Tight security planned for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in N.Y.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York is planning tight security around the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the wake of mass shootings elsewhere in the U.S., police said Wednesday, while stressing that there’s no known, credible threat to the famed event itself.

The holiday tradition, which draws throngs of participants and spectators, this year comes two days after six people were killed in a shooting at a Walmart in Virginia, and four days after another shooting killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. Also over the weekend, a man who allegedly threatened to attack a synagogue was arrested at New York’s Penn Station with a knife, a ski mask, a swastika arm patch and an associate, authorities said.

In light of those events, police “will deploy additional resources to ensure the festivities across the city are safe for all,” New York Police Department counterterrorism Chief Martine Materasso said at a news conference amid the inflation of the parade’s signature giant balloons. She said authorities had no indication of “any active, credible or specific threat” to the event.

A police officer stands guard as people watch and take photos of helium balloons getting inflated for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)AP

By now, the security measures are almost as familiar as the parade itself. They include heavy weapons teams, explosives detection dogs, a bomb squad, radiological and chemical sensors, drone detection, sand trucks and blocker vehicles and additional cameras on the route.

Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette promised the parade will be “bigger and better this year than ever before” — so much so that it’s starting at 8:45 a.m. instead of 9 to accommodate all the balloons, floats, marching bands, singers, cheerleaders, clowns, Broadway casts, and Radio City Rockettes. And, of course, Santa Claus.

A man inspects a float of Tom Turkey that is lined up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will take place on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)AP

New balloons this year include the animated sensation “Bluey,” Stuart the one-eyed Minion from “Despicable Me 2,” a new green dinosaur and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” balloons.

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