450 demonstrations on the Israel-Hamas war have taken place in NYC, officials say

Roughly 450 demonstrations related to the Israel-Hamas war have taken place in New York City since Oct. 7, when the war broke out, officials said Friday.

Some 158,000 people have participated in the protests, and largely peacefully, according to public safety officials. Less than 1% received summonses or appearance tickets from police.

“New York City is a global city — what happens in other cities and countries around the world has an impact on us here,” said Louis Molina, the city’s assistant deputy mayor of public safety and former correction commissioner, at a press conference on the city’s public safety initiatives on Friday.

Since the war began, students at a number of local colleges and universities, including Columbia, NYU and CUNY, have walked out of class, while other protesters have swarmed high-profile locations, including the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Terminal, and bridges and streets.

Molina said the bulk of those protests occurred without incident, but police officials added that they would continue to monitor the events going forward.

City and state authorities have warned about an uptick in hate crimes and other bias-motivated incidents because of the ongoing conflict, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul launching a hate incident hotline just over two months ago.

“We are going to continue to police these events to ensure the safety of all participants as well as serve the persons not attending the events,” Erik Worobey, deputy inspector of the NYPD’s operations division, said Friday.

At the press conference, the NYPD also reported 76% more court summonses, or pink tickets, have been issued this year, compared to last year. Police issued nearly 165,000 summonses as of Dec. 17, with the top reasons being public urination, public alcohol consumption and reckless driving.

Authorities also said illegal smoke shops continue to proliferate throughout the city: The NYPD issued almost 200 search warrants resulting in more than 320 arrests and 23 firearm seizures, and served more than 170 stores with nuisance abatement lawsuits.