Kids in Clinton Hill were unable to take advantage of an unseasonably warm January weekend because officers from the NYPD’s 88th Precinct had once again used the Classon Playground to park their personal vehicles.

It’s not the first time cops at the Classon Street command had taken over two large park spaces and turned them into parking spaces for themselves. During the first year of the Covid pandemic, when the neighboring school was closed, cops frequently parked on what is Parks Department land, blocking access to basketball hoops in the densely populated neighborhood. They were evicted once, but returned again later that year.

But they were back without warning on Saturday and Sunday. Council Member Crystal Hudson tweeted that she believes the officers were seeking to protect their cars from protests they suspected would take place amid the growing outrage over the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. There were some protest marches in New York City, but not hear the 88th Precinct station house.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We believe this was done in anticipation of potential protests, though it’s hard to understand the correlation. We will be reaching out to both the 88th Pct. and the Parks Dept. to inquire about the practice of parking in playgrounds.

— Council Member Crystal Hudson (@CMCrystalHudson) January 29, 2023

This reporter went over to the neighborhood on Sunday and found the playground filled with roughly 60 police officers’ personal vehicles. Areas in front of the precinct house where cops usually park were empty.

The cars were being guarded by an on-duty officer in an idling squad car. She claimed officers would be vacating the playgrounds “soon,” but declined to say why the cars were there in the first place. She directed the reporter to call 1 Police Plaza for a comment, but the NYPD did not respond to a request for more information about the space theft. (Nor did the Parks Department.)

Meanwhile, a father and son who passed by told Streetsblog they didn’t like seeing the cars taking away much-needed recreation space in the neighborhood.

“I never would have thought that a public playground could be used as a parking lot for police,” said the father, who gave the name McCoy.

[Update: After initial publication of this story, an unidentified NYPD spokesperson sent over the following comment: “Last week, out of an abundance of caution, the 88th Precinct temporarily relocated vehicles to Classon Playground in order to protect against any potential vandalism. The vehicles have since been removed.”]

After hearing from @jalexa1218 and others in Clinton Hill, I rushed over to see if @nypd88pct really had STOLEN a @NYCParks facility from neighborhood kids. It's TRUE! @CMCrystalHudson says cops were concerned about protests, but all they've done is give locals a cause for anger. pic.twitter.com/ecjt0OuJr3

— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) January 29, 2023

Here’s the officer in her squad car:

Here’s where cops usually park: