Blocks of "frozen zones" established by NYPD barricades. Roaming cops and security forces corralling people onto the sidewalk or standing around like an unspoken threat. Leaders' allusions to potential danger so they can justify the militarized spectacle they have set up on the street. The husk of the community that was building up where the police now stand. Game 3 of the NBA Finals really took me back to my college days.
What I hope remains the lowest point of my life came the morning after the raid on Hind's Hall at Columbia University. On April 30, 2024, I ran from the SRG officers that had stormed onto my college campus to unleash brutal force on students both inside and outside the gates. Afterwards, I waited until the early morning on the sidewalk of 1 Police Plaza for my friends to be released, and I sat with fellow students trying to make sense of what we had experienced. When I emerged from the subway at 116th that morning, I was greeted by the same barricades, the same police officers, the same lines of cop cars down my block as the night before. As if the previous night never happened.
What started as an extravagant use of force became a normal part of student life. I had to swipe an ID to get into the gates of campus, leave for class earlier so as not to get stuck in security lines, sign in out-of-town guests just so we could sit on the steps, and keep lists of ways to sneak onto campus if I didn’t want to be tracked by ID swipes and security cameras. I couldn't walk across Columbia's brick paths without the eerie, disturbing awareness that I was being watched.
I'm afraid that every time the police barricades go up, and the security forces ooze back out onto the street, it becomes more and more normal to the general public. This isn't just an issue for Columbia students, but for the scores of New Yorkers who want to celebrate a Knicks team that's better than it's been in decades. The crowds are different, but our leaders' desire to control them is much the same.
On Monday night, the space outside of MSG that had been full of excited Knicks fans during the playoffs sat empty, as cops and Secret Service officers closed 10 blocks of Midtown surrounding the arena before, during, and after the game—at least for anyone who wasn't willing to pay for a train ticket out of Penn Station. Fans, press, and even players had to go through TSA-style security, with the Knicks encouraging ticket-holders to arrive two hours before tip to ensure they could make it through the line. James Dolan's surveillance state inside MSG was not enough. The security theater had to expand to the blocks outside. All of this so Donald Trump could get booed.
I have never seen a community like the one that existed at the Columbia encampment, nor have I seen New York as united in hope as during this Knicks run. Then the barricades go up, the streets are shut down, and what's left is a police force in spaces where that community was being built. Trump and the horde of billionaires and White House officials who accompanied him are not scared of Knicks fans as much as they're scared of people coalescing in joy that they cannot wield in service of their own strength. Even when the closures were temporary, the emptiness, and the feeling of stopped momentum, is real. After the game, the police broke up the crowds of fans leaving the Bryant Park watch party, arresting 21 people in the process. Donald Trump won't be returning for Game 4, but the NYPD now has a group of "rowdy, violent and destructive" fans to blame if they want to further increase their presence.
The barricades around Midtown are down, but security theater is a traveling show. Today, Trump's border czar Tom Homan threatened to send "more ICE agents than you've ever seen" to New York City for the World Cup, and the Trump administration continues to deny visas to those entering the United States for the tournament. The tactics for crushing dissent and crowd control blend further together, as those in power use the scale of the event to tighten their control. If they need justification, their security cameras can always uncover the presence of "malicious actors" or "outside agitators." Sooner or later, it all becomes normal.
