While the city has provided similar protections in the past, “you’ll see more” this year, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Thousands of uniformed officers will line the route, supplemented by plainclothes officers in the crowd.
New York police plan to deploy roving counterterrorism units and use bomb-sniffing dogs, rooftop observation posts, police helicopters and thousands of officers to provide extra layers of security at Sunday’s parade. Houston police investigated a tweeted threat against their city’s pride parade. Police in the Los Angeles area arrested a heavily armed man who told officers he was headed to a big pride parade in West Hollywood. Whatever the instigation, Mateen targeted a popular gay club, and pride celebrations around the country since have faced a sense of heightened risk. His father has suggested he was angry with gays. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a 911 call.
It’s still unclear, and may always be, exactly what prompted gunman Omar Mateen’s rampage. “It’s been an interesting experience to build the parade with kind of a heavier message” after the optimistic sentiment last year, Stephanie Mufson said as she supervised assistants building floats Thursday for the event. A memorial with their photos will be set up inside City Hall. Victims will be honored with a moment of silence when the march reaches the grandstand. It’s “such an important way for these two communities to come together,” said Watts, whose group also has members joining other parades.Īt San Francisco’s parade, also among the country’s oldest, a “We’re Orlando” group of about 300 people will be fourth in the lineup. She and 19-year-old daughter Emma, who is gay, plan to join about 200 other people behind the group’s banner in the parade. “As the mom of a gay teen, Orlando terrified me,” says Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. And gun-control, anti-gun-violence groups have joined the lineup since the shooting forged new bonds between them and gay-rights activists. A “We Are Orlando” solidarity group has been added to the lineup. Marchers will carry 49 orange flags - the color of choice for campaigns against gun violence - through the route. In New York, the lead float will be dedicated to the victims. To be sure, the often raucous marches will be tempered with messages of respect and grief for the 49 people massacred and more than 50 wounded in Orlando. A 1969 police raid on the bar helped catalyze the gay rights movement. Sunday’s parades do have a new milestone to mark: President Barack Obama on Friday designated the site around New York City’s Stonewall Inn as the first national monument to gay rights. “If we change our event - if we make everything somber - it’s, in many ways, allowing those who wish to silence us to win.” “But that’s also why it’s so important that we are out and loud and proud. “Last year was such a celebratory time, and this year, we have this happening,” says James Fallarino, a spokesman for organizers of the New York parade, one of the nation’s oldest.