'As if people like Mahatma Gandhi...': Republican leader says Zohran Mamdani has no idea how cops work

Time of India

6 hours ago

Zohran Mamdani earlier said he would redirect NYPD's budget and won't hire more cops.
Amid a major meltdown over the victory of Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary of the New York mayoral election, Republican NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said Mamdani has no understanding about how the police department works, and that's why he promised to create a new Department of Community Safety separately from the police department.
This would effectively neuter the police department if cops are forced to become social workers, Sliwa said to the New York Post, which reported apprehension over NYC becoming unsafe if Mamdani becomes the mayor.
'He has a weird notion of how policing is, as if it should be people like Mahatma Gandhi walking around, you know, functioning as a social worker. That does not work," Sliwa said.
Zohran Mamdani's police reform positions
Mamdani promised major NYPD reform, including redirecting funds from the police department towards housing, healthcare and mental health services.
He said the NYPD's budget was bloated and harmful and community investment was more important over policing.
Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives Endowment Association, told NYP the city would be totally unsafe if Mamdani becomes the mayor. 'If you put a guy like him in there, our people are going to get hurt, and nobody's going to want the job. It's going to put recruitment back five more steps,' Munro said.
NYPD insiders said Mamdani clearly hates the NYPD, though he accepted round-the-clock police protection.
Sliwa blamed the rise of Mamdani on Eric Adams' time in office, which was marked by scandals, and said he is not going anywhere, leaving the mayoral battle. "I'm in it until November 4," he said. 'We have to go after the hipster millennials and Gen Zers. It's the same group that Donald Trump appealed to," Sliwa said.
'There is no Zohran Mamdani if Eric Adams had done a decent job,' Sliwa said. 'He created the atmosphere so that somebody that nobody knew that was at one per cent in the polls back in February could suddenly win a Democratic primary against an iconic figure like Andrew Cuomo.'