NYPD Tense in Anticipation for Times Square New Year’s Eve

Police are assigning additional officers to patrol Times Square at Wednesday’s New Year’s Eve celebration, in anticipation of protesters who plan to demonstrate against police brutality there.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (R) and NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton (C) stand on stage during a New York Police Academy graduation ceremony, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Nearly 1000 officers were sworn in as tensions between city hall and the NYPD continued following the Dec. 20 shooting deaths of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. AP Photo/John Minchillo

NEW YORK—Police are assigning additional officers to patrol Times Square at Wednesday’s New Year’s Eve celebration, in anticipation of protesters who plan to demonstrate against police brutality there.

A group called Stop Mass Incarceration Network has organized on social media to protest against the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who were killed by white police officers this year. They plan to gather at Times Square beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, until the New Year’s ball drops at midnight.

Our policing philosophy is going to remain consistent.

— James O'Neill, chief of department, NYPD