Cops in New York are facing a new kind of clear and present danger, or at least that’s what they’d like you to believe. The culprit? Snowballs.
Footage you’ve no doubt seen by now shows New York Police Department (NYPD) officers being inundated with snowballs amid the city’s blizzard. As the footage spread on social media, several official statements have been shared by department reps, both of them positing the snowball-pelting in question as some sort of grave threat.
“The NYPD is aware of certain videos taken earlier today in Washington Square Park showing individuals attacking cops,” Jessica S. Tisch, Police Commissioner of the City of New York, said in a post shared to X on Monday (Feb. 23). “I want to be very clear: The behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal. Our detectives are investigating this matter.”
Meanwhile, the Detectives’ Endowment Association (DEA), a labor union for NYC detectives, have shared similar sentiments.
“What we saw in Washington Square Park today was not harmless fun — it was a deliberate, outrageous, and dangerous attack on uniformed police officers,” DEA president Scott Munro said on Monday. “The Detectives’ Endowment Association is calling on Mayor Mamdani and District Attorney Bragg to ensure every individual responsible for this illegal behavior is prosecuted. No free pass. No get out of jail free card.
The statement continued: “Make no mistake: detectives will do what they always do. They will identify those involved and they will apprehend them. 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.”
The NYPD, notably, appears to have previously urged citizens to partake in snowball fights during a winter weather event back in 2015.
As expected, police’s ongoing response to mere snowballery (and the bulk of the ensuing alarmist news coverage surrounding it) has lit the proverbial fire on a wave of mockery. Get a taste below.
Of course, we can’t wrap up this post without pointing out that Complex’s own Jordan Rose was on the scene, and squarely in the mix, for this week’s blizzard-born festivities. Get a look at what transpired below.