NYC Knicks celebration devolves into chaos with multiple arrests, bus fires
New York City’s spontaneous NBA championship celebration for the Knicks quickly devolved into chaos, with Chanley Painter reporting multiple arrests, stabbings and five school buses set on fire. The NYPD deployed riot gear and police horses to control the escalating unrest after the historic victory.
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The New York Knicks may have won the NBA Championships, but Judge Adam Levy said the celebrations went too far when the city descended into chaos and violence.
Some Knicks fans in New York City responded to their team’s win by lighting school buses on fire, climbing scaffolding, light poles and statues, and getting violent. Witnesses reported gunshots in Times Square that the NYPD told Digital left a 17-year-old wounded.
The New York Police Department also had their hands full a few nights before, when the Knicks pulled off the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. They arrested several people on charges stemming from a watch party gone wild in Bryant Park.
Levy, the son of Judge Judith Sheindlin who will soon be starring in the new show “Adam’s Law,” said enough is enough, noting that the law-abiding citizens were the ones most impacted by Saturday’s onslaught.
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NYPD officers tell fans to leave after the New York Knicks won Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs outside Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 4, 2026. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
“Well, I would focus on the thousands of fans who celebrated peacefully,” Levy told Digital on Tuesday. “So the vast majority of people who went to watch the game in New York City when the Knicks won were peaceful. They celebrated. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be. They took pictures, they hugged strangers, and they went home. They were raised to understand the difference between celebration and destruction. The minority, a very small number of individuals, are the ones that the NYPD and prosecutors should be focusing on.”
Sixty-three individuals were arrested in Saturday’s postgame disorder. Levy hoped they’ll face swift justice.
“And out of that 63, the prosecutors should be focusing on the repeat offenders to dedicate their resources against,” he said. “There should be nobody at this point – none of the 63 should walk away with a slap on their wrist.”
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Thousands of New York Knicks fans gather inside and outside Madison Square Garden and celebrate across New York City after the Knicks’ NBA Finals Game 2 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on June 5, 2026. Several fans were arrested for climbing light poles and other structures during the celebrations. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Levy said there are a number of factors that could have contributed to the lawless environment, starting at home.
“I say that the fish stinks from the head down and that when I say that, it’s not just one group, it’s just not one fish,” he said. “You have parents who failed their kids. You have schools that failed the kids and you get the government who failed – when I say kids, I mean the rioters – and the government failed them. It’s a trifecta, that parents for whatever reason are failing to teach morality in the home, responsibility in the home. Schools are focused on things other than reinforcing that. And the government is most certainly responsible for looking the other way and putting law-abiding citizens’ safety and lives at risk, by failing to enforce and prosecute those who violate the law. And the results are exactly what you see with these 63 nutballs.”
Levy, a former district attorney in New York’s Putnam County, has plenty of experience with criminals.
“Twelve years I defended knuckleheads like this,” he said. “And for 13 years, I prosecuted them. So I know the difference between just stupid mischievous kids, and those who really need a swift kick in the a–. And who needs a weight of the criminal justice system weighing over them. So, they don’t become hardened criminals. It’s not rocket science.”
Levy warned that authority figures need to remember to lay down the law and not be too concerned with being cool or of the potential fallout of doing their jobs properly.
“And when you have people in charge – when you have parents and school personnel and government officials who want to be the kid’s friend, who are afraid of being called names by, you know, by members of the public who completely have a wrong view of parenting and schooling and teaching and government’s responsibility to protect law-abiding citizens. When you have those people who are afraid of getting called names. You know, ‘You’re a, you’re a Nazi. You’re, you know, you want to throw everybody in jail.’ It’s not, and refusing to make excuses for the kids. ‘It’s not their fault, it’s their environment. It’s not their fault, they had a tough upbringing. It’s not their fault.’ It’s got to stop.”
Judge Adam Levy on “Adam’s Law.” (Paramount)
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Levy’s mom, who starred on “Judge Judy” for 25 seasons, had similar advice for parents in a 2024 Digital interview.
“Parents sometimes run into trouble when they say, ‘we just want to be our kids’ buddy,'” she said. “But children require rules, just as the adults do. I mean, the country is in the state it’s in now because the rules get blurred.”
“And if you don’t, then this is the result,” Levy said of those potentially shirking responsibility in the Big Apple. “I mean, to think of all the tens of thousands of people that were there that behave themselves, that came from the very same backgrounds as these knuckleballs, as these knuckleheads, who got arrested. How is it that 99.9% of everybody else there is able to follow the law, is able to celebrate peacefully, but these people aren’t? And by simply giving them a slap on the wrist… Sends the wrong message to them and others who are going to look at how they were treated and just engage in similar conduct. Repeat, you know, they’re going to do the same thing at the next celebration.”
And the next celebration has already arrived. Thursday marks the Knicks victory parade through New York City, giving Levy pause that the scenes will be similar to Saturday.
“I’m concerned for the people who are going down there, the law-abiding citizens who want to go down with their families, with their children, and to celebrate their team’s win,” he said. “Because they’re the ones directly placed at risk by parents who refuse to parent, schools who refuse teach, and government officials who refuse to hold people accountable when they break the law. That’s the problem.”
The politicians, he noted, don’t usually have to deal with the mayhem.
“The government officials, they’re not standing in the crowds,” he noted. “Government officials are nice, they’re separated, they’re safely away, looking from elevated platforms. They’re not going to get hit in the head with a bottle. They’re not going to be stabbed in the back by some crazy person. They’re not going to have their bags stolen, because they’re safe.”
“Put the politicians with the regular people, force them to co-mingle, force them to feel unsafe,” he continued. “Force them to think twice about bringing their own children, for fear that their children will get trampled, set on fire, stabbed, shot. Because it’s not until that happens that politicians will change. Every politician has a plan, until they get punched in the face or until their child gets punched in the face.”
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Levy’s new show “Adam’s Law,” from CBS Media Ventures, will premiere on in national syndication on Sept. 14. The show is produced by Judy Sheindlin’s Queen Bee Productions. Levy previously starred on Amazon’s reality court show “Tribunal Justice.”
‘ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
