Festival marking 25th anniversary of Crown Heights unrest is praised and panned
Gavin Cato’s Dad Sees ‘No Problem’ with Commemoration Event; Yankel Rosenbaum’s Brother Calls it ‘an Insult’
Twenty-five years later, the 1991 Crown Heights riots — one of the most infamous eruptions of racial violence in New York City history — are still sparking polarized opinions.
One Crown Heights, a community festival scheduled this weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the riots, was endorsed Wednesday by Carmel Cato, the father of 7-year-old Gavin Cato, the boy whose death sparked the unrest.
“It should be fun, for the kids, especially,” Carmel Cato told the New York Post when asked about the planned festival, which has been billed as featuring games, rides, arts-and-crafts booths and kosher and non-kosher food. “For the kids, it’s no problem. It’s the adults that are the problem. They’re the ones that are still angry.”