Tag Archive for: parade

Warriors Parade Raises Questions About COVID-19 Safety, Security – NBC Bay Area

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More than 100,000 fans are expected to descend on San Francisco Monday to celebrate the NBA champion Golden State Warriors during a victory parade, but that’s raising some questions about COVID-19 safety and security.

The good news is the parade is outdoors, where infectious disease experts have repeatedly said COVID-19 is far less transmissible.

“I think the most concerning part about the parade is not the parade itself, which is generally outdoors,” UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said. “It’s the pregame and the postgame, so all the parties that happen before and after, so crowded indoor settings, poor ventilation. Wear your mask.”

Chin-Hong said, so far, there have been no noticeable COVID-19 outbreaks connected to large outdoor events in the region.

For those fans choosing to ride BART into the city, masks are still required in the stations and on the trains.

San Francisco police will be taking steps to make the parade route safe and secure.

People heading to the parade in a cab or a rideshare should be prepared to be dropped off a few blocks away from the route.

Officers do encourage people to be aware of their surroundings.

“We’re going to have a lot of police officers on the footprint and around the venue,” SFPD Officer Robert Rueca said. “Feel free to flag us down, say hi. If you see something suspicious, say something.”

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Judge Won’t Reinstate Aurora Pride Parade Permit Amid Security Staffing Woes – NBC Chicago

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A judge on Thursday refused to reinstate a permit for the Aurora Pride Parade after officials said organizers did not secure the needed law enforcement officers required for the event.

Still, organizers said the parade is not off just yet.

The special event permit for the third annual Aurora Pride Parade was revoked after the Aurora Police Department earlier this week said it could not supply enough sworn officers to provide Parade security. Organizers appealed the decision, saying in a statement Wednesday, “Our position has been misrepresented, and we’re making every effort to keep the parade as scheduled.

“It is unacceptable that Aurora City officials have denied a permit for the upcoming Pride Parade,” the ACLU of Illinois, which represents Aurora Pride, said in a statement following the court hearing Thursday. “The Parade has been a family friendly event, aimed at welcoming all members of the Aurora community for a celebration of diversity and inclusion. Rather than embrace this event – as thousands of members of the community have done over the past few years – City officials have created a faux controversy and refuse to provide adequate security so that everyone has the opportunity to celebrate safely.”

The ACLU called the permit issue “not constitutional” and said it plans to take its case to federal court in hopes a judge will “order Aurora to meets it obligation to its residents.”

“The intent of the federal lawsuit is to reverse the action of both the city and the appeals process by attacking that on first amendment grounds,” Aurora Pride President Gwyn Ciesla told NBC 5. “It’s possible there could be an injunction in place to reverse that decision.” 

The lead up to the parade has been at the center of controversy, as organizers and the Aurora Police Department continued to spar over what law enforcement representation would look like at the event.

Last month, Aurora Pride Parade organizers asked that law enforcement officers “participate without service weapons (our rules forbid all weapons), out of uniform, and without the presence of any official vehicles.”

Organizers of the parade said they had made the uniform and weapon…

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Lightfoot Says Officials ‘Checking Ourselves’ on Parade Safety Protocols After Waukesha Tragedy – NBC Chicago

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After a suspect allegedly killed five people and injured 48 others by driving into a crowded parade route in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Sunday evening, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the city is continuing to evaluate its practices to ensure that event attendees remain safe as they celebrate.

During a press availability Monday, Lightfoot called Sunday’s incident in Wisconsin “heartbreaking,” and said that it has led city officials to rigorously examine their own security protocols for parades and festivals.

“Whenever something like this happens across the country, as a mayor you think ‘are we protected? Are we safe? And we’ve had that discussion,” she said. “Every time we have a large-scale event, whether it’s downtown or in a neighborhood, we block off the roads physically, whether it’s with squad cars, infrastructure equipment, (etc.). It leads to a lot of traffic issues, but we lock it down because we want to make sure that people can enjoy themselves and do so safely.”

The city just held its annual holiday kick-off events at Millennium Park and along the Magnificent Mile, and will hold its annual Thanksgiving parade on Thursday in downtown.

Lightfoot says that the city deliberately blocks access points to parade routes in an effort to make it “very hard” to get vehicles anywhere near marchers and celebrants, and that they do so “intentionally.”

A Wisconsin man was arrested and accused of driving a red SUV into a crowd at a Waukesha Christmas parade, officials said on Monday

Even still, she says that in the aftermath of the Waukesha tragedy, she has ordered public safety officials and her staff to look into further ways to keep parade routes and festivals safe.

“We always have to check ourselves, and make sure that we’re doing everything we can, even when you’ve got somebody clearly determined to do harm, that we will literally block their ability to do that,” she said. “I think we’ve got a good plan in place, but we’ll never rest and we’re always going to be checking our safety protocols, particularly when some kind of tragedy like this happens.”

The suspect in the case, 39-year-old Darrell…

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