{"id":149182,"date":"2026-03-01T20:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T20:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149182\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T20:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T20:55:07","slug":"former-ny-gov-pataki-rips-zohran-mamdani-alvin-bragg-for-brushing-off-snowball-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149182\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NY Gov. Pataki rips Zohran Mamdani, Alvin Bragg for brushing off snowball ‘assault’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former three-term Gov. George Pataki ripped Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for downplaying an icy snowball attack on NYPD officers.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Republican said it\u2019s no wonder a recent poll found that one-third of Empire State residents<\/a> are considering moving elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk about a snowball fight where the police had snowballs thrown at them. That\u2019s not the case,\u201d Pataki fumed Sunday on 77 WABC radio\u2019s the \u201cCats Roundtable\u201d program<\/a>. \u201cThis was an assault upon New York City police officers where they threw snowballs, yes, but also rocks and ice. It was a deliberate assault \u2026 and yet our city and our state are doing nothing.<\/p>\n

NYPD officers dodging snowballs in Manhattan\u2019s Washington Square Park on Feb. 23, 2026. Derek French\/SOPA Images\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was arrested on Feb. 26, 2026 for the snowball attack on cops. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

Former NY Gov. George Pataki called out NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his reaction to NYPD officers caught in a snowball fight. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just part of a continuing decline in the quality of life and the support of the police,\u201d he went on. \u201cDistrict Attorney Bragg, Mamdani, and the rest say, \u2018Oh, let them go. It\u2019s not a big deal.\u2019 Well, it is a big deal \u2026We don\u2019t have the respect for the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani described the free-for-all <\/a>in Washington Square Park as a \u201csnowball fight that got of hand\u201d while two officers were sent to the hospital for injuries. The NYPD was called in to break up the melee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what I\u2019ve said in regards to the snowball fight is that it\u2019s a snowball fight that got out of hand, and I don\u2019t really have much more to say,\u201d he told reporters last week.<\/p>\n

Bragg\u2019s prosecutors then declined to level a police-assault charge <\/a>against accused cop-pelter and YouTuber Gusmane Coulibaly, claiming officials couldn\u2019t confirm the 27-year-old man\u2019s alleged actions physically injured a responding officer. Coulibaly did face other charges, though.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani has described the incident as a snowball fight that \u201cgot out of hand.\u201d FNTV<\/p>\n

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg\u2019s office declined to charge Coulibaly with assault on police officers. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

Pataki claimed the supposed soft-on-crime approach is part of a pattern of ignoring quality of life concerns, citing basic items in drug stores locked up because of rampant shoplifting and dangerous mentally ill people roaming the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat drives me nuts and it gets my blood boiling is that this is all preventable,\u201d he told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis.<\/p>\n

NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong warned the problem of disrespecting cops will only get worse when the weather warms up because Mamdani is setting a bad message.<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has condemned the snowball attack. csuarez<\/p>\n

\u201cThe degradation of what took place in Washington Square Park and what happened to these cops \u2026 is just going to expand when you have a mayor that sits back and frivolously looks at these things and paints them as being a children\u2019s snowball fight,\u201d Vallelong said on a separate 77 WABC \u201cCats Roundtable\u201d segment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was lawlessness,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s no other way to describe this. It wasn\u2019t a group of kids. It was a mob \u2026 They were disrespectful. They were assaulting the police officers. How is it that you have an individual in this mayor that he refuses to call an assault an assault?\u201d<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch condemned <\/a>the attacks on her officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former three-term Gov. George Pataki ripped Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for downplaying an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3015,211,18088,5302,57,9,24,55,54,56,103,60636,58,15081,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-149182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-alvin-bragg","9":"tag-assault","10":"tag-george-pataki","11":"tag-jessica-tisch","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-city-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nypd","19":"tag-snowball","20":"tag-us-news","21":"tag-washington-square-park","22":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}