5 things to know about Zohran Mamdani's policy agenda for NYC
5. Previously supported #DefundtheNYPD
In a June 2020 post on X, published shortly after the death of George Floyd in police custody sparked widespread outrage and protests across the U.S. that led to over 25 murders and billions in property damage, Mamdani slammed the New York Police Department as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
He added, “What we need is to #DefundtheNYPD.”
Five years later, Mamdani insisted during his interview with News 12 that “police have a critical role to play in creating public safety,” while contending that “what we’re doing right now, however, is relying on them for almost every single failure of the social safety net.”
According to Mamdani, “That reliance is preventing them from doing their actual jobs.”
Mamdani detailed how he plans to “hire trained mental health professionals and social workers to do the jobs that they were meant to do,” specifically referring to addressing the “mental health crisis.” Mamdani’s campaign platform calls for the creation of a new Department of Community Safety that will spend $1.1 billion on hiring new mental health staffers and expanding access to mental health services throughout the city.
Mamdani predicted that the reforms will “prevent violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety.” The platform item noted that about “40 percent of the 6,368 people in city jails have a mental health diagnosis,” suggesting that placing mentally ill people in jail is ineffective: “Incarceration worsens people’s mental health outcomes and a single day in jail makes someone more likely to be re-arrested.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
