Cinco De Mayo event organizers angry over abrupt police shut down: 'It was scary'

DETROIT (FOX 2) - "We had a whole event planned around Mexican art, music and culture," said Michael Reyes, the co-diector of the music label We Are Culture Creators in Detroit.

But as the label and non-profit's Cinco De Mayo event, Fiesta Detroit, was in motion at a club, the celebration of culture came to an abrupt halt, Reyes told FOX 2.

In a video provided by Reyes, police can be heard telling the crowds to "clear the area," and "the street is now closed."

"We were outside on our patio and 20 police officers basically rushed in through the back," Reyes said. "It felt like we were in a military state. It was scary."

An earlier event, the 59th Annual Cinco de Mayo Parade and Fiesta was a success on Sunday.

"Thousands of people attended and enjoyed the event," DPD Chief James White said during a press conference on Monday.

But at Fiesta Detroit, which was geared toward the gen Z and younger millennial crowd, everything was going well until police showed up, according to organizers.

Detroit Police saw things differently.

"Some businesses had overcrowding. Double and triple capacity, which creates a number of issues for us," White said. "A decision was made at that time to pause that business, whether it be to allow for traffic to dissipate, move on from that area and into other areas, but no businesses were shut down." 

However, event organizers maintain that police never made it clear why they dispersed the party goers. And when patrons left, most did not return. 

Some were even placed in handcuffs.

"After about four or five blocks. I’m walking backwards, texting friends, letting them know where I'm at – and I'm getting grabbed and handcuffed," said Xavier Cuevas with We Are Culture Creators.

In fact, some are calling the actions of Detroit police racist.

"Can we look at the draft and see how that was handled? Can we look at St. Patrick’s Day and see how that's handled? I mean those are two different things (that were) handled completely different than our community, as a Mexican community," Reyes said.

But according to White, "the allegations of racism are improper; unwarranted."

Detroit City Council member Mary Waters called for the police chief to address the council, and at the press conference the chief said he would.

"Why couldn’t we plan, in this process, to just shut the street down? We do it all the time for other events," Reyes said. "That’s where the discussions have to happen."