How big does a snowball have to get before throwing it lands you in handcuffs?
A 27-year-old man found out Thursday after he was arrested for taking part in a massive snowball fight in New York City’s Washington Square Park. New York Police say he was taken into custody for “assaulting our officers” by pelting them with snow and ice.
It’s unclear what the man was charged with, and the department didn’t provide more details. However, according to The New York Times. The suspect was previously arrested in connection with an attempted robbery in the transit system.
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He pleaded not guilty this month to robbery, petty larceny and harassment charges.
The snowball fight
The man was one of dozens who gathered in the park during a historic snowstorm this weekend for a massive snowball fight that went viral online.
The Associated Press reports that social media content producers organized the fight, drawing a 911 call about a disorderly group in the park. The AP reports video shows two officers arriving on scene and being bombarded by snowballs as the crowd yelled and recorded the chaos.
In the video, the officers are seen shoving at least two people to the ground while walking through the park, all the while being pelted by snowballs.
At a press conference following the incident, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said two officers were hospitalized with lacerations to their faces. However, he played down the incident, calling it a “snowball fight that got out of hand.”
A spokesperson for the police union told the AP that they were treated for face, head and neck injuries.
Assaults on law enforcement on the rise
However innocent, the incident in New York comes as law enforcement face rising violence directed at them nationwide. According to a report from the FBI, assaults on law enforcement officers in the U.S. reached a 10-year high in 2023, when more than 79,000 officers reported being assaulted.
A news organization in Boston, WGBH, looked at more recent court records, finding that from January to September 2025, assaults on federal officers rose about 25% from the year prior.
“Almost daily in 2025, a police officer was shot in this country,” said Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, in a release announcing the police union’s annual data. “This scale of violence against our officers is horrifying and simply unsustainable.”
WGBH noted that there was also a rise in law enforcement presence due to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which could be contributing to the 25% spike.
What warrants as assault?
The snowball fight incident draws into question what the law defines as assault. In the legal world, assault is generally defined as an intentional act that puts another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact.
Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute notes that physical injury is not required, but the actor had to have intended to cause harmful or offensive contact. It lays out four components of assault: Intention, reasonable apprehension by the victim, imminent threat, and harmful or offensive intention.
