On Friday New York officials made an announcement to reassure people who are planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square, claiming that there were “no specific credible threats” against Sunday’s festivities.
At a news conference on Friday, Law enforcement officials announced they will be monitoring an expanded area in Manhattan with canine units and officers on horseback, with helicopters and boats also set to be deployed. “The full complement of our public safety apparatus will be on display,” Mayor Eric Adams stated at the conference.
The Police Department is preparing for hundreds of thousands of attendees at the annual ball drop in Times Square and will deploy thousands of officers, including the 631 who graduated from the Police Academy on Friday, claimed Jeffrey Maddrey, the police’s chief of department, at the news conference.
Drones will also be in operation to surveil the outer perimeter of the security zone surrounding Times Square as a means of monitoring potential protests in real time.
Since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalated after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and the subsequent Israeli retaliation, there have been more than 400 Pro-Israel/Pro-Palestine protests across the city.
At the conference, Adams stated that there have been “a handful of protestors” who have tried to “embed themselves in some of the protests and bring about disruption.” He continued to assert that this will not be tolerated or accepted during the New Year’s celebrations.
Pro-Palestinian activists have called for a march and rally on Sunday afternoon at Columbus Circle, which is located at the northern end of the police’s security zone and runs along Central Park South. The protest is called “Shut it down! For Palestine!” and has been organized by multiple groups, including the People’s Forum, an educational and cultural collective based in the city.
Last month, a pro-Palestinian demonstration blocks away from the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center resulted in several arrests after the protesters broke through police barricades and had altercations with officers. On Christmas day, six protesters were arrested during a pro-Palestinian march than ran through Midtown Manhattan.
Just this past Wednesday, more than two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for blocking traffic heading to JFK International Airport in Queens.
These circumstances and rising tensions seem to be significant factors in the police department’s use of funds and planning for the upcoming holiday.
