With or without Trump in attendance, the security threat to Madison Square Garden would persist.
To read the coverage, you’d think that a great injustice had been done to the city of New York.
Donald Trump is heading into town on Monday night to attend game three of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, you see. And that decision has unduly compelled the authorities in New York City to augment security precautions around the venue.
That’s an unremarkable development, but the coverage of it has been extraordinary. MSG is going “into virtual lockdown,” the AFP reported. Municipal police have cordoned off the area for “several blocks,” putting the kibosh on watch parties outside the arena, which had previously drawn “jubilant crowds.”
If there’s no joy in Mudville tonight, you know whom to blame.
“The police department said the city’s permitting office rejected a request for the watch party outside the arena,” the New York Times reported. The decision was made in coordination with the Secret Service because of Mr. Trump’s visit, the department said, adding that it had expected watch parties at the Garden to continue for Game 4.”
But is all this security really necessary? Of course, it is.
As the Times confessed, 26 were detained, 17 of whom were arrested, during the melee that broke out at the erstwhile jubilant watch party outside MSG during game two of the finals last Friday night. One police officer was injured when she was punched in the face by an assailant who jumped a barrier. “The same person later bit a different officer,” the Times reported.
The disorder in the area has not been limited to game nights either. On Sunday night, six people were stabbed by a single assailant who went on a rampage in the New Jersey Transit waiting area of Penn Station directly beneath MSG.
The coverage of the heightened security notes that New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani will also attend tonight’s game. Although he, too, has been a magnet for violence, you can blame Trump for MSG’s no-bag policy, TSA-like waiting lines, and the recommendation that you arrive two hours early for tonight’s game.
Given the eye-rolling coverage that fact has inspired from the mainstream press, it sounds like these basic precautions are just best practice. With or without Trump in attendance, the security threat to the venue would persist. The only difference is that, with him there, authorities have an incentive to clamp down on the violence and disorder. Apparently, you’re supposed to be mad about that.