NYPD prepares for potential protests during Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting
NEW YORK (WABC) -- The NYPD is preparing for potential protests during the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting on Wednesday evening.
Pro-Palestinian organizers are calling for supporters to "flood" the tree lighting in support of Gaza.
Eyewitness News is told that any protests will be pushed to the outside of the celebration.
Officers sent an advisory to the police department to remind them and government agencies that "the US continues to face a heightened and dynamic risk environment from a variety of extremists amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, and malicious actors may view mass gatherings, iconic locations and high-profile events as targets of opportunity during the holiday season."
The advisory comes in the wake of a disruption by demonstrators during last week's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the weekend shooting in Vermont that is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
On Thanksgiving, the pro-Palestinian protesters glued themselves to the parade route and forced the parade to continue around it.
Thirty protesters were issued summonses for trespassing, and four were charged criminally for resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The official lighting is scheduled to happen a few minutes before 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
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