MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — New York City Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday said that he does not believe anyone should be charged in the incident in which several NYPD officers were hit with snowballs and injured a day earlier.
“From the videos that I’ve seen, it looks like a snowball fight,” he said.
The PBA blasted the mayor’s response as a failure of leadership.
“This was not just a ‘snowball fight.’ This was an assault – by adults throwing chunks of ice and rocks – that landed two police officers in the hospital with head and face injuries,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said.
Officers had responded to Washington Square Park in Manhattan at 4 p.m. on Monday for a report of multiple individuals on top of a roof inside the park.
When they arrives on the scene, police say the crowd began throwing snowballs at them, causing facial injuries serious enough to require hospital treatment.
Mamdani acknowledged seeing the video, saying the officers and all city workers must be treated with respect.
“They have been keeping New Yorkers safe. And they have also been at the heart of our efforts of digging New Yorkers’ cars out of these kinds of conditions and ensuring that our ambulances, our MTA buses, can keep functioning. Across this city, they and our entire city workforce deserve to be treated with respect,” he said.
NYC Mayor Mamdani held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon
Mamdani added, “The only person in our city’s workforce who deserves to be hit with a snowball is me.”
Hendry said Mamdani is sending a dangerous message to anyone who might want to attack an officer in the future.
“By ignoring their injuries and dismissing the incident, the mayor has sent a disgraceful message to every police officer who serves this city, Hendry said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch took to social media on Monday night, calling the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal.”
DEA President Scott Munro called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to make sure the people responsible for the crime is prosecuted.
“No free pass. No get out of jail free card. Make no mistake: detectives will do what they always do. They will identify those involved and they will apprehend them,” Munro said in a statement. Our men and women in blue deserve to be safe. They deserve to be protected. And they deserve to be respected. They earn it every single day.”
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