A Columbia University lecturer thought it would be funny to tell the internet that a cop died after being pelted with snowballs. Anthony Zenkus, a senior adjunct lecturer at Columbia's School of Social Work, posted on X a fake breaking news bulletin claiming an NYPD officer had been killed in the aftermath of a violent melee at Washington Square Park.
The post was crafted to read like an actual news alert:
"BREAKING: One of the NYPD officers hit with a snowball in the melee in NYC yesterday has succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 1 pm this afternoon."
He didn't stop there. Zenkus added fabricated emotional detail to sell the lie, writing that the officer's snowman "still stands on the lawn of his Levittown, Long Island home," and that the man's two children were "now fatherless." He closed with a sanctimonious flourish: "Please pray for his family."
None of it was real. No officer died. It was a joke, posted by a man who teaches at one of the most prestigious universities in the country.
Hours after a historic blizzard dumped nearly two feet of snow on New York City, hundreds gathered at Washington Square Park on Monday afternoon for an organized snowball fight. What started as winter revelry turned violent when a disorderly group of teens and adults began targeting the two NYPD officers assigned to the park.
Bystanders called 911. When backup arrived, multiple officers in vans were also pelted. Two police officers ended up in the hospital with head and face injuries, struck not just by snowballs but by chunks of ice and rocks mixed in. The New York Post reported.
Police have since released photos of four people wanted for questioning. The department is investigating whether additional suspects were involved.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani downplayed the incident as nothing more than a rowdy "snowball fight" that got out of hand. He indicated he didn't believe anyone involved should be charged.
Two officers were hospitalized with head and face injuries, and the mayor shrugged.
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Union, called Mamdani's response what it was:
"This was not just a 'snowball fight.' This was an assault — by adults throwing chunks of ice and rocks — that landed two police officers in the hospital with head and face injuries."
Hendry went further, laying the political consequences bare:
"By ignoring their injuries and dismissing the incident, the mayor has sent a disgraceful message to every police officer who serves this city, and a dangerous message to every person who might be looking to attack a police officer in the future."
He labeled the entire episode a "complete failure of leadership." It's hard to argue with that assessment when the mayor's instinct, upon learning officers were hospitalized, was to minimize and excuse.
Zenkus's fake death announcement wasn't a one-time lapse in judgment. It was the latest entry in a long catalog of provocation from a man Columbia apparently considers qualified to shape young minds.
When former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statement condemning the snow assault, Zenkus responded by joking that "snowballs are Hamas." He dismissed outrage over the attack as the work of "pearl-clutching conservatives" having a "meltdown."
His history extends well beyond snowball commentary:
This is a TedX speaker and Columbia lecturer. A man entrusted with educating social workers, the very people tasked with helping vulnerable populations navigate crisis, and his public contribution to every crisis is mockery, deflection, and ideological posturing.
There is a specific strain of progressive thought that treats contempt for police as a marker of sophistication. It lives comfortably in faculty lounges and on social media, where fabricating a cop's death is considered satire and hospitalizing officers with ice chunks is dismissed as winter fun.
Zenkus didn't invent this attitude. He's just its most cartoonish expression. The real problem is the institutional ecosystem that sustains him. Columbia employs him. His posts don't cost him his position. His 9/11 commentary didn't end his career. Mocking a murder victim didn't either. Now he's manufacturing fake police fatalities for laughs, and the reasonable expectation is that nothing will happen.
That's the message Mamdani reinforced when he waved away the assault. That's the message Columbia reinforces every semester Zenkus stands in front of a classroom. Violence against officers isn't serious. Mocking their suffering is fair game. Accountability is for other people.
One social media user captured the dynamic plainly:
"Making a joke referencing a cop getting killed is typical liberal humor. Not funny but perfectly reveals their morals."
The NYPD is still looking for suspects. Four faces have been released to the public. The investigation continues. Whether charges materialize remains to be seen, particularly given a mayor who has already signaled his preference for leniency.
Meanwhile, two officers recover from injuries sustained while doing their jobs in a city whose leadership treats them as acceptable targets and whose academic class finds their pain genuinely amusing.
Columbia will almost certainly do nothing. Mamdani has already made his position clear. And Anthony Zenkus will keep posting, secure in the knowledge that the institutions around him will absorb every provocation without consequence.
That's not a snowball fight. That's a culture telling its police officers exactly how much they matter.
