Mayor Adams on Monday warned that anyone, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, who intends to show up near Manhattan Criminal Court to protest the criminal arraignment of former President Donald Trump better “be on your best behavior.”
“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear and simple: control yourselves,” the mayor said at a City Hall press conference. “New York City’s our home — not a playground for your misplaced anger.
“Although we have no specific threatsm people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town. While you’re in town be on your best behavior.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Greene or anyone else has formally sought a protest permit for outside or near the lower Manhattan courthouse where Trump, indicted in a hush money case involving a porn star, will appear Tuesday afternoon.
Intermittent street closures are expected, both near the courthouse and Trump Tower, where the MAGA leader is expected to spend Monday night before the Secret Service escorts him to court.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who said there are thus far no credible threats against the city, did not mention anyone by name but nonetheless pointed out that “violence and destruction are not part of legitimate lawful expression and will never be tolerated in our city.”
The NYPD, in collaboration with the Secret Service and court officers, had been working for weeks on a security plan in the event Trump was indicted. Protesters for and against the indictment are expected to gather outside court Tuesday, though police sources said the plan is to keep them far enough apart from each other to prevent violence.
The courthouse, meanwhile, is expected to be the subject of a security sweep before Trump arrives, with other cases delayed until after Trump’s afternoon arraignment.
Adams later in the press conference said he’s not worried, even indicating how police handle Tuesday will someday be the subject of a Museum of the City of New York exhibition.
“I really have a lack of concern,” he said. “We are prepared.’’
‘’People stir stuff up all the time,” he added. But if you are prepared, you don’t have to get prepared. And the ability to shift resources where they’re needed is extraordinarily unique to this police department.”