Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani — who has faced heat lately over years-old social media posts critical of the police — came face-to-face with an audience of NYPD officers Tuesday night and told them he would, if elected, spare them the responsibility of responding to most mental health calls.
“We must stop asking them to respond to nearly every single failure of the social safety net,” Mamdani said at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza as a contingent of cops from the nearby 78th Precinct flanked him for an annual “National Night Out” event. “We must stop making it impossible for them to do their jobs by asking them to do every other job we can think of.”
Mamdani, a socialist who defeated Andrew Cuomo in last month’s Democratic mayoral primary, was referring to his proposal to launch the Department of Community Safety, an agency that would be tasked with responding to calls about individuals experiencing mental health crises. Currently, police officers handle many such calls, but Mamdani argues that puts too big of a burden on them, and the new agency would allow them to instead focus on crime fighting.
Also in his remarks, Mamdani thanked officers, saying he gained a renewed appreciation for their service after last week’s mass shooting in Midtown, which left four New Yorkers dead, including NYPD Officer Didarul Islam. “I learned in the lesson from Detective Didarul Islam’s life the sacrifice and the service that so many officers extend to this city each and every day, no matter which precinct that they belong to,” he said.
Most officers at the event maintained a distance from Mamdani as he arrived, but didn’t openly voice displeasure with him.
Two cops — the commanding captain of the 78th Precinct and an officer of Bangladeshi descent — approached Mamdani to shake hands and take pictures with him. Mamdani told reporters afterward the officer thanked him for his public response to the killing of Islam, who was originally from Bangladesh.
Mamdani’s engagement with the police comes as Cuomo and Mayor Adams, who are both running as independents against him in November’s general election, have seized on 2020 social media messages he posted that called for the defunding of the NYPD and referred to the department as a “racist” and “anti-queer” entity posing a “major threat” to public safety.
As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani has distanced himself from his 2020 tweets, saying he no longer supports defunding the NYPD and that he wants to keep the department’s headcount flat while relieving cops of mental health duties.
Still, several NYPD union heads, most of whom are backing Adams for reelection, have bristled at his past posts, saying they fear the stances reflect his true feelings about police.
Asked by the Daily News if he’s worried it would be difficult to work with such union leaders as mayor, Mamdani said he looks forward to engaging in dialogue with them, but also affirmed there must be a new approach to public safety policy in the city.
“It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to lay out a vision that does more than trot out the same ideas we’ve heard time and time again,” he said.
State Attorney General Letitia James, who joined Mamdani at the Grand Army Plaza event and is supporting his mayoral bid, suggested he still needs to do some work to ensure NYPD officers trust him. To that end, she proposed hosting a meeting between Mamdani and NYPD leaders at Manhattan’s Riverside Church.
“I think it’s necessary because we need to bring this city together and heal, and I think the best place to do it is at Riverside Church because great leaders, Mandela as well as Dr. King, all spoke there,” she told The News.
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