Big cities ramp up security ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

Dec. 31, 2025, 11:47 AM EST


Police departments and emergency management agencies across the U.S. boosted New Year's Eve security measures on Wednesday as revelers gathered to ring in 2026.The festivities are shadowed by the anniversary of an ISIS-inspired truck-ramming terror attack in New Orleans on Jan. 1 that killed 15 people and injured scores of others. Wednesday's celebrations also come two weeks after the Justice Department arrested four people linked to an alleged plot to detonate bombs in the Los Angeles area on the last day of the year.

New Orleans' downtown area will be patrolled by nearly 800 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, public safety administrators told reporters at a security briefing this week. Louisiana National Guard members will help create an "enhanced security zone," with a focus on redirecting traffic and searching bags as crowds move through Bourbon Street and other densely populated parts of the city, the officials said.

"We're leveraging all of our law enforcement resources and public safety partners," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said, adding that law enforcement officers were "absolutely taking in what we experienced almost one year ago." "I believe that we've proven ... since that time, how we have gone the extra mile to ensure the safety again of our residents as well as our visitors," Cantrell said.

In Southern California, thousands of law enforcement personnel were working to secure the annual New Year's Day Rose Parade, according to NBC Los Angeles. L.A. County expects about a million people to descend on the city of Pasadena for the 137th installment of the parade. "We have lots of folks that are going to be out here, some that will be uniform and others that you won’t be able to see," Pasadena Police Chief Eugene Harris told NBC Los Angeles, adding that officers will have a zero-tolerance policy for disruptive behavior along the 5.5-mile parade route.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/big-cities-ramp-security-ahead-new-years-eve-celebrations-rcna251671

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. Of course, no one on the right will understand that this pretty much applies to only 'blue' cities.

Thanks to their rhetoric, those are the ones that have to be extra careful.

[Igel]

2. "Big city" and "blue city" are nearly synonymous.

Dallas-Ft Worth (DFW) is an exception (per Ballotpedia) and it's reinforcing its security.

Just because it's not reported doesn't mean it's not happening. Just that the reporting's going to focus on the largest cities--which are all (D) controlled--and those of the most importance to the reporters and who they perceive their readership to be (and reporters for the last few decades, when surveyed, are not so much (R) as (D) or (I), and often the (I) isn't in between (R) and (D) but left of mainstream (D).

Thing is, while yes, DFW "a" large city, it's also not the subject of any national attention or focus. Rose Parade? National event in Pasadena. Times Square? Probably the most televised New Year's eve event in the US. NOLA is coming off of last year's surprise attack, while LA CA was put on notice by the FBI. And NYC is just NYC.

Once you're down from DFW, you're hobnobbing with the cosmopolitan, highly-enmeshed in the public consciousness OK City and Fresno, CA. Not to even mention the hustle and bustle of that finance capital, Mesa (that's in AZ, and it's mushed on the east side of PHX and Tempe, but west of Apache Junction and the awesome store The Good Apple).