“Y’all are insane”: NYPD showed up to a snowball fight, made themselves the problem, then launched a criminal investigation

Things are getting heated after the presence of NYPD officers turned what was initially a fun snowball fight in Washington Square Park into a "criminal" investigation.

After Sunday's blizzard, New Yorkers organized various snowball fights across the city, including one in Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan.

Folks showed up expecting to have some fun, but things took an unnecessary turn after police officers inserted themselves into the middle of the lighthearted event.

Video taken at the park shows responding NYPD officers getting pelted with snowballs—and responding with aggression.

One video in particular shows police officers walking down a path as snowballs are thrown at them, and the crowd boos.

Still, the path was clear, and nobody stopped them, though the situation escalated when they began shoving multiple people to the ground.

NYPD: Snowball fight at Washington Square Park is a "criminal" act

According to ABC7, the NYPD initially responded to a call about people climbing onto a roof in the park during the snowball fight. The New York Times reports that the officers were brought in to "control the crowd."

Regardless of what brought them there, it's obvious park goers were not happy to see them—not much of a surprise, considering the ongoing tensions between residents of major cities across the country and law enforcement.

After things escalated in Washington Square Park, they escalated even further online. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch slammed the "disgraceful" and "criminal" behavior of people she alleges were "attacking cops."

"Our detectives are investigating this matter," she wrote on X.

"This is insane," wrote user @bse229. "Your officers walked into a snowball fight where people were having fun and tried to stop it and got hit with snowballs. They weren’t injured. It wasn’t an attack. Why were they even trying to stop it?"

The NYPD has also released images of young people they are interested in tracking down in relation to the snowball fight.

Online reaction overwhelmingly sides with parkgoers

Despite the NYPD's attempts to frame the snowball fight as a criminal undertaking that disrespects local police, the majority of people on social media who are neither MAGA nor bots seemed to think the whole thing was being blown out of proportion.

Even Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed unperturbed by the incident, saying, "From the videos that I've seen, it looks like a snowball fight." He also refused calls by police unions and the city's police commissioner on Tuesday to treat the snowball fight at Washington Square Park as a criminal matter.

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