NEW YORK CITY — Rolling road closures. Checkpoints. And a whole lot of law enforcement.
New York City was bracing Monday for Donald Trump’s Tuesday arraignment with a massive police presence as the eyes of the world focus on a Manhattan courthouse. Trump is the first current or former U.S. president to ever be criminally charged, and his supporters have tried to delegitimize the process and promised protests.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged protesters to remain peaceful, and specifically called out Atlanta congresswoman and far-right conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted she planned to join protests on Tuesday.
“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves. New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger,” Adams said, name-checking Greene. “While you’re in town, be on your best behavior.”
Adams and New York City police officials declined to specify where or how many of the department’s approximately 36,000 officers will be deployed Tuesday but cautioned residents to expect increased traffic, road closures and other inconveniences.
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What is New York bracing for?
Given that Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, New York City officials are wary of a repeat. So far, they say they’ve seen nothing to indicate a large number of outside protesters arriving in New York City. Adams said there are “no specific, credible threats” so far.
Trump plans to spend Monday night at his apartment in Trump Tower, and then will travel to the courthouse, where he’ll be processed and released relatively quickly, according to experts. He plans to fly back to Florida afterward for a rally, but it’s unclear whether he plans to make any public appearance in New York City before or after the arraignment.
On Twitter, Greene promised to protest lawfully against the “unprecedented political persecution of President Trump.” She said: “We will not live in fear and we will lawfully stand against tyranny and corruption while we show our support for President Trump.”
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What are things like Monday?
Outside Trump Tower, journalists jostled for space as a crowd of Trump supporters waved flags and tourists and Midtown workers on lunch break snaked through police barricades, scaffolding, and occasionally standstill traffic. Two NYPD buses were parked across the street from the tower.
Queens native David Rem, 59, held up a red Trump 2024 flag on Fifth Avenue, next to metal barricades across the street from Trump Tower.
He said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg hasn’t sufficiently prosecuted crimes in New York City. Rem said he felt there are many New Yorkers who continue to support Trump and are concerned about crime in New York City that Bragg hasn’t addressed.
“They won’t speak, though, they’re afraid. They’re muzzled,” Rem said, as a police officer motioned to people to keep moving down the sidewalk. “I’m not afraid, and I’m not muzzled.”
One of those fellow New Yorkers was Ai Wang, 66, who stood outside of the Abercrombie & Fitch store across from Trump Tower. Having fled Beijing more than 30 years ago, the Queens resident worried about what she saw as political prosecutions that her family experienced in communist China.
“I want America to be a good country,” she said. “In my eyes, this country is going down in the dump.”
Nicole Beavers, 24, was visiting from Tampa, Florida, with her aunt Josephine Tamburello, a 45-year-old hairstylist.
“We love Trump and we love and support the NYPD,” Tamburello said. “If anybody needs to be arrested it’s Hillary Clinton for her emails and Hunter Biden.”
Christian Konopatzki, 26, walked down Fifth Avenue past the media scrum and gawkers wearing a red hat bearing with the number 45, a reference to Trump’s presidency. Owner of a marketing firm, he lives in Trump Tower.
“I think it’s a witch hunt against him,” he said. “They’re doing everything to keep him from running again.”
He is originally from Germany and moved to the U.S. from Dubai a year ago. He hopes Trump runs in 2024.
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Brent Dey, 55, a videographer from Atlanta, posed on the crosswalk near Trump Tower holding a copy of the New York Times’ Friday edition with the headline “Trump Indicted,” as his wife took his photo. He and his family arrived in New York City on Saturday to see Broadway shows, and he wanted to commemorate the historic nature of Trump’s indictment.
Police officials said they are focused on being flexible and responsive to any concerns and remain in constant consultation with both the Secret Service and other law enforcement officials.
“We are prepared,” Adams said. “New York City is always ready.”
At Collect Pond Park across from the Manhattan Criminal Courthousewhere Trump will be arraigned Tuesday, there was plenty of media presence but little in the way of demonstrations.
More than a dozen satellite trucks were parked around the perimeter of the plaza, and at least two dozen camera crews from local, national and international media outlets were set up along the sidewalks and pathways.
A small handful of police stood around talking as officers monitored the scene from the courthouse side of the street.
