J’Ouvert, were also used last year.

But Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Friday press briefing that the department will deploy more officers this year, test different barrier configurations and make changes to its use of drones, while the city is also expanding the footprint of its community violence-prevention teams.

The 5:30 p.m. end time on Sept. 7 is half an hour earlier than the 6 p.m. finish scheduled for the parade in recent years. Tisch said this year’s cutoff was chosen deliberately because of when violence broke out during last year’s festivities.

“Last year, we saw three separate shooting incidents on or near the parade routes at approximately 5:35, 6:15 and 6:30 p.m., resulting in six people being shot,” Tisch said. “The NYPD was forced to shut down last year’s celebration as a result of this violence.”

“I want to be very clear: this year, there will be zero tolerance for violence of any kind,” Tisch said.

Preparing for J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade

The West Indian Day Parade, the centerpiece of the city’s annual Labor Day celebration of Caribbean culture, will begin at 11 a.m. Monday on Eastern Parkway. 

Officials said there are no known specific or credible threats against either the parade or J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn celebration that precedes it.

The two events will have different security setups.

J’Ouvert, which traditionally marks the beginning of the West Indian American Day Carnival festivities, will take place Monday morning before the main parade. Spectator access opens at 2 a.m., with the event running from 6 to 11 a.m. along Empire Boulevard from Flatbush Avenue to Nostrand Avenue, then south on Nostrand Avenue to Rutland Road.

Unlike the main parade, J’Ouvert will have controlled access. Spectators will enter through 13 checkpoints and be screened by NYPD personnel using magnetometers. Weapons, alcohol, coolers, backpacks, large bags, umbrellas, blankets, chairs, bicycles, scooters and skateboards are among the items prohibited inside the secured viewing areas.

Last year’s J’Ouvert unfolded without reports of any major incidents before festivities transitioned into the West Indian American Day Parade later in the morning.

Spectators at the West Indian Day Parade will not be subjected to the same controlled-entry screening, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, though police will maintain an increased presence along and around Eastern Parkway.

Thousands of officers will be deployed from Sunday night through Monday.  The department will also deploy its Emergency Service Unit, aviation and mounted officers, K-9 teams, counterterrorism personnel, field intelligence officers and the bomb squad. NYPD drones will provide officers with real-time views of crowds, while a counter-drone team will respond to unauthorized drone activity.

The Mamdani administration is also expanding its use of community-based violence prevention groups around the celebrations.

Since July, the city’s Office of Community Safety has worked with Crisis Management System organizations on a five-day operation spanning five police precincts and 20 zones — seven more zones than last year, Mayor Mamdani said.

Eight teams made up of 337 Crisis Management System staff members and community safety volunteers began deploying Thursday at locations along the parade route and in nearby neighborhoods. On Monday, the teams are expected to conduct outreach, mediate conflicts, respond to crises and intervene in disputes before they escalate. Mobile trauma units will also be deployed in areas where large crowds gather and disperse.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams acknowledged there had been some “tense moments” during planning discussions between police, organizers and elected officials over how to balance security with the cultural character of the celebration.

Williams said parade organizers welcomed additional law enforcement while also pushing for a larger role for the Office of Community Safety and Crisis Management System groups.

“I think everybody came with their tools, and we figured out what is the best plan to go forward,” Williams said.

He said particular attention was paid to keeping the parade on schedule, including making sure it ends on time.

Street closures for J’Ouvert begin at 11:30 p.m. Sunday and will remain in effect until 11 a.m. Monday, affecting portions of Flatbush Avenue, Empire Boulevard and Nostrand Avenue.

For the West Indian Day Parade, closures around the formation area begin at 6 a.m. Monday. Additional closures take effect at 8 a.m., and at about 10:30 a.m. Eastern Parkway will be fully closed from Utica Avenue to Grand Army Plaza, along with northbound and southbound streets feeding into the parkway.

