https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/nyregion/mamdani-police-apology-floyd.html
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, said on Thursday that he intended to apologize for comments he made in 2020 calling the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
He said that the remarks, which he wrote in June 2020 in a social media post in support of the defund the police movement, were made after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a month earlier.
The comments were made “at the height of frustration,” he said in an interview with The New York Times, and were not reflective of his current campaign or “my view of public safety and the fact that police will be critical partners in delivering public safety.”
That’s a really good point, and it sounds like it would be pragmatic to not rely on the cops for security. That’s another place a Party would help, to provide security to candidates so they don’t have to rely on domestic right-wing death squads.
This is why I am not all that excited for Zohran’s tenure. I am excited that he got the votes, but the reality is he will not have the power to do what intends to do because realpolitik drives NYC.
It also looks like he’s also going to be coming into power at the start of a recession, and a mere mayor can’t do a lot in those conditions.