For the second year in a row, gun violence overshadowed the West Indian Day Parade — violence not at the parade, but at the traditional overnight J’Ouvert pre-party.
Early Monday morning, gunfire broke out, apparently between two gangs. Caught in crossfire was Carey Gabay, a deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corp. Shot in the head, he was in critical condition Tuesday.
A distraught Gov. Cuomo decried the inability of gun control to prevent such horrors. The question of how to enforce the city’s gun laws against gangs is a fair one — but many other New Yorkers wondered about a street party that was going strong at ÂÂ3 a.m.
The city rightly makes an effort to accomodate cultural traditions, and J’Ouvert is a real and longstanding one. Its history here extends back more than a century — to the origins of Carnival, the Caribbean Mardi Gras-like event to which the West Indian Day Parade owes its origins.
Yet the party stands tragically in need of more supervision.
The West Indian American Day Carnival Association — which has run the parade proper for nearly 50 years — has no official connection to J’Ouvert. The pre-party is run by a separate nonprofit — one that gets major taxpayer funding.
As The Post reports today, City Councilman Jumaane Williams and Public Advocate Letitia James have played key roles arranging that funding. But Williams, at least, has plainly lost perspective: In the wake of the Gabay shooting, he sent out a bizarre press release applauding the safety of this year’s festivities.
If the city is to fund this party, it 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.