I was scared, too.”PhotoRamón Rivera, 81, said this year’s parade was a victim of years of more aggressive crowd control than in the 1970s and ’80s. “On every block you have like 100 policemen bothering people,” Mr. Rivera said. A van arrived at the corner of East 46th Street soon after, and Mr. López Rivera emerged. Mr. de Blasio had taken pains for weeks to keep political distance between himself and Mr. López Rivera’s presence in the parade, and the two men had no visible contact. Mr. López Rivera wore a T-shirt bearing a black-and-white image of the Puerto Rican flag.

Source: New York Times June 11, 2017 22:39 UTC