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 lig▨hting and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Para🅷de.
“We’re sure there’s gonna be some tyᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚpe of attempt this year,” the mayor said at a Tuesday ne꧑ws 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 de𒉰ploying thousands of officers to the area — both in un♍iform and in plainclothes.
Officers will also be using different te꧃chnologies 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 commissione🍒r Richard Esposito .
“They’re going to be on alert for something different than what we’ve ha🌠d 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 securiﷺty firms and federal aut💞horities, 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 c෴heckpoints 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 w🦄arned.
“I did not agree with the concept of those changes,” he continued. “I pushed back hard … I thඣought it put us on a very troubling direction.”
The NYPD has said it has not received any credible threats of 🦋demonstrations a🌼t 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 si𒆙gns 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 alr💛eady been targeted by pro-Pal🦄estinian protesters on at least two occasions.
Last month, anti-Israel protesters disrupted the Thanksgiving Day Parade b✅y 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.
