'Disgusting' scene in NYC caught on video as NYPD officers pelted with snowballs thrown by rioters

Unruly New Yorkers pelting NYPD officers with snowballs.

Zohran Mamdani's term as mayor of New York City continued its rocky start this week amid a blizzard that paralyzed the East Coast. Manhattan racked up 19 inches of snow, and as the heavy snowfall was winding down late Monday afternoon, NYPD officers were called to Washington Square Park in Manhattan to investigate reports of several people who had climbed onto a rooftop of a building inside the park.

Upon the officers' arrival on the scene, unruly New Yorkers began pelting the police with snowballs. Numerous videos of the snowball assault were caught on camera as those who weren't throwing snowballs could be seen recording the fracas on their smartphones.

A video posted on X by Brendan Gutenschwager showed officers repeatedly being struck by snowballs, often times taking direct shots to the face. The altercation looked like a full-blown riot at times, with people jeering the cops as snowballs pummeled the officers. Some of the people throwing snowballs, it's worth noting, were wearing masks, the video shows. 

According to Eyewitness News, several officers had to be taken to local hospitals with facial lacerations. And a torrent of criticism followed the ugly display in Washington Square Park, with much of it directed squarely at Mamdani and his past rhetoric about police. 

"This is disgraceful," former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a post on X. "But with a mayor who has a history of calling the police ‘racist, evil, wicked and corrupt,' he set the tone." 

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams weighed in also, saying on X, "Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious. It is disgusting behavior. And the politicians who constantly bash the police and refuse to have their backs are setting a terrible example. Leadership matters. Tone matters.”

Meanwhile, NYPD commissioner announced on X that the department had launched an investigation of what she described as an attack on cops.

Prior to the snowball incident, Mamdani drew heavy criticism for the city's emergency snow shoveling program, which required five forms of ID -- including a social security card -- in order for a person to sign up as a shoveler at the same time that the Department of Sanitation has a page on its website dedicated to opposing "racist voter ID laws." And last week, Mamdani triggered a blizzard of criticism after proposing a $127 billion annual budget -- a spending plan that's larger than the entire state of Florida's budget and more than twice that of Tokyo's.