Mamdani Surges Ahead in NYC Race, Promises to Dismantle Traditional Policing

While President Donald Trump is working to make the nation’s capital safer, Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s socialist mayoral frontrunner and his compatriots at the Democratic Socialists of America said they want to eradicate the enforcement of all misdemeanor offenses, the New York Post reported Sunday.  

The Democratic Socialists of America—of which Mamdani is a member of the NYC chapter—has urged the diminishment of arrests, significantly decreased prosecutors’ budgets, as well as an end to cash bail, electronic monitoring, and imprisonment for parole violations.

“For all of the working class to achieve collective liberation we must constrain, diminish, and abolish the carceral forces of the state—from prisons and police themselves, to their manifestations in all forms throughout society,” said the party in its most recent platform statement about the “Abolition of the Carceral State.”

While on the campaign trail, Mamdani himself has regularly demanded law enforcement quit focusing on what he calls “nonserious crimes.” Instead, Mamdani said he thinks police should only be focusing on violent offenses, of which he has attempted to challenge the definition. 

“What violent crime is—is defined by the state. Violence is an artificial construction,” said Mamdani in 2021 at a protest aimed toward ending cash bail and shutting down Rikers Island prison, something he said he still wants to do. 

The Democratic Socialists are in favor of completely eliminating what New York City considers misdemeanors: assault without a weapon, driving under the influence, drug possession, shoplifting of up to $1,000, and theft.

Mamdani said in a campaign video on X Wednesday that he will create a Department of Community Safety.  

This agency will address “hate violence” and expand “gun violence prevention” among other things. While Mamdani admitted “police have a critical role to play,” he said “right now we’re relying on them to deal with the failures of our social safety net, which is preventing them from doing their actual jobs.”

Mamdani questioned the point of prisons and jails five years ago when he was running for his current state assembly seat. 

“I think that frankly, I mean, what purpose do they serve, right?” said Mamdani when he was a guest on “The Far Left Show” in August 2020. “I think a lot of people who defend the carceral state, that defend the idea of it and the way it makes them feel, they’re not defending the reality of it and the practices that are part and parcel of it.”

Additionally, Mamdani reinforced his pro-prostitution policy messaging this week. He said he wants to emulate the policies of his favorite former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio who decriminalized prostitution in 2020 in an effort to arrest sex traffickers rather than sex workers.

“What I want to do is look at the ways in which the previous administration addressed this issue. I found that it created far more safety than what the current administration has done,” said Mamdani regarding current New York Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of prostitution policy.

Mamdani’s radical policies are increasingly becoming a possibility for NYC residents. A new AARP New York-Gotham Polling & Analytics poll shows Mamdani with 41.8% support, far ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 23.4%, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with 16.5% and Adams at 8.8%. The Democratic Socialist has also raised twice as much in campaign donations as his competitors.

According to campaign finance reports released Friday, Mamdani’s campaign has raised a total of $1 million while Cuomo is at $540,000, Adams has $425,000, and Sliwa is at $406,000. Meanwhile, the NY Post reported the pro-Mamdani SuperPAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs has received a $250,000 donation from a hedge fund billionaire heiress.

In June, Mamdani told NBC News, “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”

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