Ahead of Trump court date, 36,000-strong NY police ‘alert’ and ‘ready’

NEW YORK – Policing the “city that never sleeps” is no easy task even on a typical day. So, New York law enforcement agencies are taking no chances

ahead of Donald Trump’s high-profile court appearance

next week, bracing themselves for protests for and against the first indictment ever of a former US president.

The city’s police department has ordered its 36,000 officers to be in uniform and ready to deploy next week, NBC News reported on Friday, citing official sources.

Asked by AFP about their posture ahead of Trump’s arraignment, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesman said “officers have been placed on alert”, and stand ready to “ensure everyone is able to peacefully exercise their rights”.

Trump, 76, is to be booked and fingerprinted, and have his mugshot taken at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday afternoon before appearing before a judge.

While the specific charges remain under seal, the case brought by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is widely believed to revolve around

a US$130,000 (S$173,000) hush money payment Trump gave a porn star

ahead of his successful 2016 election.

Protests on both sides of the issue – which the former president and his supporters have decried as “political persecution” – are expected to grow in the city, raising fears of unrest.

Trump supporters, including Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have announced plans to protest outside the courtroom during his appearance.

For now, the NYPD spokesman said, there are “no current credible threats to New York City”.

‘Politicised judicial systems’

Outside Trump’s eponymous skyscraper in Fifth Avenue, a dozen or so people have already taken position on Friday with signs and banners that said, “Arrest Trump” and “Tick Tock, Times Up!”

Another sign read: “No one is above the law.”

A man in a Trump costume made an appearance, and took pictures with a couple of the former president’s supporters, who carried a banner supporting his 2024 campaign.

Outside the district attorney’s heavily guarded office, Susan, a 60-year-old lawyer who declined to give her last name, had no qualms about saying she supports policies that Trump espouses, although “I don’t like his personality”.

The expected charges against Trump are overblown, at best “a misdemeanour, not a felony”, she said.

“This is ridiculous – politically motivated. I am ashamed of this justice in America that looks like that of other countries with politicised judicial systems,” she said.

Earlier in the day, three friends from San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque country passed by to take in the scene before heading to a tour of Chinatown.

“It seems strange to us,” 72-year-old Pilar Banos told AFP. “The fact that they will put him in the car with his head bowed gives him prominence and votes because it will seem like an injustice to many people.”

Trump has called the investigation a “witch hunt” and denied having any relationship with the porn star known as Stormy Daniels.

The next chapter in his legal travails will come on Tuesday, when the court reveals the actual charges pending against him. AFP