Yes.
To sum up: the reason you’re getting a big old collective shrug in response to your very strong feelings is that New Yorkers generally recognize and value that different cultures celebrate and congregate in different ways. It’s what makes this city what it is.
Have you ever been to Marcus Garvey Park on the 4th of July? Have you ever tried to ride a bike from the 125th St Fairway (RIP) to the GWB/Little Red Lighthouse on a summer Saturday around 5 pm? (Note: these are rhetorical questions; I already know your answers). I mean, for Pete’s sake: have you seen “In the Heights”?!
Now, I personally don’t like seeing people openly shooting up, I don’t like robbery, I don’t like violence. There is literally nowhere in NYC that you can wander around without being on the lookout for those things; it’s the best form of prevention.
But…lawn chairs? Children (gasp) RUNNING? Girl, please.
Finally, to equate “black and brown people gathering and socializing”, even in large groups, even loudly, with “danger” is blatantly racist, and sensible New Yorkers (as well as reasonable people everywhere) reject that paradigm exactly as we should. It causes bad outcomes. It causes people to call the cops for no real reason, which causes other people to get shot for no reason.
Remember, the powerful always win when the average people fear, and fight with, each other. That’s why these maniacs on TV keep doubling down on the effort to make it so. They want an army of Amy Coopers and the like. They want us suspecting and targeting each other. The ruling class WANTS you to think that loud salsa music makes you unsafe. It does not.
Be better than that.
