If the feds and the Mamdani City Hall can’t come to some reliable understanding, Saturday’s chaos in Lower Manhattan will be just a taste of rising disorder that New York City really doesn’t need.
The metro area is full of “professional protesters” eager to wreak havoc in the name of the lefty cause of the week, and also full of politicians eager to egg on the goons; can Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and the top local Homeland Security officials conspire to keep the peace anyway?
Activists somehow got word of a planned ICE action Saturday, and gathered to block the feds from carrying out a lawful enforcement operation (presumably the arrest of potentially dangerous illegal immigrants).
Hundreds of rabid demonstrators erected blockades to trap of dozens of immigration officials inside a garage, offering further threats (scaling grated windows and tossing debris) as they shouted, “ICE out of New York!”
Cops had to intervene, scuffling with the hooligans — and arresting at least 18 — as they cleared a path for the feds’ retreat to Newark.
No one was hurt, thank goodness, but the agents apparently had to abort their mission, and the turmoil marred “Small Business Saturday” for several hours.
Worse, local pols — Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, city Comptroller Brad Lander and City Councilwomen Sandy Nurse and Crystal Hudson — praised the protesters and demanded charges against them be dropped.
Protesters shouldn’t be charged for “standing up for our constitutional rights . . . [and] for vulnerable New Yorkers,” huffed Nurse, as if that (supposed) cause somehow justifies blocking traffic, defying police orders and pelting cops and federal agents with debris.
These rabble-rousers were breaking the law — and should pay for it.
Plus: “Vulnerable New Yorkers” is a dubious description of ICE’s presumed targets: illegal-immigrant criminals, possibly violent.
Yet Williams even promised repeat performances “every single time” the feds try to do their job.
Maybe these pols should face incitement charges; they certainly shouldn’t be anywhere near public office.
How will Mamdani come down? He, too, has vowed to fight President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, and also called for the elimination of the Strategic Response Group, the NYPD unit on the scene Saturday and generally responds to such chaos.
Push hard enough, and you give Trump reason to send in the National Guard — which Mamdani also opposes.
Yet the feds should also step carefully: How did they let word of the operation leak to the activists, and why didn’t the give the NYPD a heads-up about it?
Tisch was reportedly furious that her cops got caught in the middle; she believes large showings of federal force are generally unnecessary and too often inflammatory.
Tellingly, Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel reportedly called her to apologize after Saturday’s mess.
Above all else, though, it’s the protesters most at fault, along with the pols who encourage them.
If Mamdani can’t work out a responsible plan to let federal agents to do their job, the ugliness will get a lot worse than Saturday’s turmoil.
