NYPD Precincts Across City Cancel Their Holiday Parties Amid Protests

By Danielle Tcholakian and Murray Weiss on December 18, 2014 7:25am

At least two-thirds of the city's precincts have canceled their holiday parties in 2014, a source said.

Shutterstock/evantravels

MANHATTAN — The thousands of Eric Garner protesters who have taken to city streets in recent weeks have succeeded in shutting down the NYPD's holiday parties.

Precincts across the city are calling off their planned annual festivities because they can't afford to take officers off the street while protests against police brutality continue to crop up almost nightly, sources said.

The officers, who pay for their precincts' holiday parties themselves, also don't want to risk chipping in money if there's a chance they'll be called out to work overtime the night of the party.

"It sucks," one patrol officer said.

All the precincts celebrate differently. Midtown South typically has a banquet-style affair, while the 9th Precinct was planning to hold its holiday party at the Scholastic building in SoHo this year, sources said.

Some get even ritzier: The 6th Precinct was planning to celebrate at upscale event space Capitale on the Bowery, sources said.

Many of the parties have open bars.

One police source said at least two-thirds of the precincts in the city had canceled their parties, but most would likely be rescheduled in January, assuming protests wane by then.

The source added that many officers aren't too upset over the postponed parties because police are making lots of extra cash in overtime thanks to the protests. As of Tuesday, the NYPD had paid nearly $23 million in overtime to officers patrolling the demonstrations, officials said.

"There's no bigger way to screw up the police than give them millions of dollars in overtime around Christmas," the source said sarcastically.