Latest news with #defundingthepolice
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Mamdani's shifts aren't believable — ‘Changed' views on cops and Israel are hollow
Zohran Mamdani's sudden 180-degree turn on defunding the police, from supporting the foolish concept to opposing it, coincides with his political necessity and rank opportunism as he tries to be elected mayor. At least the old anti-cop Mamdani was consistent, if wrong. And it's not the only area where the Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner for November has shed his past, just like Mamdani now says he'll discourage use of 'Globalize the Intifada,' a change of heart he came to after he talked to a woman about what the phase meant to her. That's good, if it's to be believed. Likewise, Mamdani told of his new stand on cops after meeting with the family of the police officer slain on Park Ave., Detective First Grade Didarul Islam. That's good, if it's to be believed. We're not buying it. Mamdani is trying to redefine himself to appeal to a wider audience in the general election and spinning it as if he all of a sudden learned something new from these conversations. New Yorkers should also be more than skeptical. Part of Mamdani's appeal to those who voted for the democratic socialist in June beyond the folks who were sold on his pledges of free buses and free child care and rent freezes was his authenticity. In the primary he stood for clear, long-held principles. We thought that he's someone who harbored dangerous views on public safety and Israel and unworkable solutions on the city's budget and urged Democratic voters not to choose him. But now he's someone who is trying to cover up his dangerous and unworkable views. With the old Mamdani you knew what you were getting. How many more conversions will Mamdani have over the next few months that will produce conversions of his stands? And should he prevail over a splintered field of Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa this fall and win, who will be the man who becomes mayor on Jan. 1? Which Mamdani will be taking over at City Hall? 'Defund the police' was a popular slogan five years ago in many quarters in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and Mamdani was right there in the middle. Now, with crime a major concern of New Yorkers (and thankfully the NYPD is successfully driving down the numbers), support for the cops is seen as a political plus and Mamdani is saying he is supposedly backtracking, offering up a version of 'different time, different place.' But he is not a different person. Mamdani still wants to create a proposed Department of Community Safety, which would hollow out the ranks and budget of the NYPD by setting up a rival agency. To us, that still sounds like a version of 'defund the police.' As for 'Globalize the Intifada,' which to many (including not a few Mamdani supporters) means murderous attacks on Jews everywhere, a global pogrom, Mamdani will encourage people to use other words, perhaps 'From the River to the Sea,' calling for the eradication of the Jewish state. Is a list of phrases about the Mideast now going to be needed for the potential mayor to weigh in on? Clearly, his deep-set animosity to the existence of the state of Israel, including backing the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, isn't changing. Promising more cops to protect New York Jews from being attacked is a poor substitute when the mayor is ratcheting up the rhetoric and the hate. There are three months to go until Election Day. How else will the new Mamdani attempt to distance himself from the old Mamdani? _____
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Spanberger's Playbook Is the Right One for Democrats
Flashback to 2020 and this headline: This Democratic congresswoman just spoke some hard truth to her party. That congresswoman was Virginia's Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA agent and US Postal Service inspector who blamed rhetoric around socialism and defunding the police for her party's underperformance in that year's election. She is now running for governor of Virginia, a purple state, and her words back then are worth noting for their prescience about the possible costs of her party's progressive branding. '[L]ook at the things that they say about us, that they say about the Democrats, that they say about the way that we talk to people and the way we talk about things,' she said to her colleagues during a House Democratic Caucus call in November 2020, shortly after Election Day. 'Because whether we think it's just an attack ad … doesn't matter, because it works.'
Fox News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
NYC mayor flips script on Mamdani amid scramble to walk back anti-police rhetoric
New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani continues to walk past comments advocating for defunding the police, including at a National Night Out Against Crime event in the city on Tuesday night, but his opponent, Mayor Eric Adams, is not buying it. "You can't become pro-public safety when you decide to run for mayor. That just can't happen," Adams said on Wednesday during a press conference, accusing Mamdani of flip-flopping. "So are you just saying things to get elected, or are you saying things that you believe? Go look over my 30-year history, and you'll see the consistency on what I want in this city around safety. Let's not tinker with what's working," he continued. Mamdani has faced intense backlash following the 345 Park Avenue shooting last month in Manhattan, as five individuals, including the suspect and NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, were killed. "I've said that since the beginning of the campaign, it is my belief, and whenever there have been tweets that have been cited from many years ago before I was an elected official, I've made very clear, as I said last week, that those are out of step with my positions as a candidate," he told reporters at the event. On the campaign trail, the Democrat maintains his stance that there should be a creation of a Department of Community Safety to deal with certain mental health-related emergency matters, as opposed to law enforcement. He reiterated his stance in a press conference with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Monday, saying that "forced overtime" is a main contributor to officers leaving the NYPD, and that he wants "to empower police officers to respond to serious crime and hire mental health professionals to respond to mental health calls." He touched on it during his remarks at Tuesday's event as well, adding that "if we want our officers to be able to respond to the serious crimes that they signed up to join the department to address, then we must stop asking them to respond to nearly every single failure of the social safety net." "We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti‑queer & a major threat to public safety," he posted on June 28, 2020. "What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your compromise uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police." "We need a socialist city council to defund the police," he wrote on July 3, 2020. "City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half," Mamdani posted on X in December 2020. "They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence." During his run for mayor, he changed his position from five years ago, including during a debate during the fiercely competitive Democratic primary. "I will not defund the police. I will work with the police because I believe the police have a critical role to play in public service, public safety," he said at the time. Mamdani is in a closely watched race against Adams, who is a former police officer himself. In addition, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa is the Republican nominee in the Nov. 4 election.
Fox News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
WATCH LIVE: Mamdani holds news conference amid scrutiny of 'defund police' comments
New York City democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is holding a press conference on the Park Ave. shooting, as past support for defunding the police resurface.
