Amid New Year's Eve terror threats, cities celebrate 'renewal and hope'

As cities around the world cautiously stepped up security for New Year's events, many mayors emphasized courage and community. 

|
Peter Nicholls/Reuters
Police patrol near the London Eye before New Year's Eve celebrations in London. About 3,000 police will be on duty across central London for the celebrations, with an increased number of firearms officers in and around major stations.

From Beijing to Brussels, New Year's Eve celebrations on Thursday promised a chance to recover, recharge, and hope for a more peaceful 2016, as mayors and police departments prepared to ensure a safe start to the year. 

After ISIS-related attacks in Paris and California, among others, and New Year's plots foiled just days before in Turkey and Belgium, a few cities have deemed public celebrations too much of a risk. Authorities in Brussels cancelled fireworks after arresting eight suspected plotters in the last week, one month after the city's four-day lockdown as police searched for suspects in the November 13 Paris attacks. 

But many cities decided to go forward, despite a number of threats. Dozens deployed more security, while iconic sites in Beijing and Moscow have limited the size of New Year's crowds. 

"The people of Paris and France need this symbolic passage to the new year. ...We need to send a signal to the world: Paris is standing," Mayor Anne Hidalgo told Le Journal du Dimanche. Parisians will still gather at the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées, but watch a video display, rather than traditional fireworks, and 60,000 troops will be deployed throughout France.  

Turkey has been on high alert, particularly in the capital, Ankara, where a suicide attack killed 103 in October. On Wednesday, police arrested two suspected ISIS sympathizers with bombs "ready for use" in New Year's attacks, but authorities said celebrations would go on as planned. In Istanbul, increased security will take an unusual form: police officers plan to go undercover in outfits from Santa Claus to pretzel vendors, as the BBC reported. 

That spirit was present across Europe, where several cities had received threats: celebrate, but safely. "Caution is a good counselor, fear is not," Berlin's interior minister Frank Henkel told the city, while London Mayor Boris Johnson encouraged Brits to "Get out there and soak up the best we have to offer" amid increased police presence. 

In Sydney, one of the first cities to usher in the new year, around one million were expected to watch fireworks over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, taking the Lord Mayor's advice "Don't change your way of life." To get a seat at the $5 million (USD) event, featuring both aboriginal traditions and a pop soundtrack, residents waited hours (and in some cases, days) to grab a prime viewing spot.

New York's Times Square ball-drop, which typically attracts 1 million, was also expected to go forward, with metal screenings and high numbers of police and antiterrorism officers. 

Back in Europe, migrant shelters in Germany have called off fireworks to avoid "reliving the trauma" for some of the country's newest residents, according to the Guardian. 

Unity and diversity were central themes of Paris Mayor Hidalgo's New Year's message, which she posted on Twitter. 

"You knew how to pick yourselves up, come together, and make life triumph," Ms. Hidalgo told Parisians. "You have proven that your courage knows no limits. ...I will be at your side to make this year a time of renewal and hope."

As Paris resident Francoise Malterre told the Associated Press:

It was a very strange year and we just want 2016 to be different, simply a normal one. ...It does not need to be an excellent one, but just a normal one.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Amid New Year's Eve terror threats, cities celebrate 'renewal and hope'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2015/1231/Amid-New-Year-s-Eve-terror-threats-cities-celebrate-renewal-and-hope
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe