NYPD to Brooklyn Residents: 'Do Not Shoot Anyone' on J'Ouvert

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Ahead of this year's J'Ouvert festival — the annual, overnight Brooklyn street parade that serves as a sort of pre-party for the borough's local Carnival celebration — officers with the NYPD's 71st Precinct have posted a series of flyers around Crown Heights warning residents not to engage in violence during the festival. And let's just say they don't mince words.

"Do not shoot anyone," the flyers read. "Do not stab anyone."

The 71st Precinct posted a photo of one of the flyers to its Twitter account:

The flyers have offended some Brooklyn residents, according to DNAinfo.

“This notice which I witnessed NYPD posting all over is one of the most disgusting, racist, condescending and rude public announcements I have ever heard of,” a longtime local named Anton Gold told DNA Info. “Why are they lumping hundreds of thousands of peaceful J’Ouvert celebrants with gang bangers from Ebbets Field? It’s completely outrageous and the opposite of what the NYPD says they are trying to do."

Seth Kaplan, another resident, told the local news site: “I think this flyer is misleading. The murder of Carey Gabay was gang-related and unrelated to J'Ouvert. The language and choice of words is insulting.”

Gabay, a Clinton Hill resident and soon-to-be father, was walking home from the festival when he was shot in front of the low-income Ebbets Field Apartments by one of dozens of bullets whizzing past. Police and prosecutors have said the shootout that killed Gabay involved at least eight people — three of whom were charged with his murder this summer.

Two more shooting in the Grand Army Plaza area at the 2015 festival left one 24-year-old man dead and another 21-year-old injured.

This year, in addition to running a public awareness campaign, the NYPD plans to double the number of officers on duty during J'Ouvert.

Lead photo by Carnaval.com Studios/Flickr