A massive post-blizzard snowball fight in New York that ended in police officers being pelted is creating a frosty dispute between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his own police department.
Mamdani has downplayed the fracas in Washington Square Park as kids simply having some fun. The New York Police Department and its leader, Jessica Tisch, are taking it more seriously.
The department is searching for four people — and has begun circulating pictures of them — after it said officers were hurt by hurled snow and ice at Monday's event, which was organized by social media content producers.
Mamdani, meanwhile, suggested he doesn't believe criminal charges are warranted.
“I’ve said time and time again that, having seen these videos, to me it was a snowball fight that got out of hand and it should be treated accordingly,” he told reporters Wednesday when asked if anyone should be prosecuted.
Tisch denounced the incident as “disgraceful” and “criminal." The union representing patrol officers quickly seized on the incident as evidence that respect for officers has declined under the new mayor.
“This was not just a ‘snowball fight.’ This was an assault,” the Police Benevolent Association said in a statement.
It was unclear whether the episode could snowball into a larger political headache for Mamdani, who came into office under scrutiny from all sides because of his past criticisms of the police department.
Monday’s snowball fight drew a big crowd to Washington Square Park as a massive storm blanketed the Northeast, causing a chaotic scene as young people chucked snowballs around one of the city’s landmark parks.
As many parents know, snowball fights, by their nature, often end in tears or fights. People can get carried away. Not everyone wants a face full of snow.
At one point, videos posted on social media showed, two officers who entered the park began to get pelted with snowballs from seemingly all directions, covering them in snow as they paced a walkway. The officers pushed at least two people to the ground as snowballs flew by and attendees filmed with their phones. One officer’s face appeared to be reddened and he could be seen rubbing his eye.
Additional videos showed people throwing snowballs at other officers who were on the street just outside the park.
The police department later released a statement saying multiple officers were struck in the face with snowballs. A spokesperson for the union said two police officers were treated at a nearby hospital for face, head and neck injuries.
The reactions over this week’s snowball fight were similar to those that followed a 2019 episode during a heat wave, when boisterous young people engaged in water fights were recorded on video tossing water at police officers.
Those dousings also prompted outrage from police leaders — who decried it as an inexcusable sign of disrespect, and even suggested that officers willing to walk away from that kind of horseplay should consider another line of work.
Tuesday evening, the police department released images of four people it’s searching for in connection with the incident while asking the public for help identifying them. The pictures were released just hours after Mamdani downplayed the dustup at an unrelated news conference earlier in the day.
Mamdani on Wednesday said he has been in touch with Tisch and that he appreciated the work she is doing but sidestepped questions about their opposing positions on the snowball fight.
During his campaign, Mamdani, a progressive Democrat, apologized for language he'd previously used to describe the police department, once referring it to it in a social media post as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety."
And he upset some of his supporters on the left when he retained Tisch, an establishment moderate, as police commissioner, signaling that he was pursuing a measured approach to law enforcement.
Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York. Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed from New York.
