NYPD Deploys For Contentious Election Day In NYC

NEW YORK CITY — As the nation votes in what has to be one of the most contentious elections in living memory, the NYPD is ready.

Terence Monahan, the city’s Chief of Department, has deployed officers to more than 1,200 polling locations Tuesday, he said. It follows hundreds of additional uniformed cops that have monitored early voting sites since Oct. 24.

“As we continue to facilitate peaceful protests across the city, currently we have no known threats of disruptions and we do not expect any during the course of the next few weeks,” he said. “But let me be clear, the NYPD is fully prepared to protect every person’s right to vote.”

The large police presence could draw a negative reaction citywide.

Protesters, especially in May and June, decried years of NYPD brutality and enforcement against people of color — only to be met with aggressive cops who drove cars into crowds and brutalized demonstrators. Looting did pop up early in the protests, but most demonstrations were peaceful.

And the city’s police unions have vocally backed President Donald Trump, who has backed more aggressive police actions against what he describes as anarchy in the city.

Monahan claimed officers won’t let their own politics sway how they act during the election.

“When we put on this uniform we are apolitical,” he said.

NYPD officers have been retrained on crowd control and conducted “table top exercises” on various scenarios, Monahan said. He said all that was done despite this presidential election being no different than others.

“We don’t see any threat at this point,” he said.