Public safety rules should be dull in the best possible way. Clear. Predictable. Written by people who understand what actually causes harm in a crowd of thousands. New York City usually gets this right. It has decades of muscle memory for doing hard things in public, under pressure, without panicking. Which is why the prohibited items list for the January 1, 2026 NYC mayoral inauguration block party seemed… off
I’m almost certain someone asked a chatbot to list devices “Like a Flipper Zero” and now you’re asked not to bring a specific general purpose computer from an event. I don’t think it’s sinister. I think it’s just stupidity. Now enhanced with a machine that lets you think even less.