Mamdani, Hochul march in NYCs West Indian Day Parade as revelers whine about beefed-up security

Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled through on a float while Gov.Kathy Hochul marched in Monday’s notoriously rowdy West Indian Day Parade — as revelers grumbled that the heightened security “damped” the party vibe.The pair of pols — both wearing “Honorary Grand Marshal” sashes — received clamorous welcomes as they made their way through Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as part of the 59th annual festival — hours after four people were stabbed along the route.

Mamdani blew kisses to his supporters from his perch on a parade float and popped off at times to shake hands with paradegoers.“We know today is the day that our entire city looks forward to,” Mamdani said at a pre-parade breakfast.“We are speaking about a parade that is the celebration not just of freedom, not just of this city but also of the Caribbean diaspora, a diaspora that has given so much to this place that we call home, a diaspora that has the roots of so many New Yorkers.”Hochul hit the pavement for the parade holding a banner bearing her name.She was joined by Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and activist Rev.Al Sharpton.The governor vowed to protect the “vibrant” Caribbean communities from what she called “ICE’s over-encroachment.“I was just in Little Caribbean neighborhood a couple of weeks, and that has had a real suppressing effect on the businesses, the churches,” she said of the Trump administration’s anti-illegal-immigration push.

“People are afraid to come out, to go to school, and this is New York.We are better than that,” Hochul said.The politicians at the parade were separated from the crowds by two rows of metal barriers and a thick patrol of law enforcement, which was beefed up in anticipation of the violence that explodes at the annual celebration.But partiers whined that the extra security made it “difficult for us to enjoy ourselves.”“I’m too far back. I used to interact with the people in costu...