MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — In the wake of the Manhattan grand jury’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, all NYPD officers are expected to be deployed across the city in uniform Friday morning, police sources told ABC News.
The spectacle everyone expected at Trump Tower in Manhattan was slow to materialize Thursday night. There were many camera crews and a handful of the former president’s supporters.
But it’s early, and already the experts have run out of ways to say the word “unprecedented.”
“They don’t have a playbook they can pull out and go, ‘oh ex-president indicted we’re going to do A, B, C, and D,'” ABC News contributor Rich Frankel said. “This is going to be something completely new.”
Frankel spent a career in federal and state law enforcement, and even he said he has no clue how things will play out in Manhattan when the former president surrenders for his arraignment, likely next week, to his likely release on his own recognizance.
Then there’s the question about what life around Trump Tower will look like while he sits through a trial amid the potential for mass protests and even attacks by his supporters on the courts downtown.
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“This is going to cause a logistical nightmare for the city because of the protests and because this is going to have to keep him not contained but protected,” Frankel said. “I’m sure the FBI is working on any threats they’re going to look at any intelligence coming in towards the president and threatening everybody else.”
The former president himself, on social media, has warned of potential “death and destruction” if charged.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg already received a death threat saying, “Alvin I am going to kill you!” along with a white powder, which was mailed to his officer and later deemed harmless.
All of that was before the grand jury’s vote to indict Trump.
Now it’s up to the NYPD to maintain order and safety throughout the city. They already installed blast protection around Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
Late Thursday, the entire department received a message ordering all 35,000 officers to show up for work in uniform and be prepared for deployment at 7 a.m. on Friday.
“They’ve had to deal with crisis in the past, unbelievable things that have happened,” Frankel said. “So, they will be able to figure it out.”
There are no credible threats, according to the mayor’s office.
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