Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was taken into custody Thursday morning for allegedly assaulting NYPD officers during what the city's mayor keeps calling a snowball fight. Two officers were sent to an emergency room with head and face injuries after being pelted with snow, ice, and rocks in Manhattan's Washington Square Park on Monday afternoon.
The NYPD moved forward with the arrest despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani's public insistence that the incident didn't warrant criminal charges. His spokesperson, Dora Pekec, told the Daily Mail that Mamdani "does not believe this situation rises to the level of criminal charges."
The department disagreed. And it acted accordingly.
Footage of the incident spread quickly online, and it does not depict a charming winter scene. Individuals hurled chunks of ice and rocks at uniformed officers while a crowd jeered. Onlookers can be heard shouting obscenities at police. Two officers required emergency medical treatment. Their condition was described as stable, though it remained unclear whether they had been discharged from the hospital.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch saw the same footage the mayor saw and reached a different conclusion:
"I want to be very clear: The behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal. Our detectives are investigating this matter."
Tisch didn't mince words. She didn't call it a snowball fight that "got out of hand." She called it what it was.
The NYPD initially released two images of potential suspects. As of now, the department has not announced any further arrests beyond Coulibaly.
Mamdani took to social media earlier in the week and framed the attackers as children engaged in innocent play. His words:
"I've seen the videos of kids throwing snowballs at NYPD officers in Washington Square Park."
He followed that up with a line that was presumably meant to sound endearing:
"Officers, like all city workers, have been out in a historic blizzard, keeping New Yorkers safe and cars moving. Treat them with respect. If anyone's catching a snowball, it's me."
At a Tuesday press conference with the Office of Emergency Management, the mayor doubled down. He told reporters the video showed "kids in a snowball fight." He praised officers for keeping the city functioning during the blizzard. And then he declined to support the people he was praising when it actually mattered.
There is a particular kind of political cowardice that wraps itself in compliments. You thank the officers for their service. You acknowledge that they kept ambulances running and buses moving. And then, when adults attack them with ice and rocks and send two of them to the hospital, you call it a snowball fight and say it doesn't merit charges.
The compliment becomes the shield for the abandonment.
PBA President Patrick Hendry did not share the mayor's gentle interpretation. Speaking to Fox 5 News, Hendry called Mamdani's response "a complete failure of leadership" and dismantled the snowball fight narrative directly:
"This was not just a 'snowball fight.' This was an assault, by adults throwing chunks of ice and rocks, that landed two police officers in the hospital with head and face injuries."
Hendry pointed to the message the mayor's dismissiveness sends to every officer on patrol:
"By ignoring their injuries and dismissing the incident, the mayor has sent a disgraceful message to every police officer who serves this city."
The Police Benevolent Association had already called the attack "unacceptable and outrageous," demanding that "all of our city leaders must speak up to condemn this despicable attack." They got condemnation from the police commissioner. From the mayor, they got a shrug dressed up as empathy.
Coulibaly was not some teenager caught up in a moment of winter exuberance. He is 27 years old. And according to the NYPD, he was "previously arrested less than three weeks ago for an attempted robbery in the transit system."
A man arrested for attempted robbery in the subway less than three weeks prior was apparently back on the street in time to assault police officers in a public park. The mayor looked at this situation and concluded it didn't rise to the level of criminal charges.
This is how the cycle works in cities that refuse to take law enforcement seriously. Arrest, release, re-offend, repeat. Each time the offense escalates. Each time, the political class finds a softer word for what happened. An attempted robbery becomes a misunderstanding. An assault on officers becomes a snowball fight.
What Mamdani communicated this week, whether he intended to or not, is that assaulting police officers in New York City carries no political cost for the attackers and no political support for the attacked. Officers who worked through a historic blizzard to keep the city running learned that the man sitting in City Hall would rather protect the feelings of a mob than the safety of the people who protect everyone else.
The NYPD ignored the mayor's position and made the arrest anyway. Commissioner Tisch called the behavior criminal. The PBA demanded accountability. The system moved forward because the officers and their leadership refused to accept the mayor's version of events.
Mamdani told New Yorkers he saw kids having a snowball fight. Two officers went to the emergency room. The man charged had been arrested for attempted robbery less than three weeks earlier. A crowd screamed obscenities at uniformed cops.
The mayor saw all of this and chose the side of the mob. The NYPD chose the side of the law.