New Role for New York Police: Breaking Up Crowds at Trader Joe’s

“I realize that everyone wants to pay their respects, but at this point in time, we really have to control the disease,” said Inspector Georgios Mastrokostas, a supervisor on the task force.

About 15 people who have defied the rules have been arrested. On March 28, for instance, the police responded to reports of an illegal bar in Brooklyn, where a dozen people were drinking and gambling, and charged the operator with reckless endangerment, the police said.

“It’s a heavy hit if you are not complying,” said Inspector Mastrokostas.

With Trader Joe’s under control, the officers headed to another known hot spot — a park at the corner of 36th Street and Second Avenue. Two weeks ago the state government shut down the city’s playgrounds to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Metal gates had been closed to prevent people from entering the playground. A sign was posted that read: “Please exercise alone and use social distancing.”

A lone man was doing push-ups at one end of the park, and a father and son were throwing a baseball back and forth on the opposite end. In the middle, a 4-year-old named Augustus, wearing a thick white helmet, was riding his scooter. A few steps away, his father said he had made a game of washing hands with his son, telling the boy, “It’s a bad cold, a bad flu.”

“The magnitude of it? I don’t think he understands,” the father said. “To be honest, I don’t think I understand either.”

Next the officers went to check on the Hookah Plus lounge on West 27th Street, where the previous day they had found five customers smoking inside. They had closed the place and had given the owner a lecture. Today, the gates were shut. “It makes me happy he complied,” Sergeant Rosso said.