Apparently, the colors flew and tempers flared in this year’s Phagwah parade.
Revelers claim that police took their colored powders as they marched along the parade route, searched floats and “overstepped their bounds and challenged our culture.”
Phagwah is the annual Hindu celebration of the New Year. For nearly 25 years Richmond Hill’s Holi parade – this year on Sunday, March 20 – has drawn thousands of revelers who toss colored dyes and powders. About 10 years ago, said a police source, they began to enforce no powder or abrack –colored powder – along the parade route.
“We encourage them to do it in their homes or religious institutions,” said the source. “Richmond Hill is ethnically diverse, but [throwing the powder] is not looking out for the people forced to breathe this in. Additionally, officers are assured a safe work environment, and this is unsafe.”
But Vishnu Mahadeo, president of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council and parade organizer, told The Courier that people were body and bag searched, and their powder was taken.
“This is part of our culture, this is what it is all about,” he said. “The police do what they have to do to keep law and order, but it’s another thing to overstep bounds and challenge people’s culture.”
“We’re there for public safety to make it a safe event for everyone,” stressed the source, who noted that four arrests were made on Liberty Avenue and 131st Street for assault and disorderly conduct, and 14 criminal summonses were issued in and around Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park, where the parade culminates, for disorderly conduct.