 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration said Friday it took corrective action after learning that disappearing messages had been enabled in a Signal chat used by City Hall to communicate with social media influencers, a setting the mayor’s chief lawyer said staff should turn off when using the encrypted app.

The acknowledgment comes amid growing scrutiny of the administration’s use of Signal to communicate with a large network of content creators who receive City Hall talking points, videos, event invitations and opportunities to interview administration officials.

The New York Times reported on Friday that at least one influencer Signal channel run by a City Hall employee was set to automatically erase messages that employee sent to the group. The Times reported that the setting was changed after it began asking City Hall about the practice.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Mamdani’s Chief Counsel Ramzi Kassem said there is no blanket prohibition on City Hall employees using Signal or similar messaging applications. But employees generally must seek authorization before downloading apps that are not already installed on their devices, he said, and any approval comes with requirements intended to ensure compliance with city rules.

For Signal, Kassem said, that includes turning off its disappearing messages feature.

“We would authorize it, but specifying that you have to disable disappearing messages to remain in compliance,” Kassem said.

Kassem said City Hall learned about the issue through news reporting and then took “immediate corrective action.”

Asked later what that action entailed, he said the corrective actions included reminding staff to disable disappearing messages and that the administration would continue reviewing the matter to determine whether additional steps are necessary.

“We will continue to look into this matter to see if any other corrective actions need to be taken here and generally,” Kassem said.

The latest round of scrutiny followed a report earlier this week from the Columbia Journalism Review and Tow Center for Digital Journalism examining the Mamdani administration’s relationship with social media creators.

The report found that a Mayor’s Office employee runs a Signal group called NYC Creators Announcements with more than 200 influencers. Members interviewed for the report said City Hall sends the group talking points, video clips and other material and offers creators invitations to events and interviews with administration officials.

That prompted questions about whether communications taking place in the encrypted app were being preserved as government records.

After the report, City Hall told amNewYork Wednesday that Signal could be authorized for specific uses as long as employees followed record-retention requirements and the state Freedom of Information Law. Officials did not answer follow-up questions about whether the influencer group itself had been authorized or whether its messages were being preserved.

Grace Rauh, executive director of Citizens Union, said at the time that City Hall needed to make clear whether any messages had been destroyed. “The problem is that Signal allows messages to auto-delete, and the City Charter prohibits destroying records without an agency head’s approval,” Rauh said.

Under Section 1133 of the City Charter, city records generally cannot be destroyed or otherwise disposed of outside an approved records-disposal process. State Freedom of Information Law separately governs public access to government records.

The administration has not confirmed whether government records were actually lost as a result of the disappearing-message setting. City Hall has also not said whether Emilia Rowland, the Mayor’s Office employee identified as running the influencer Signal group, received the authorization Kassem said is required under City Hall policy before staff use apps such as Signal.

Mamdani defends collab with social media creators

Beyond the record-keeping concerns, Mamdani on Friday repeatedly defended his administration’s broader use of social media creators, arguing that City Hall should reach New Yorkers through the platforms and outlets they actually use.

He pointed to social media outreach about the city’s 2-K program and a Broadway ticket lottery for high school students as examples of information the administration wants to distribute as widely as possible.

“We should be engaging with our press corps as we do,” Mamdani said. “We should be engaging with anyone who a New Yorker might listen to or read.”

The mayor also emphasized that City Hall does not pay creators for interviews or engagements with him.

“City Hall has never paid a content creator or an influencer for an interview or an engagement with myself,” Mamdani said.

The CJR and Tow Center report said participation in the Signal group itself is unpaid, while some creators have separately received compensation for campaigns run by city agencies.

Asked Friday about concerns that influencers may have outside financial relationships or commercial interests, Mamdani continued to defend the outreach while stressing the importance of traditional journalism.

“The fourth estate journalists are a critical part of how we not only engage with the city that we love, but also how we are held to account by the city that we love,” he said.

Thousands of cops will be on the beat during the West Indian Day Parade and the early-bird J’Ouvert Festival, which begins at 6 a.m. and runs until the parade kicks off.

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