NY tightens security for Thanksgiving parade

NEW YORK (AP) — New York plans to tighten security around the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade after recent mass shootings across the country, police said Wednesday, noting there is no information that the famed event is under a credible threat.

The holiday tradition, which draws crowds of attendees and onlookers, will take place this year two days after six people were shot and killed at a Walmart in Virginia and four days after another shooting killed five at a Gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.

Also over the weekend, a man who allegedly threatened to attack a synagogue was arrested in New York’s Penn Station with a knife, a balaclava, a swastika patch on his arm and an associate, authorities said.

In light of these events, police “will deploy additional resources to ensure that celebrations across the city are safe for all,” New York Police Department counterterrorism chief Martine Matersso said at a news conference. they inflated the characteristic balloons of the giants’ parade. Authorities had no indication of “any active, credible or specific threat” to the event, she added.

By now the security measures are almost as well known as the parade itself. They include heavy weapons teams, explosive sniffing dogs, a bomb squad, radiological and chemical sensors, drone detection, sand truckloads, blocking vehicles, and additional cameras along the way.

Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette has promised the parade will be “bigger and better than ever,” starting at 8:45 instead of 9 to welcome all the balloons, floats, marching bands, singers, cheerleaders, clowns, Broadway cast, Radio City Rockettes and, of course, Santa Claus.

ap