New Year’s ‘disruptions’ feared while mayor raps ‘troubling’ limits on cops

The NYPD is bracing for potential “disruptions” of next week’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, Mayor Adams said Tuesday while lamenting “very troubling” new restrictions around how cops can respond to largescale protests in the city.

In a briefing at City Hall, Adams did not mention any specific known threats related to the annual festivities. But he referenced recent attempts by pro-Palestine protesters to interrupt events in the city, like last month’s Christmas tree-lighting at Rockefeller Center, where demonstrators clashed with cops.

“There’s an added concern because of some of the protests you have been seeing, and there was an attempt to disrupt the tree-lighting, and we’re sure that there’s going to be some type of attempt this year to use that stage for some other concerns that people are having,” Adams said, referring to the ball drop in Times Square. “The Police Department did an amazing job during the tree-lighting to mitigate any form of major disruptions, and they’re going to do it this year.”

During last year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, a teenager from Maine was accused of attacking two police officers with a machete near Times Square. Both officers survived, and the perpetrator is facing terrorism charges, having allegedly said his motive for the attack was to wage “jihad” on the U.S. government.

Asked if the city’s aware of any lone wolf threats similar to last year’s incident, Adams said, “If we did, we wouldn’t mention that.”

“But lone wolves are challenging. Like the individual, the perpetrator last year, he wasn’t on anyone’s radar. His assault on those two police officers, you just, you have to be ready for those unpredictable circumstances,” he said. “It’s a real herculean task to manage that number of people without being heavy-handed but being protective.”

Sunday’s celebration is the first Times Square New Year’s Eve bash since the NYPD entered into a court settlement this fall requiring it to deploy fewer officers to most public protests and banning the department from using “kettling,” a controversial tactic that involves trapping and arresting large groups of demonstrators.

The settlement came out of a lawsuit filed by Black Lives Matter protesters who allege their First Amendment rights were violated by the NYPD during protests in the summer of 2020.

Adams — who voiced support for the settlement when it was inked in September — said in Tuesday’s briefing that he’s now actually concerned about the protest restrictions and again referenced recent pro-Palestine protests in the city.

“I thought it put us on a very troubling direction, and now you’re seeing it: You see 1,000 people go to Grand Central station, decided they want to just close down Grand Central station or they want to sit in the street in front of Times Square,” Adams said of the settlement.

“I don’t believe that people should be able to just take over our streets and march in our streets. I don’t believe people should be able to take over our bridges. I just don’t believe you can run a city this complex where people can just do whatever they want,” he said.

Lisa Zornberg, Adams’ chief counsel who attended the briefing, said the settlement does include “a tiered system for responding to protests.”

“So there’s a lot that depends on the circumstances. It does not allow protesters to block access to critical infrastructure,” she said. “I just want to be clear on that.”