PR Day Parade Route Ends In Jail. 208 Locked Up.

The New York Times reports today that the number of arrests during the Puerto Rican Day parade this year went up from "around 50 -60" (way to track those stats) last year, to 208. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for public information, said advance intelligence (for Puerto Ricans) suggested that gang members were going to try to march in defiance of parade organizers, who did not want them there. Some detainees this morning said they weren't gang members at all, but were caught up in the crowd and herded by police without cause. Among them were some college-bound, high school graduates and a 55 year-old U.S. Postal worker from New Jersey. (Scarier than a Blood!) Brown, however, says that 198 of the 208 arrests were gangmembers. Including, the Times lists, the following inventory that reads like a Puerto Rican Day carol:

145 Latin Kings, 40 Bloods, 13 Natas

and a Chonga in a pear tree! 208 Arrested at Puerto Rican Day Parade, a Steep Jump Over Recent Years [New York Times]