ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The annual Puerto Rican Festival is one of the highlights of Rochester’s summer months.

It’s when the festival ends that trouble begins.

Some 20 people were arrested following the parade that ends the festival for throwing rocks and bottles and vandalizing property.

But the event will continue, asserts Mayor Lovely Warren.

"I don't think if you were to do something like that that that would stop what happens in the neighborhood afterwards," Mayor Warren said.

The city had worked with festival organizers to prepare for disruptions, which in years past had led to rowdiness, vandalism and dangerous conditions.

"We plan accordingly to bring in a team to help us and work with our community partners to mitigate what happens in the neighborhood,” she said. “You can't let a select group of people stop all the good that happens that weekend to celebrate our Hispanic culture.”

The mayor supported police in gear that protected them during their response to the disruptions. City Hall fielded complaints that a stepped up police presence, complete with state police helicopter, incited small, organized groups.

Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli presented senior officers Monday to media in three degrees of uniform dress to demonstrate Sunday's RPD team was not wearing full protective gear, but did wear uniform-like dress that was more protective and included a helmet. He said officers did not put on their helmets "until there was an identified threat of rocks and bottles being thrown."

Ciminelli said for every case of disruptive behavior that led to arrests along North Clinton Avenue, there were hundreds in neighborhoods along the festival and parade route that were contained before they escalated. Police don’t know why the rock and bottle throwing happens at the end of the Puerto Rican festival each year.

The city and the festival's organizers emphasize none of the trouble is part of the festival. 

"There are people that take advantage of the situation to engage in some dangerous and serious behavior," Ciminelli said.

Ida Perez, the chairperson of the Scrantom Street Block Club, served as a festival organizer for 17 years. She says the people causing the trouble typically don't even attend the festival.

"What bothers me the most is that's not what Puerto Ricans are about. We're very humble people, and it really gives a bad name to all Puerto Ricans, to Puerto Rico as an island and all of the people who've came here, because that's typically not the way we behave," Perez said.