The New York Police Department has ordered all officers to report in uniform on Friday in anticipation of a threatened “global day of rage” in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Khaled Meshaal, the former chief of the Hamas terrorist group, has called for global protests on Friday. The call to action came days into the war between Israel and Hamas; the Jewish state declared war over the weekend after Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack that killed hundreds of civilians and injured thousands more. More than 1,200 people, including 25 Americans, have been killed by Hamas terrorists since Saturday.
“All uniformed members of the service are to perform duty in the uniform of the day — effective immediately and until further notice, all uniformed members of the service, in every rank, will perform duty in the uniform of the day and be prepared for deployment,” the department said in a message obtained by ABC News.
Officers will not be granted excusals or shift changes, according to a memo obtained by the New York Post. The policy will remain in effect “until further notice.”
“We’re trying to make sure that violence doesn’t manifest on the streets of New York City,” NYPD Intelligence and Counterterrorism deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner told ABC.
Weiner said the department is monitoring online posts by radical groups calling for violence.
“There’s the part that you see, which involves a lot of officers, some of our counterterrorism officers, our Critical Response Command folks who are high visibility patrols, heavy weapons armed and trained responding to locations throughout the city, schools, houses of worship, sensitive locations,” Weiner said. “And then there’s the intelligence side, which is the part that you don’t see — the online monitoring for threats and making sure that we can anticipate whether there’s any reflection back to the city based on the overseas events.”
New York governor Kathy Hochul said it will be a “personal choice” to keep children home from religious schools or to skip synagogue on Friday in response to the threatened day of rage.
“I understand the very human desire to protect your family and your kids,” Hochul said. “With that information going on, it’s something everybody will individually have to decide.”