‘Biggest show yet’: Macy’s Fourth of July
fi reworks show returns to East River
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Boom! The biggest Fourth of July
fi reworks show in the U.S. is coming
back with a bang on the East River
waterfront.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
Thursday that the Macy’s Fourth of July
Fireworks Extravaganza will be back live,
following last year’s pre-taped show amid
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mayor said the annual pyrotechnics
display will be able to have people attend
in-person thanks in part to the many New
Yorkers who have been vaccinated against
COVID-19.
“This will be the biggest show yet, literally
Macy’s putting together the biggest fi reworks
display they ever had,” de Blasio said.
The city will set up dedicated areas for
fully vaccinated people and other areas
for people who have not yet gotten their
vaccination. The NYPD will manage the
The Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Extravaganza will again be a live show
this year.
events security, “to keep it safe,” de Blasio
said.
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
Will Coss, producer of the Macy’s
Fourth of July fi reworks show and Bronx
native, spoke briefl y about the 25-minute
spectacle.
“I grew up attending many of Macy’s
world-famous events as a kid with my
parents and I’ve had the great joy of coming
to them as an adult with my wife and
my daughter,” Coss said. “It all starts with
a spark — that’s how America’s biggest
Independence Day celebration is going to
come to life against the incredible New
York City skyline.”
The 45th annual fi reworks show will
kickoff on Sunday, July 4, at about 9:25
p.m. Five barges lining the East River in
Midtown Manhattan will launch more than
65,000 shells and effects into the sky.
Coss said the spectacle will also salute
“the hero within, highlighting American
bravery and optimism.”
The show will be livestreamed on NBC,
with a two-hour special that will feature
performances from Coldplay, One Republic,
Black Pumas, and more.
Shake Shack manager sues NYPD unions
over ‘poisoned’ milkshake incident
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The manager of a Downtown Manhattan
Shake Shack where three
NYPD offi cers falsely claimed they
were poisoned by milkshakes last summer
has sued two police unions, the cops involved,
and the city.
Marcus Gilliam, who runs the fast food
joint at Fulton Transit Center in Lower
Manhattan, fi led a suit on June 14 alleging
the police falsely arrested and detained him
and that two unions defamed him, according
to court documents.
In addition to the three cops and the
city, Gilliam’s suit targets Pat Lynch, the
head of the Police Benevolent Association,
along with the Detectives’ Endowment
Association, who posted on social media
at the time claiming that someone had
intentionally poisoned the offi cers with
the drinks on June 15, 2020.
NYPD sent in the Emergency Service Unit
and detained Gilliam for fi ve-six hours and
interrogated him for more than an hour at a
nearby precinct station house, even though
the cops never got sick, the court fi lings show.
Amid the racial justice uprisings in New
York City following the police murder of
George Floyd in Minneapolis, three Bronx
cops stationed in Lower Manhattan on
The Shake Shack at Fulton Center in Manhattan.
protest duty went to grab the milkshakes at
around 7:30 p.m. on the night in question.
After taking a sip of their drinks, the
cops complained that they didn’t taste
right and threw the beverages in the trash.
When they told Gilliam, he apologized and
gave them each vouchers for free food and
milkshakes, which they accepted.
The offi cers then told their sergeant
that someone had put “toxic substance,”
possibly bleach, in their drinks, and the
higher-level cop called in the ESU to set
up a crime scene.
Some 20 police showed up at the fast
food joint around 9:20 p.m. and arrested
the manager along with detaining all of his
employees.
He denied their allegations but cooperated
with the authorities — at one point
even giving them a demonstration of how
they prepare milkshakes. At that point, one
sergeant allegedly asked Gilliam, “When
did you add the bleach?” adding, “You put
three of my cops in the hospital.”
The three offi cers were taken to Bellevue
Hospital and examined, but released
without any symptoms.
The cops ordered the shakes through
a mobile app and the drinks were already
packaged and ready for pickup by the time
the offi cers arrived, so the Shake Shack
staff couldn’t have known that the beverages
were for police, according to the suit.
Meanwhile, an NYPD lieutenant allegedly
emailed the PBA and DEA, telling the
unions that cops had started vomiting after
drinking the beverages and both unions
swiftly released statements accusing someone
of deliberately poisoning the shakes.
Both statements were viewed thousands
of times and Twitter users wrote hateful
messages against the eatery’s staff and
manager, according to the suit.
At 4 a.m. the next morning, then-NYPD
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison sent
out a tweet admitting that there was no
criminality by the Shake Shack employees,
but that didn’t stop people from contacting
Gilliam and accusing him of trying to attack
police, according to the lawsuit.
Neither police union responded to a
request for comment.
City Law Department spokesman Nick
Paolucci said the agency will review the
suit, but did not comment further.
22 June 17, 2021 Schneps Media