Mayor Mamdani doubled down Wednesday on his belief that the mass snowball fight in Washington Square Park that left two cops hospitalized should not result in criminal charges — drawing a deeper line in the snow between himself and NYPD officials looking to make arrests.
Speaking at an unrelated press conference, Mamdani was repeatedly asked by reporters if he thinks parkgoers caught on video pelting cops with snow at the park Monday afternoon should be charged with a crime.
“What I saw was a snowball fight that got out of hand and it should be treated accordingly,” Mamdani replied.
The NYPD has released images of four suspects hurling snow and asked the public’s help identifying and tracking them down for assaulting officers. The snowball fight was organized on social media in the aftermath of the historic blizzard that blew into town Sunday.
Mamdani has said nobody should throw snowballs at cops — jesting that the public should throw them at him instead — but does not see it as a criminal mattter.
NYPD Commissioner Jesscia Tisch quickly called the conduct “criminal” on X and promised her detectives are investigating.
Mamdani on Wednesday praised how the NYPD helped out in the blizzard, particularly the department’s fleet of tow truck operators who were “critical” in “keeping the city moving” during the storm. He encouraged the public to treat cops with respect.
But his take on the snowball clash continues to anger NYPD unions.
“I don’t know what he’s looking at and what rose-colored glasses he’s looking through — these officers were clearly assaulted,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong told the Daily News Wednesday. “This wasn’t community outreach with cops having fun with the public.”
“Little kids have snowball fights,” Vallelong added. “These were adults at a planned internet event. We have to see this as it was, a mob of people being very disorderly, not little girls with little pom-poms on their knit hats.”
Some rank-and-file cops also disagreed with how the mayor is characterizing the incident.
“If you’re having a snowball fight than both sides need to be participating. Both have to be throwing snow at the other,” one NYPD officer, who asked not to be named, told The News. “That’s not the case here.”
“Doesn’t he know that?” the cop added. “That’s snowball fight 101.”
A pair of cops were called to break up a disorderly group by the park’s comfort station who had climbed to the roof of the bathroom.
The cops were met by about 50 people, mostly teenagers and college-age men, and called for backup. A sergeant and other officers at a detail nearby were responding when “multiple uniformed officers were struck in the head at close range with snowballs, causing injuries to the head, face and neck area,” an NYPD spokesman said.
Video uploaded to social media shows the officers being battered by snowballs outside the rest rooms as dozens of parkgoers crowd around filming the cops and jeering at them.
“F—ing bitch,” one man can be heard screaming at the cops, while another yelled, “Get ’em out of here.”
At least one cop was repeatedly hit by snowballs, the video shows. At one point, someone runs up behind the officer and smashes a snowball into the back of the cop’s head. Police were recorded shoving two people out of the way as they walked through the gauntlet of snow hurlers.
“I want to be very clear: The behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal,” Tisch wrote on X late Monday.
The injured cops were taken to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital with bruises, cuts and complaints of pain to their head and neck, officials said.
“Detectives protect the Mayor, public advocate, comptroller and district attorneys,” Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro said Wednesday. “Do you think any of them would feel good about being pelted with snowballs packed with who knows what meant to cause injury?”
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, called Mamdani’s comments “a complete failure of leadership.”
“By ignoring their injuries and dismissing the incident, the mayor has sent a disgraceful message to every police officer who serves this city, and a dangerous message to every person who might be looking to attack a police officer in the future,” Hendry said Tuesday.
Vallelong agrees.
“Under de Blasio, this same tone was set and we lost two cops,” Vallelong said, referring to the murders Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Dec. 20, 2014. “We’re just two months into this new administration, so anything moving forward happens to police, that’s on Mamdani.”
When then-Mayor de Blasio went to the hospital to visit Ramos and Liu’s families, cops there turned their back on him in a dramatic display of anger. Many cops and union officials blamed de Blasio’s support for Black Lives Matter and other protesters against police brutality for fomenting anti-cop sentiment that culminated in the slayings.
“He needs to lead this city,” Vallelong said of Mamdani. “He can’t sit back in a high chair and be a kid in an adult’s world.”
Cops are asking anyone with information on the snow hurlers to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
