Brooklyn club Mood Ring was raided by officers from the New York Police Department this past Monday (9th June) during an afterparty for the city's Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Officers from the city's 83rd Precinct allegedly arrived at the club shortly after 12:30 AM in response to a noise complaint. Mood Ring's afterparty, which was their fourth such annual event following the parade, had kicked off at 10 PM. Later that night, outside the venue, both club-goers and musicians gathered for a performance of Bomba, a traditional form of African music from Puerto Rico.
Mobéy Lola Irizarry is a traditional Puerto Rican musician who was at Mood Ring to play their barril instrument as part of the Bomba jam. The musician told Resident Advisor that the mood outside the venue had been positive before police arrived. Irizarry began playing at around midnight to a crowd estimated to have consisted of between 80 and 100 people. Many of these people were queer, Black Boricua and Caribbean.
Police then arrived and allegedly began pushing through the crowd towards the musicians. Video evidence shows that some people were knocked to the ground amid this initial altercation, and at least five people were arrested. One person was also hospitalised due to the raid.
"[The police] didn't give us a request or a notice to disperse," Irizarry told RA. "They didn't ask us to stop playing. They were just telling us to move back, pushing us back, trying to tell us to get back. But we had nowhere to go, because they were pushing us into the wall, pushing us to the ground."
John Barclay, who owns and operates neighbouring venue Bossa Nova Civic Club, told RA: "Everyone [was] screaming and confused. Certainly seemed like a disproportionate response to me."
In a joint statement shared on June 10th, local Boriquan community groups Juventud Unida por la Independencia (JUPI), Brooklyn and Adolfina NYC spoke out against the police's response to the afterparty, pointing to a similar example of aggression by officers outside Bushwick lesbian bar The Bush on June 9th.
"This was a targeted attack against Puerto Ricans meant to repress us and our cultural identity,” a spokesperson for JUPI said. “There is no justification for this fascist assault against Puerto Ricans who were just celebrating being Puerto Rican."