Friday, June 15, 2012

Puerto Rican Festival in the News

The Puerto Rican Festival has been getting a lot of attention in the press because of a delay in the opening yesterday. After opening the gates at 4 p.m. the festival was shut down by police due to a lack of insurance documentation, according to the Chicago Park District. It was reopened around 8:45 p.m. after organizers cleared up the issue with the Park District; watch NBC 5's coverage of the story.

Additionally, NBC reported that this year there will be a significant reduction in police presence for the area surrounding the festival as compared to previous years. In the story, a spokesperson for the CPD confirms that this will be true but does not offer numbers on how many officers have been taken off the detail, so it's difficult to know what this will mean for security in the streets surrounding the park, which see a lot of traffic and street-side celebrations. Although I did not attend the Police Department's community meeting I heard from the Advisory Council's Vice President, Glenn Brettner, that there was no discussion of a reduction in the police detail from CPD representatives.

No comments:

Post a Comment