J'Ouvert 2017: Revelers Met With Heavy Security At Predawn Festival

CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — Hours before the pre-dawn J'ouvert festival was scheduled to begin in Brooklyn, police had set up security checkpoints.

The dramatic increase in security was among a host of measures that the city implemented for this year's event in an attempt to curb violence that has flared up at the festival in years past. Last year, four people were shot and two of them died during J'ouvert festivities. In 2015, a lawyer in Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration was killed in the crossfire of a shootout.

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This year, city officials moved up the start time for the pre-dawn festival from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. The festival precedes the West Indian American Day Carnival Parade, which marches along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn later in the morning.

In addition to changing the time, officials say the security at J'ouvert will be similar to that at Times Square on New Year's Eve: no large bags, no alcohol, and lots of security checkpoints.

One man was killed and another was wounded on Sunday night just blocks from the parade route. Police have not specified whether the gun violence was connected to J'ouvert.

Neighborhood residents and revelers posted photos and videos of the increased security on social media:

Lead image credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan. In this Sept. 1, 2017 photo, Despers USA steel drum orchestra rehearses in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The group will join tens of thousands of costumed revelers behind police barricades and metal detectors early Monday in New York City for a Caribbean celebration rooted in emancipation.