The NYPD will heighten security for this year’s Macy's (M) Thanksgiving Day Parade, according to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. Expecting a record-breaking number of parade-goers, it plans to add hundreds of armed officers to the annual event. Officers from the Critical Response Command (CRC) will be patrolling the parade route from Herald Square to West 77th Street and Central Park West, armed with enhanced body armor and specializing in active-shooter scenarios. Mr. Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the CRC shortly after the Paris attacks on November 13. The Strategic Response Group, focusing on monitoring large crowds, will also have a strong presence at the parade. “Some of those officers will be equipped with the long guns, the rifles,” Mr. Bratton said. The parade itself will include 17 character balloons, 27 floats, 13 marching bands and will have a total of 8,000 marchers. (DNAinfo)
The Foodtown grocery store in Upper Manhattan was destroyed in a fire Wednesday morning. The fire began around 1:00 am at the back of building, and more than 100 firefighters were called to the scene. Located on Nicholas Ave. in Hamilton Heights, the store has been a neighborhood fixture for more than 20 years. “God-willing everything will turn out,” the owner of the store said. (NBC New York)
A postal worker has been arrested for spitting on and threatening a Muslim woman in Bed-Stuy. Yelling that he would burn her “Muslim temple,” 33-year-old Dainton Coley spat on the 33-year-old woman who was wearing a hijab and pushing her baby in a stroller on the corner of Nostrand Ave. and Halsey Street. Mr. Coley allegedly lashed out at the woman after she bumped into him with the stroller, upon which he verbally harassed her in a nearby deli. The confrontation was caught on the deli’s camera. Mr. Coley has been charged with harassment, menacing as a hate crime and acting in a manner injurious to a child. (Gothamist)
After completing a four-year renovation, Macy’s managed to salvage one of the oldest parts of its flagship store—the wooden escalators. Made of oak and ash, the vintage escalators have taken shoppers from one floor to the next for 95 years and have survived the store’s $400-million face lift. Forty Type L escalators were installed between 1920 and 1930 during an expansion toward Seventh Ave. Since then, only one Type L has ever been taken out of the Herald Square store, which occurred as a result of a recent renovation. (New York Times)
Abid Naseer, 29, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for plotting to blow up New York’s subways. A Brooklyn federal judge gave Mr. Naseer his sentence Tuesday, after convicting Mr. Naseer in March for conspiring in al-Qaeda plots. Mr. Naseer’s legal adviser, James Neuman, had initially asked for a lighter sentence, but the judge denied the request. Mr. Neuman said he plans on appealing the conviction. (New York Post)
