New Yorkers shopping and working at the Union Square Holiday Market Saturday evening were generally unruffled about the beefed-up NYPD presence at the city’s holiday markets after Friday’s attack on a Christmas market in Germany that killed five people and injured 200 others.
The shocking overseas incident saw a man plow a black BMW at high speed into a row of shoppers at a crowded Christmas market in the town of Magdeburg. The driver is reportedly a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia with a history of making “anti-Islam statements.”
In response to the deadly attack, the NYPD ramped up security at the numerous holiday markets around the city.
Jonathan Cooling, 29, a vendor at a stall at the popular Union Square Square Holiday Market, said he wasn’t stressing out over news of the attack.
“I’m calm because, if anything did happen, we just got to keep going,” he said. “And, if I think we got to help each other out, I accept that as my responsibility.”
Peter Wohlsen, 46 was at the Downtown market with his young son but expressed no worry of similar attacks spreading to any of New York City’s bustling outdoor holiday shopping hubs.
“I read about it,” he said. “It doesn’t have any effect. It didn’t even occur to me coming here to compare them… It’s easy to get to from where we live — so just get off the train, come here. My son really wanted to come and shop, and he really likes coming to the market.”
An art vendor at the festive holiday spot named Veda, 31, said the car rampage at the European market wouldn’t really impact business and that he wasn’t too worried about anything like it happening here.
“No, it’s New York,” he shrugged. “People are people doing whatever they got. I mean, even with the tourists, it’s like, whatever happens, we’re there, you know. We’ve been pretty much just as busy as usual. It hasn’t been more quiet or anything.”
One shopper who had just come to New York from Germany said he personally felt safe, yet worried how his country would respond to the incident and prevent ones like it from happening in the future. In terms of the odds, though, he noted there are countless Christmas markets — at least “1 million,” he said, with exaggeration — in his homeland, which is where Christmas markets originated.
“Yes, I would also say I feel safe in Germany most of the time because there are a lot of Christmas markets,” he said. “I would say we have probably 1 million cities, and each city has one, each little town has one. And, yes, so one of 1 million is not that big of a number in the end. It’s not like I’m fearful every time I go there.”
Originally Published:
