NY police ‘alert’ and ‘ready’ ahead of Trump court date

Policing the "city that never sleeps” is no easy task even on a typical day – so New York law enforcement agencies are taking no chances ahead of Donald Trump’s high-profile court appearance next week, bracing for protests for and against the first indictment ever of a former US president.The city’s police department has ordered its 36,000 officers to be in uniform and ready to deploy next week, NBC News reported, citing official sources.Asked by AFP about their posture ahead of Trump’s arraignment, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson said that "officers have been placed on alert” and stand ready to "ensure everyone is able to peacefully exercise their rights”.Trump, 76, is to be booked and fingerprinted and have his mugshot taken at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday afternoon before appearing before a judge.While the specific charges remain under seal, the case brought by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is widely believed to revolve around a $130,000 hush money payment Trump gave an adult entertainer ahead of his successful 2016 election.Protests on both sides of the issue – which the president and his supporters have decried as "political persecution” – are expected to grow in the city, raising fears of unrest.Many Republicans in the US Congress have responded to Trump’s looming arraignment by characterising the criminal justice system as corrupt, in accusations that parallel their earlier broadsides against the nation’s elections after the former president’s 2020 defeat.Trump and his allies in the House of Representatives and Senate have used rhetoric that echoed his false claims of widespread election fraud in the build-up to the deadly January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.Trump supporters, including Republican member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene, have announced plans to protest outside the courtroom during his appearance."Trump’s indictment is the culmination of six years of the Democrats weaponising law enforcement to target and persecute their political enemies. Dictatorships operate like this – the US is supposed to be different,” tweeted Senator Ted Cruz, a hardline Republican who voted to overturn 2020 election results.For now, the NYPD spokesperson said, there are "no current credible threats to New York City”.Outside Trump’s eponymous skyscraper on Fifth Avenue, a dozen or so people had already taken position on Friday with signs and banners that said, "Arrest Trump” and "Tick Tock, Times Up!”Another sign read: "No one is above the law”.A man in a Trump costume made an appearance, and took pictures with a couple of the former president’s supporters, who carried a banner supporting his 2024 campaign.Outside the district attorney’s heavily guarded office, Susan, a 60-year-old lawyer who declined to give her last name, had no qualms about saying that she supports policies that Trump espouses, although "I don’t like his personality”.The expected charges against Trump are overblown, at best "a misdemeanour, not a felony”, she said."This is ridiculous – politically motivated. I am ashamed of this justice in America that looks like that of other countries with politicised judicial systems,” she said.Earlier in the day, three friends from San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque country passed by to take in the scene before heading to a tour of Chinatown."It seems strange to us,” 72-year-old Pilar Banos told AFP. "The fact that they will put him in the car with his head bowed gives him prominence and votes because it will seem like an injustice to many people.”Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt” and denied having any relationship with the adult entertainer known as Stormy Daniels.