Trucks, sharpshooters and big balloons
Macy’s parade features tight security measures
NEW YORK — Sand-filled sanitation trucks and police sharpshooters will mix with glittering floats and giant balloons at a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that comes in a year of terrible mass shootings and not even a month after a deadly truck attack in lower Manhattan.
New York City’s mayor and police brass have repeatedly stressed that layers of security, along with hundreds of officers, will be in place for one of the nation’s biggest outdoor holiday gatherings.
“We had a couple of tough months as a nation,” Police Commissioner James O’neill said. “We won’t ever accept such acts of hate and cowardice as inevitable in our society.”
A posting last year in an English-language magazine of the Islamic State group mentioned the Thanksgiving parade as “an excellent target.” Authorities say there is no confirmation of a credible threat.
“I want to assure the people that we swore to protect that anytime something happens anywhere in the world, the NYPD works with our law enforcement partners and studies it and we learn from it and it informs our decision-making,” O’neill said.
This year’s security plan includes dozens of city sanitation trucks that will be lined up as imposing barriers to traffic at every cross street along the parade route stretching from Central Park to Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street.
In addition, officers with assault weapons and portable radiation detectors will walk among the crowds, and sharpshooters on rooftops will scan windows and balconies for anything unusual.
New York officials are also asking the tens of thousands of spectators to be alert for anything suspicious.
“There will be a cop on every block,” said NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan. “Go to that cop and say something.”
Beyond the pageantry, police say they have been working on security for the parade since the moment last year’s parade ended. It’s a plan that got renewed attention after a terror attack in lower Manhattan Oct. 31, when a man in a rented truck barreled onto a crowded bike path near the World Trade Center, killing eight people.
The first major event since the attack — the New York marathon — went off with no problems.
“We said right away New York’s response is to remain strong and resilient,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We do not back down in the face of terror threats. The city is filled with resolve.”