Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat nominee for New York City mayor, apologized to the New York City Police Department in an interview Wednesday for derogatory comments he made about officers years ago.
In 2020, Mamdani said on social media the NYPD should be defunded, calling it "racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to the public safety."
Mamdani had previously pledged to apologize to the police last month, and said he has been apologizing to cops in private meetings.
After being told police officers wanted a broad public apology while appearing on Fox News, Mamdani said he was sorry.
"I'll apologize to police officers right here, because this is the apology that I've been sharing with many rank-and-file officers," Mamdani said. "I apologize because of the fact that I'm looking to working with these officers."
"And I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day," Mamdani continued.
Mamdani, who maintains a double digit lead in the polls, said his thinking on police had evolved over the years as he served in the state Legislature.
"One of my focuses was, 'How do we deliver that justice?' And now what I know, having represented 100,000 people in western Queens, is that to deliver that justice you have to also deliver that safety," Mamdani said.
"And that means representing the men and women in the NYPD."
"It means representing the Black and brown New Yorkers who have been victims of police brutality," Mamdani continued.
"It means representing the Muslim New Yorkers in my district who were surveilled on the basis of their faith."
If elected, Mamdani has pledged to create a Department of Community Safety to respond to mental health calls with social workers.
He said in the interview this would allow officers more time to solve crimes.
"Five, six years ago, the response time for officers was closer to 10 minutes."
"Now it's closer to 16 minutes," Mamdani said.
"New York deserves a police department that is asked to do the things that it can possibly do, not one that covers the failures of every break in the social safety net," he added.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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