New York has lost none of its legendary effervescence: its police have been put on “alert” before the court appearance on Tuesday of former US President Donald Trump, who must be served with his criminal charges in a case of money paid to a porn star.
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The powerful and bloated NYPD City Police (36,000 police officers and 19,000 civilians) on Friday ordered all its agents and officers to deploy in uniform on public roads on Friday, and for a week, according to police sources quoted by NBC television. .
Asked by AFP, an NYPD spokesperson replied in an email that “officers have been placed on alert and the service remains ready to respond, if necessary, and will ensure everyone the opportunity to exercise their rights of peaceful way”.
But “there are currently no credible threats to New York,” said this spokesperson for the police of a city with a history punctuated by bouts of violence.
In Manhattan, pro or anti Trump demonstrators number in the dozens, barely.
A handful of hostiles settled in front of the Trump Tower, on the mythical 5th Avenue, and unfurled a banner “Stop Trump”.
“Lock him up, throw away the key”
While another individual was walking around with two signs: “Lock him up and… Throw away the key”.
A third man also recalled that “nobody is above the law”.
A little later, in this bustling neighborhood in the heart of Manhattan, a lookalike of former Republican President Neil Greenfield was having fun doing traffic having his photo taken with one or two supporters of Donald Trump holding up a banner to the presidential election of 2024.
A time shaken by his historic indictment announced Thursday evening, the ex-president intends to “fight” without restraint to have the proceedings taken by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg canceled, according to his lawyer Joseph Tacopina.
Donald Trump, who lives in Florida, will appear in a Manhattan court on Tuesday to be formally served with the charges against him related to the late 2016 payment, and later repayment, of $130,000 to an actress of pornographic films, Stormy Daniels, to buy his silence.
On Tuesday, Trump supporters, including Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, planned to demonstrate outside the court while he appeared.
A large police force has already been deployed to avoid any overflow.
“It’s ridiculous”
Susan, who categorically refuses to give her name, says she is “ashamed of justice in America”. Met in court, she says what Mr. Trump did was a “minor offense, not a felony. It’s ridiculous”.
In front of the courthouse, placed under high security for ten days by agents of the NYPD and the judicial police, Mary Fish, 50, laments the “path that America has taken”, which is “not a path leading to peace or unity”.
But this woman, who did not reveal her profession, accuses Donald Trump, who upset the political system and the balance of power in the United States, of having “started the divisions” of his country.
And for Pilar Banos, a 72-year-old Spanish tourist visiting Manhattan, having a former US president face criminal charges creates a “strange” vibe in the city.
