The New York Police Department has been making final security preparations as tourists and locals flock to the upper West Side of Manhattan to watch workers inflate the giant balloons that will float down Fifth Avenue in Thursday’s 90th Annual Macy’s NYC Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year’s arrangements for security involve large concrete blocks and another new layer of protection: huge concrete blocks and a line of 83 giant sand-filled sanitation trucks parked bumper-to-bumper lining the parade route at a distance of one block away, forming a buffer zone for spectators to safely watch the parade.
Barricades are already up, parking restrictions are in place and 83 sanitation trucks filled with a total of approximately 16 tons of sand will line the parade route from W 77th Street to 34th Street in Midtown, the final destination of the marchers. Every cross street along the parade route will also be blocked off, so no vehicle can be used to attack the crowds.
Thousands of police officers will protect the marchers and the estimated three and a half million locals and tourists who are expected to come to the parade. Also for the first time, the 500 elite officers of the NYPD Critical Response Command will protect the parade, just part of the 3,000-member force securing marchers and parade-goers.
In addition to the large floating ‘Trixie the Dog’ balloon bouncing down the avenue, eight real “vapor wake” Labrador dogs will join their partner officers in the NYPD, using their special skills to track down any hint of explosives among the crowds. NYPD Counterterrorism Operations Chief Jim Waters told NBC News, “As opposed to walking up to a package and sniffing the package, they can work a large crowd area by just having the right wind direction.”
The security upgrade comes in response to a call by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization in the latest issue of its magazine, urging lone wolf terrorists to attack the parade in a manner similar to that used in the southern French city of Nice on Bastille Day this year.
Earlier this week, 37-year-old Mohamed Rafik Naji of Brooklyn was arrested for allegedly expressing support for ISIS on Facebook, and for having attempted to join the terrorist group in 2015.
According to the FBI, Naji is a Yemeni citizen and a legal permanent U.S. resident who was alleged to have traveled to Turkey and Yemen between March 22 and September 9 last year in order to try to join ISIS. During his travels in Yemen, where he has family, Naji allegedly expressed his admiration for ISIS, over and over, on Facebook. Prosecutors told the court, however, that he returned to New York City after failing to join the terror group abroad, and subsequently spotted the ISIS call to arms for the parade.
Naji allegedly told an informant, “They want an operation in Times Square, reconnaissance group already put out a scene, the Islamic State already put up scenes of Times Square, you understand. I said that was an indication for whoever is smart to know.”
Prosecutors said Naji told the informant he planned to use a garbage truck to plow through a crowd, having been inspired by the attack in Nice over the summer. In that attack, 86 people were murdered and hundreds more were injured.
Naji was ordered held without bail following his initial court appearance Monday (Nov. 21) in Brooklyn federal court. He did not enter a plea at that time.