DETROIT (WWJ) — A member of Detroit City Council is calling for the city's police chief to appear before the council to address the purported shutdown of Cinco de Mayo activities on Sunday evening.
Chief James White on Monday, however, provided clarification to the situation, saying while some businesses were "temporarily paused" due to overcrowding, the event was not shut down.
Councilwoman Mary Waters on Monday said she “wants to know if the early militaristic shutdown of Cinco de Mayo activities was a reflection of racist xenophobic double standards not employed during NFL Draft crowd control.”
In a release Monday, Waters said she wanted White to come before city council to explain why the Detroit Police Department was able to handle hundreds of thousands of fans on-hand in Downtown Detroit late last month, but had the “inability” to “handle much smaller crowds” during Cinco de Mayo festivities in Southwest Detroit.
Around 5 p.m. Sunday police began to break up celebrations in Southwest Detroit, dispersing large crowds along Vernor Highway, according to a report from The Detroit Free Press.
The department closed parts of Vernor to vehicle and pedestrian traffic due to a safety concern. DPD Sgt. Jordan Hall told The Detroit News that Cinco de Mayo hadn’t been canceled and people had still been free to continue to celebrate.
White said out of the thousands of people who attended festivities over the three-day celebration, eight were detained, ticketed and released, mostly for intoxication and disorderly conduct. No arrests were made.
Speaking Monday afternoon at a press conference providing updates on a number of recent cases, White clarified some of the claims surrounding the Cinco de Mayo situation, saying the social media posts regarding Sunday were "erroneously reported."
"We did not -- and I repeat -- we did not shut down Cinco de Mayo," White said.
"Thousands of people attended the event. There were a number of instances where overcrowding was a safety issue. Some businesses had overcrowding -- double and triple capacity -- which obviously creates a number of issues for us," White said.
White said the decision was made to "pause" specific businesses to allow for traffic to dissipate and move on. He said "no businesses were shut down and told that they could not run their business," but some customers were temporarily "restricted from moving into an event that was at capacity."
The chief also said Monday "a number of businesses" participating in Sunday's celebrations were not licensed and some businesses were "engaging in activities that they were not authorized to engage in."
Community activist Ofeliza MuÑeca Torres Saenz said in a video posted to Instagram that dozens of officers had rushed into the “otherwise peaceful event, shutting down every business and restaurant along Vernor Highway citing over capacity,” according to the Freep report.
“One of our biggest events in our community over the f***ing weekend and they shut it down? Really? Nice job, Detroit,” Torres Saenz said in the video. “So much that you care about Southwest that you shut f***ing everything down — restaurants that are open every day, businesses that are open every day and we’re over capacity on Vernor?”
“Sounds racist to me, y’all,” she said.
"The allegations of racism are improper, unwarranted. This is an event that we support. Our own mayor walked in the parade. I support the event. The commander who grew up in that community understands the event, understands the importance of the event," White said. "I think they're unwarranted and unbalanced allegations. And I don't know what they're based on."
"This is a very serious business, policing. And we're in times right now where people can make decisions in a split second that affect thousands of people," White said. "And what we had to do, and what the commander made the decision to do... is put the safety of everyone in that community on the forefront of that event."
"Cinco de Mayo is the equivalent of a National Holiday to our Latina residents,” Waters said in Monday’s statement. “The economic damage to businesses and the psychological hurt inflicted upon residents and visitors to Southwest Detroit must be addressed. We must ensure that racist xenophobic double standards were not reflected in the early militaristic shutdown of Cinco de Mayo activities.”
Cinco de Mayo is observed yearly on May 5, celebrating the anniversary of the outnumbered Mexican army's victory over France in the Battle of Puebla. It is more widely observed to celebrate Mexican heritage in the U.S. than it is in Mexico.
The next Detroit City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday morning. It was not immediately clear whether White would attend. During Monday's press conference, White said he has spoken with Waters about the situation.
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