An arrest has been made in the snowball fight controversy that saw video of NYPD officers take apparently unprovoked snowballs to their heads and backs as they walked through the crowd, according to police.
The arrest of a 27-year-old, police said, comes after the NYPD released photos of two people it was looking for in connection with the incident at Washington Square Park on Monday.
The fight was organized on social media, and what began as a fun and lighthearted gathering has devolved into a political rift, putting Mayor Zohran Mamdani at odds with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Video taken of the incident in question appears to show people deliberately throwing snowballs at the heads of officers walking by. Some NYPD cops ended up with cuts on their faces, officials said, and were taken to a hospital for treatment. All of those officers are expected to be OK. Tisch called it disgraceful.
Mamdani later acknowledged videos of the cop-snowball-throwing-incident and said he watched them. He refrained from directly condemning the behavior seen in the video, lauding the NYPD for helping keep the city safe during the blizzard and reminding everyone to “treat them with respect.”
It “looked like kids having a snowball fight,” Mamdani said at first.
He faced some criticism from the police union and others over whether his response was strong enough.
“What I saw yesterday in these videos was a snowball fight that got out of hand,” Mamdani said when asked Wednesday, again, for comment. “ I believe that our officers, just like any city workers, deserve respect,” he said.
“I’m not going to be banning snowball fights or organized snowball fights,” Mamdani added later. “And I continue to believe that what we are seeing in this response to this winter blizzard from the city workers as a whole, and that includes the hard-working men and women of the NYPD, is part of why the city’s getting back on its feet.”
The NYC PBA, which had immediately condemned the behavior seen in the video, called it “outrageous” and “unacceptable” was quick to jump on news of the arrest Thursday.
The record-breaking blizzard, the first one to hit the New York City area in a decade, brought the entire northeast of the United States to a halt on Monday. Central Park recorded 19.7 inches of snow as of Monday afternoon, marking its ninth-biggest snowfall in recorded history.
