NYPD will be out in force at Times Square NYE ball drop to protect revelers from pro-Palestinian protesters who ‘want to do bad things’
Mayor Eric Adams said he is “sure” pro-Palestinian protesters will try to interrupt the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square after already disrupting the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“We’re sure there’s gonna be some type of attempt this year,” the mayor said at a Tuesday news conference.
“Everyone looks for events like this if they want to do bad things, and the police department is on top of it.”
To prevent any sort of disruption, the NYPD is deploying thousands of officers to the area — both in uniform and in plainclothes.
Officers will also be using different technologies and strategies to monitor any potential threats.
“The variety of tools, whether robots, drones, bomb-sniffing dogs — all of those things are in play,” former deputy commissioner Richard Esposito told CBS New York.
“They’re going to be on alert for something different than what we’ve had in the past, but they are mostly concerned [about] the people who go out [to] enjoy their night, and they want to keep the protests and the freedom of speech from interfering with other people’s freedom and enjoying themselves.”
The Times Square Alliance is also working directly with the NYPD, as well as private security firms and federal authorities, to keep the site secure.
“If you’re going to come and try to disrupt the event, you’re probably not gonna be successful, and if you are, you’re going to be arrested,” Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris said.
“So stay home and protest someplace else.”
The Crossroads of the World will be roped off starting at noon on New Year’s Eve, and anyone trying to get into the area will have to go through police checkpoints and security screenings.
But Adams expressed concerns about the NYPD’s ability to handle pro-Palestinian protesters after the city was forced to settle a lawsuit earlier this year that changes how police can respond to mass demonstrations.
The department agreed to abandon “kettling” — the crowd-control tactic of herding and confining protesters to a small area before making arrests as part of the settlement announced in September.
“The Police Department … [has] to be extremely more hesitant in actions that they would have carried out in the past to keep the peace,” Hizzoner warned.
“I did not agree with the concept of those changes,” he continued. “I pushed back hard … I thought it put us on a very troubling direction.”
The NYPD has said it has not received any credible threats of demonstrations at the ball drop.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have already swarmed the streets surrounding Rockefeller Center during its annual Christmas tree lighting event earlier this month.
Waving Palestinian flags and signs calling for the “end to genocide,” the ralliers gathered on Sixth Avenue alongside hordes of tourists waiting in line to see the iconic ceremony.
Unable to get to the iconic tree, the enormous crowd instead swarmed around the one outside the News Corp building, which houses The Post and Fox News, and which has already been targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters on at least two occasions.
Last month, anti-Israel protesters disrupted the Thanksgiving Day Parade by gluing their hands to the middle of Sixth Avenue and covering themselves in fake blood.
In total, there have been over 500 demonstrations across the Big Apple since Israel’s war against Hamas began following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack, CBS reports.
