Electing socialist Zohran Mamdani NYC mayor would spur cop exodus, rising crime: experts
A New York City led by socialist Zohran Mamdani will mean a two-pronged breakdown of public safety — crime spiraling out of control, and NYPD officers leaving en masse — experts and veteran cops say.
Critics of the Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner heading into November's general election aren't buying Mamdani's 11th-hour vow that he won't 'defund the police' or shrink the NYPD's workforce if elected — a reversal of of his longstanding positions.
Instead, they believe the U-turn during the final weeks of his primary campaign was just a craven political move to score votes with undecided voters.
'The city would be totally unsafe for people who live here,' predicted Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives' Endowment Association.
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'I go to bed and worry about the phone ringing. I'm worried about my members getting killed. I don't want to plan any funerals,' he added.
7 A New York City led by socialist Zohran Mamdani (pictured) would mean public safety spiraling out of control with crime rising and NYPD officers leaving in masses, experts and veteran cops told The Post.
Christopher Sadowski
'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.
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NYPD brass are quietly bracing for a potential mass exodus unless Mayor Adams, a Democrat and retired NYPD captain seeking re-election as an independent, or GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, pull off an upset.
7 Fare beating in subways and other low-level lawlessness would all but be ignored under a Mamdani administration, many law-enforcement experts contend.
Christopher Sadowski
'I've had guys call me and say 'If he wins, I'm quitting,'' a police source said of Mamdani. 'It's just weird that New York City would vote for him. I know he's not here for the police.'
An NYPD officer planning to soon retire after nearly two decades on the job said the city's predominantly far-left leadership — especially on the City Council — already favors criminals over cops, and he believes such sentiment would grow worse under Mamdani.
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7 Mamdani a long history of calling for huge cuts to the NYPD but he now claims he has no plans to shrink the police force.
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'This guy thinks the entire NYPD is racist,' the veteran said.
'I think right now the department is more diverse than it ever was before. I don't think this guy has even stepped foot in a precinct. He's completely clueless to what the police department is today. He's just going off a narrative that if you hate cops you're going to get elected.'
7 Mamdani won Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary.
Paul Martinka
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Mamdani's far-left platform doesn't include hiring more cops, a vow most other mayoral candidates made.
Instead, he wants to create a new Department of Community Safety that operates separately from the Police Department. It would dramatically expand so-called 'violence interrupter programs' and mental health teams that respond to 911 calls — especially in the city's subway system, where violent attacks by unhinged homeless people have been commonplace.
'He's trying to take the existing Police Department and turn them into social workers,' said Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels. 'He wants to . . . neuter the Police Department.
'Cops would not be able to function as they have taken their solemn oath to do, to protect us, to go out there and grab those who are committing crimes and to have them locked up,' Sliwa added.
'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.'
Under Adams' NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who Mamdani has said he'd consider retaining if elected, major crimes – including homicides, robberies and shootings — are down 2% to date compared to last year and 8% since 2019.
A longtime NYPD detective said he envisions the Big Apple under Mamdani's leadership morphing into a crime-ridden 'Gotham City' — straight out of 'Batman.'
7 Mamdani doesn't want NYPD cops dealing with the homeless in most situations — including those who are violent.
Stephen Yang
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The detective also said it is 'hypocritical' of Mamdani to accept round-the-clock, police-detail protection as a mayoral candidate while clearly disliking the NYPD.
'You have police protecting you, but you don't want to protect the people of New York City?' he said.
7 Former Mayor Bill de Blasio said he believes Mandani has been unfairly 'demonized' as anti-NYPD.
Robert Miller
However, far-left ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said he believes Mamdani has been unfairly 'demonized' during the campaign – especially by ex-Gov. and mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo — and that New Yorkers shouldn't expect mass lawlessness under the 33-year-old socialist pol.
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'He wants to keep the city safe,' de Blasio insisted to The Post.
'He understands as a local elected official how important public safety is to people, and it's not going to help him achieve his economic agenda if the city isn't safe.
'He has a chance to choose a leader who shares his vision of getting more mental healthcare work done by healthcare professionals, rather than police officers,' added the ex-mayor, an avid Mamdani backer. 'I think a lot of police officers would agree with that.
7 Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives' Endowment Association, said he believes there could be a mass exodus of cops leaving the NYPD if Mamdani is mayor. 'Nobody will take the job,' he said.
Helayne Seidman
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Mamdani did not return messages.
Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime consultant of Democratic campaigns and law-enforcement agencies, said he's not buying Mamdani's claim that he won't gut the NYPD if elected mayor.
'His supporters say' he'll defund the police, said Sheinkopf. 'That's who he is, and that's what's gonna happen, and we can't afford to lose a single cop. If this guy gets in power, we're gonna lose a lot of cops.'
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