A socialist frontrunner candidate for New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has hired private security for himself after advocating to reduce the role of local police.
The campaign of Democratic New York State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, now floating between second and first place in primary polls, paid $8,000 to a New York security firm this June, Gothamist reported on Tuesday. Mamdani has stood out as one of the only candidates who has not called for hiring more police officers, as others have walked back their previous anti-cop positions.
All this misery. All for money.
In the last budget, the City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half. They simply refused.
There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt.
Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence. (10/10) pic.twitter.com/CKmSHvnH1m
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 7, 2020
Mamdani’s public safety plan includes creating a “Department of Community Safety” — with a $1.1 billion budget — that he says would reduce the burden placed on police by driving mental health care and “violence prevention” efforts. The socialist’s campaign previously said that dispatchers under this system would decide whether to send counselors and medical professionals or police officers to respond to 911 calls.
The plan has drawn criticism across the political spectrum, with The New York Times editorial board writing on Monday that Mamdani “minimizes the importance of policing.” Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
When it came to his personal safety, Mamdani broke out his wallet for security personnel, citing racist and anti-Muslim threats against him, according to Gothamist.
“I woke up yesterday to a message that said, ‘The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,’” Mamdani told the Gothamist.
Mamdani has repeatedly advocated for defunding and dismantling the New York Police Department (NYPD) since nationwide Black Lives Matter protests took off in 2020.
“There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked [and] corrupt,” Mamdani said in a December 2020 X post about the NYPD. “Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.”
However, Mamdani claimed in a Thursday primary debate that other candidates’ “Republican billionaire donors” were falsely accusing him of supporting funding cuts.
“I will not defund the police,” Mamdani said at the debate. “I will work with the police because I believe the police have a critical role to play in creating … public safety.”
New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary takes place on June 24.
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