A video of New York Police Department officers getting pelted with snowballs by residents went viral Monday evening, and critics are blaming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s anti-police rhetoric.
The video circulating on social media shows a group of people in Washington Square Park engaging in what began as a spontaneous snowball fight after heavy snowfall hit the city, and then turning their attention toward uniformed officers who had arrived at the scene.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in an X post that the department is aware of the incident, calling it “criminal,” and said detectives are investigating the matter.
In the political aftermath, former and current leadership seized on the incident to fault Mamdani’s leadership, saying the mayor’s earlier criticisms of the NYPD had fostered a climate of disrespect for law enforcement.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said in an X post that Mamdani and every elected official “should denounce this juvenile attack” on the NYPD.
Mamdani has yet to denounce the snowball-slinging incident, which left several officers hospitalized with lacerations to the face.
“This is disgraceful. But with a mayor who has a history of calling the police “racist, evil, wicked and corrupt,” he set the tone,” former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on X. “Words have consequences. We are seeing that in the growing disrespect for law enforcement — just as we’ve seen it in the rise in antisemitism. Real leaders understand that. This mayor does not.”
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) shared a similar sentiment, saying, “You can thank Mamdani’s anti-police rhetoric for this.”
Mamdani still has anti-police posts on his personal social media pages, including one that reads: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”
Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has faced political scrutiny over his approach to public safety since winning the election in 2025. During his campaign, he emphasized strengthening community-based responses to crime and said he would work with police rather than defund them.
However, the NYC mayor had several anti-police activists on his transition team, individuals who have cast the criminal justice system as the villain.
Former mayor Eric Adams also commented on the snowball attack, directly blaming Mamadani’s anti-police rhetoric.
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“Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious,” Adams said. “And the politicians who constantly bash the police and refuse to have their backs are setting a terrible example. Leadership matters. Tone matters.”
Vicki Paladino, the NYC councilwoman for the district covering Queens, and the NYC Police Benevolent Association, an advocacy group for working and retired officers, also posted about the video, denouncing the behavior.
