The NYPD will set up a “double moat” of barricades at Sunday’s Dominican Day Parade, a now-regular security feature that will “make sure that the route remains clear of unauthorized people,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday.
The extra line of barricades has been used regularly since 2024, when some paradegoers crashed parades, including the Dominican Day Parade, by jumping the single line of barricades
About 400,000 people are expected to attend Sunday’s parade — which runs up 6th Ave., from W. 38th to W. 55th streets — Mayor Mamdani said at a One Police Plaza press conference with Tisch.
Police on July 26 arrested 16 people with guns both during and after the Bronx Dominican Day Parade on the Grand Concourse, including a teenager who was caught with a loaded assault rifle.
Revelers attend the Dominican Day Parade on 6th Ave. in Manhattan on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Tisch said there are no credible terror or gang threats to Sunday’s parade, but police will be extra cautious.
“We’re always concerned about gun violence and gang violence,” Tisch said. “We will have a large number of officers at the parade. As has been our pattern, we do an enhanced deployment of our officers and our gun and gang teams in the locations we know where violence has historically occurred.”
“Those enhanced deployments at the right times and in the right places is what I believe has been a major contributing factor to the unprecedented low numbers we’re seeing in terms of shooting victims, shooting incidents and homicides in the city,” Tisch added.
Through last Sunday, there have been 151 murders citywide, 37% fewer than the 198 last year during the same time.
Shooting incidents are down 7%, to 389 from 417, and the number of shooting victims is also down, 5%, to 471 from 494.
Revelers attend the Dominican Day Parade on 6th Ave. in Manhattan on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Also at the press conference was Rep Adriano Espaillat (D-Harlem), the first Dominican-American to serve in Congress.
Espaillat in June was defeated in the primary by Darializa Avila Chevalier, who Mamdani endorsed.
The endorsement was not raised at the press conference, with neither mentioning the other in their remarks.