The NYPD released photos of multiple men wanted for an alleged assault on two uniformed officers at Washington Square Park, hours after Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters the incident "looked like kids at a snowball fight."

The photos tell a different story. The suspects have facial hair.

According to the NYPD, two men "intentionally struck the police officers multiple times with snow and ice in the head, neck, and face, causing injuries" during Monday's incident in Lower Manhattan. Both officers were taken by EMS to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital in stable condition. The suspects fled. Police later released images of two additional men allegedly involved.

The duo is wanted for assault on a police officer, a felony in New York City. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Mayor's Version vs. The Evidence

At the news conference, Mamdani claimed the attackers were "kids" and suggested they should not face criminal charges. NYPD officials later said the men were roughly 18 to 20 years old. Old enough to vote. Old enough to serve in the military. Old enough to catch a felony.

The suspect descriptions released by police paint a picture that doesn't match the mayor's playground narrative:

• First man: light complexion, wearing a black jacket, black ski mask, and black sweatpants with white stripes
• Second man: dark complexion, wearing a green jacket with a blue sweatshirt underneath and blue gloves, with partial facial hair

Ski masks and facial hair. Not exactly the image that comes to mind when someone says "kids at a snowball fight."

Words Have Consequences

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also ran for New York City mayor last year, wasted no time drawing a line between Mamdani's rhetoric and the broader erosion of respect for law enforcement, Fox News reported. Cuomo noted that Mamdani has a history of calling the police "racist, evil, wicked and corrupt," and said the mayor "set the tone." He posted on social media:

Words have consequences. We are seeing that in the growing disrespect for law enforcement — just as we've seen it in the rise in antisemitism. Real leaders understand that. This mayor does not. @NYCMayor must denounce this at once.

When Andrew Cuomo is the voice of reason on law and order in New York City, something has gone badly wrong.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as "disgraceful" and "criminal," noting detectives are investigating. The word choice matters. The city's top cop called it a crime. The city's mayor called it recess.

The Uniform Is the Target

Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong told Fox News Digital that many of the suspects are believed to be NYU students. NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella pushed back, saying the university "has found no indication anyone from NYU was involved," though he added a notable statement of his own:

We have enormous appreciation for the NYPD officers who keep our community safe. Assaulting police officers is a serious offense.

Whether or not NYU students were involved, Vallelong's broader point deserves attention. He wrote that the attackers had "crossed a clear line" and described the reality officers face every day:

[Officers] are tasked with maintaining public safety in crowded public spaces, often while facing hostility simply for wearing the uniform.

Then he offered the warning that anyone paying attention already understands:

When individuals choose to turn a park into a launching ground for attacks on police, they cross a clear line. Today it is snowballs. Tomorrow it could be rocks, bottles, or worse.

A Pattern That Starts at the Top

This is what happens when a city's chief executive treats an assault on police officers as a lighthearted misunderstanding. Mamdani didn't just dismiss the severity of the attack. He sent a signal. Every person in New York who harbors contempt for the badge heard the mayor of the largest city in America reduce a felony assault to childhood play.

The officers who responded to a call in Washington Square Park on Monday didn't sign up to be pelted in the head, neck, and face with ice by grown men in ski masks. They signed up to keep people safe. And the person who should be backing them up the loudest went to a microphone and minimized what happened to them.

This is the feedback loop that corrodes public safety in every city where it takes hold. Leaders demonize police. The public absorbs the message. Attacks on officers become normalized, even trivialized. And when the inevitable escalation comes, those same leaders will stand at podiums and wonder how things got so bad.

They won't have to look far. They set the tone.