The event was billed as a huge snowball fight in a beloved New York park, a moment of unrestrained revelry as the first blizzard in a decade bore down on the city.
“NYC TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PULL UP,” the organizers, the social media content producers known as Sidetalk, wrote in a post announcing the Monday gathering, which would take place at Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan.
As advertised, by 3 p.m., dozens of people, many freed of school and work, had descended on the park to take part in the merrymaking. Videos show a sea of people in winter hats and puffer jackets lobbing snowballs in wide arcs, a snow-dusted Washington Arch behind them.
But what began as a lighthearted frolic in one of the city’s most frequented gathering places soon shifted in mood when several police officers, called to control the crowd, walked in and were pelted with snowballs.
Jessica Tisch, the head of the Police Department, called it “disgraceful” and “criminal.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani at first urged people to be respectful toward the police.
But as more videos surfaced on Tuesday of the encounter, in which two officers were taken to the hospital with head, neck and face injuries, Mr. Mamdani said it appeared that the incident was little more than a snowball fight, and that no one should face charges.
Lawmakers and Mr. Mamdani’s critics took to social media to condemn it while their constituents took to social media to spoof it in memes.
The encounter seemed to hint at a deeper tension simmering in New York and elsewhere, as President Trump has sent immigration agents and National Guard troops into major U.S. cities, rekindling antagonism toward law enforcement agencies.
And the episode suggested another growing divide in New York, between a generation, and a mayor, raised on and propelled by social media and a municipal machine that doesn’t quite understand it.
On Tuesday evening, the police said they were seeking two men, each between 18 and 20 years old, who were wanted for assault. No arrests have been made so far.
The Police Benevolent Association, the largest of the city’s police unions, called for arrests and assault charges against the snowball throwers. The governor said it was unacceptable to throw anything at an officer. The city’s comptroller said the episode could not be normalized.
In a post on X, Mr. Mamdani praised police officers for their help in the storm. But at a news conference later that afternoon, he appeared to break with the commissioner, saying he did not think the encounter constituted a crime and did not believe participants should face charges.
“From the videos that I’ve seen, it looks like a snowball fight,” Mr. Mamdani said, noting that the episode seemed to involve young people. He acknowledged, however, that two officers had been cut.
Mr. Mamdani spent much of his campaign and early weeks in office recalibrating his stance toward the Police Department, after he called the police in 2020 “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” angering officials and union representatives.
Mr. Mamdani has since distanced himself from those statements. He has treaded carefully in his early approach to the department, choosing to retain Ms. Tisch, a billionaire heiress and technocrat, as the police commissioner despite their ideological differences, and making a point of praising officers for their work, sometimes to the chagrin of his allies.
His first weeks in office have tested his ability to walk that line, and included several episodes in which the police shot a person dealing with a mental health crisis.
The snowball fight on Monday appeared to be no exception, drawing nearly immediate ire from some of Mr. Mamdani’s foes, including Andrew M. Cuomo, the former governor he beat to become mayor, and Eric Adams, whom he succeeded.
As the day wore on, however, an avalanche of internet memes and social media posts mocking the police’s outrage also proliferated online.
That the meet up was planned on social media, involved a large number of teenagers and took place at the foot of NYU’s campus — in a park that has played host to numerous protests, look-a-like contests, Tik Tok videos and pop culture events — seemed to underscore the divide between the organizers and law enforcement.
It was unclear on Tuesday whether the Manhattan district attorney’s office would proceed with charges against the participants if any were in fact arrested. But the brewing political storm bore similarities to one in 2019, when three men were arrested after being captured on video dousing police officers with water during a heat wave.
Videos of the gathering on Monday posted on social media show the mood shifting as officers walk through the park and interact with the crowd.
One recording published by FreedomNews.TV, a breaking news outlet, shows four police officers walking toward a park exit while snowballs fly at them from behind and several people film them from the sidelines.
One of the officers appears to chuckle, but as the group walks on, larger balls of snow hit them on the head and neck. The officers then turn back, walking deeper into a crowd of people before ultimately moving to leave the park once again. Some shouting ensues as snowballs continue to fly at them.
In another video posted on X, officers walking near the park’s bathrooms appear to first get caught in the crossfire of the snowball fight. Soon, however, several people begin throwing large amounts of snow at them, coating their uniforms in white. Two officers then hustle toward the restrooms, shoving two people in their path into snowbanks as they go. A few seconds later, a person smashes a snowball directly onto the back of an officer’s neck.
In a third video, several officers appear to be walking down a street outside the park as a large group of teenagers runs after them, whooping and chucking snowballs in their direction.
The officers in the videos appear to largely not engage with the snowball throwers and they eventually retreat from the park and to their cars.
On Tuesday, the police said that the officers had been dispatched to the event after receiving a 911 call about a disorderly group in the park. When they arrived, they saw a large crowd of people throwing snowballs and officers were soon struck in the face by the snow, the police said.
Emergency medical workers later took the two injured officers to the hospital in stable condition, the police said.
Ashley Southall contributed reporting.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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