NYC officials are reassuring revelers ahead of New Year’s Eve festivities
Officials in New York on Friday sought to reassure people planning to enter Times Square on New Year’s Eve that there were “no specific credible threats” against Sunday’s festivities.
Police are preparing for hundreds of thousands of attendees at the annual Times Square ball drop and will deploy thousands of officers, including 631 who graduated from the police academy on Friday, Police Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said in a news release. conference on Friday.
Law enforcement officers will monitor an extensive area in Manhattan with canine units and mounted officers. Helicopters and boats will also be deployed. “The full range of our public safety apparatus will be on display,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the conference.
Drones will be deployed along the outer permit zone around Times Square to monitor potential protests in real time, officials said.
Police have monitored more than 400 protests since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, Mr. Adams said. Overall, the department has managed to keep the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests peaceful, he said. However, there have been “a handful of protesters” who have tried to “dig into some protests and cause disruption”, Mr Adams said.
“This will not be tolerated,” he warned on Friday. “It is not accepted.”
Officials said law enforcement officers were prepared for protesters Sunday and that an expanded security zone this year would allow police to quickly respond to emergencies while keeping protesters out of the Times Square area.
Pro-Palestinian activists have called for a march and rally on Sunday afternoon at Columbus Circle, located at the north end of the police security zone that runs along Central Park South.
The protest, called “Shut It Down! For Palestine” is organized by several groups, including the People’s Forum, an educational and cultural organization in the city. Last month there was a pro-Palestinian demonstration just before the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in several arrests after demonstrators He broke through police barricades and got into an altercation with officers. On Christmas Day, six demonstrators were arrested during a pro-Palestinian march through Midtown Manhattan.
On Wednesday, more than two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested during the busy holiday season after blocking traffic heading to Kennedy International Airport in Queens.
Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been held almost daily in New York City since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. The conflict has heightened tensions on college campuses in New York and across the country, and resulted in verbal and physical clashes on city streets.
Every December, millions of people across the country watch the ball, which carries a lot of weight this year 11,875 pounds and is covered with 2,688 crystal triangles – as he descends the pole at One Times Square to mark the start of the new year.
Typically packed with revelers, Times Square’s New Year’s Eve celebrations can act as a barometer for the city and the world. In December 2020, nearly a year after the first reported case of Covid-19 appeared in the United States, the ball dropped on Times Square without an in-person audience. In 2021, the number of spectators was limited to 15,000.
The evening’s festivities also pose a unique security challenge for law enforcement in the city. A significant portion of the streets below Central Park, between Sixth and Eighth Avenues and south to 38th Street, will be inaccessible to motorists beginning at approximately 11 a.m. Sunday. according to the police.
In 2022, a man driving from Maine to New York attacked three police officers with a machete near Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Authorities said the man, Trevor Bickford, who was 19 at the time and had recently converted to Islam, had carried out a “jihad-inspired” terrorist attack.