NYPD Won’t Bust Big Thanksgiving Gatherings, Shea Says: Report

NEW YORK CITY — Don’t expect NYPD officers to carve up big Thanksgiving celebrations that flout a 10-person limit on gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re not planning on breaking up Thanksgiving celebrations,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told NY1 on Tuesday.

But that doesn’t mean you should cook up plans to hold a big Thanksgiving. Shea said he hopes New Yorkers use “common sense” and hold off the celebrations lest they serve up a side of COVID-19.

He’s forgoing his traditional football-focused bash to protect his mother, he said.

The top cop’s personal responsibility over enforcement message comes amid fears holiday travel and gatherings could fuel a growing coronavirus surge across the country.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week handed down new restrictions — including a 10-person limit on gatherings — designed to slow the virus’s spread. He has repeatedly pressured local police departments, and the NYPD specifically, to step up enforcement on coronavirus restrictions.

Shea’s comment about Thanksgiving enforcement, or lack thereof, follows a longer pattern of NYPD stepping back from such enforcement after initial heavy-handed efforts that critics argued — with backing from arrest and ticket numbers — disproportionately fell on people of color.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has also repeatedly begged New Yorkers to reconsider holiday travel plans.

See the NY1 report here.