{"id":125649,"date":"2025-08-07T06:36:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125649\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T06:36:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:36:37","slug":"zohran-mamdani-tells-audience-of-nypd-officers-they-shouldnt-have-to-handle-mental-health-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125649\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani tells audience of NYPD officers they shouldn’t have to handle mental health calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani \u2014 who has faced heat lately<\/a> over years-old social media posts critical of the police \u2014 came face-to-face with an audience of NYPD officers Tuesday night and told them he would, if elected, spare them the responsibility of responding to most mental health calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stop asking them to respond to nearly every single failure of the social safety net,\u201d Mamdani said at Brooklyn\u2019s Grand Army Plaza as a contingent of cops from the nearby 78th Precinct flanked him for an annual \u201cNational Night Out<\/a>\u201d event.\u00a0\u201cWe must stop making it impossible for them to do their jobs by asking them to do every other job we can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a socialist who defeated Andrew Cuomo in last month\u2019s Democratic mayoral primary<\/a>, was referring to his proposal to launch the Department of Community Safety, an agency that would be tasked with responding to calls about individuals experiencing mental health crises. Currently, police officers handle many such calls, but Mamdani argues that puts too big of a burden on them, and the new agency would allow them to instead focus on crime fighting.<\/p>\n

Also in his remarks, Mamdani thanked officers, saying he gained a renewed appreciation for their service after last week\u2019s mass shooting in Midtown<\/a>, which left four New Yorkers dead, including NYPD Officer Didarul Islam. \u201cI learned in the lesson from Detective Didarul Islam\u2019s life the sacrifice and the service that so many officers extend to this city each and every day, no matter which precinct that they belong to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Most officers at the event maintained a distance from Mamdani as he arrived, but didn\u2019t openly voice displeasure with him.<\/p>\n

Two cops \u2014 the commanding captain of the 78th Precinct and an officer of Bangladeshi descent \u2014 approached Mamdani to shake hands and take pictures with him. Mamdani told reporters afterward the officer thanked him for his public response to the killing of Islam, who was originally from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

\"ZohranZohran Mamdani and an NYPD officer from 78th precinct on August 5, 2025. (Chris Sommerfeldt\/NYDN)<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s engagement with the police comes as Cuomo and Mayor Adams, who are both running as independents against him in November\u2019s general election, have seized on 2020 social media messages<\/a> he posted that called for the defunding of the NYPD and referred to the department as a \u201cracist\u201d and \u201canti-queer\u201d entity posing a \u201cmajor threat\u201d to public safety.<\/p>\n

As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani has distanced himself from his 2020 tweets, saying he no longer supports defunding the NYPD and that he wants to keep the department\u2019s headcount flat while relieving cops of mental health duties.<\/p>\n

Still, several NYPD union heads, most of whom are backing Adams for reelection, have bristled at his past posts<\/a>, saying they fear the stances reflect his true feelings about police.<\/p>\n

Asked by the Daily News if he\u2019s worried it would be difficult to work with such union leaders as mayor, Mamdani said he looks forward to engaging in dialogue with them, but also affirmed there must be a new approach to public safety policy in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incumbent upon each and every one of us to lay out a vision that does more than trot out the same ideas we\u2019ve heard time and time again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Letitia James, who joined Mamdani at the Grand Army Plaza event and is supporting his mayoral bid, suggested he still needs to do some work to ensure NYPD officers trust him. To that end, she proposed hosting a meeting between Mamdani and NYPD leaders at Manhattan\u2019s Riverside Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s necessary because we need to bring this city together and heal, and I think the best place to do it is at Riverside Church because great leaders, Mandela as well as Dr. King, all spoke there,\u201d she told The News.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 5, 2025 at 7:58 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani \u2014 who has faced heat lately over years-old social media posts critical of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,13239,68185,19039,517,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-125649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-city-hall","11":"tag-didarul-islam","12":"tag-mayor-adams","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nypd","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114986102794096957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}