Infernal Affairs | Ali Winston

"We are in the home stretch of the New York City mayoral campaign, with democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani polling far ahead of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo and perpetual gadfly Curtis Sliwa. Mayor Eric Adams, the five boroughs' immaculately well-groomed and wildly corrupt answer to former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, dropped out last month while polling in the mid-single digits. With Sliwa unwilling to pull out despite alleged quid-pro-quo entreaties by the city's reactionary elite, Mamdani is on course to win with his relentless focus on affordability."

"Cuomo, meanwhile, has made "public safety" and unconditional support for the New York City Police Department central to his campaign: he's attacked Mamdani for criticizing the police department's brutal repression of the 2020 George Floyd protests; vowed to expand the Strategic Response Group (SRG), colloquially known as the "goon squad"; and has promised to hire five thousand new officers. But for whatever reason, Mamdani's campaign is running shy on the issue, even though the country's largest police department-an openly right-wing and flagrantly corrupt cabal-is ripe for top-to-bottom reform."

"It's an open question whether Mamdani is game for a prolonged and bitter confrontation with the NYPD, even though some cops are apparently quivering in their boots at the prospect of his administration. Aside from a vow to establish a $1 billion Department of Community Safety and take authority over police discipline away from the police commissioner (which would require changes in city and state law), he has yet to propose anything in the way of substantive reform to the daily functions of the NYPD itself. Most of Mamdani's statements on law enforcement have been driven, instead, by media pressure to distance himself from past calls to "defund" a department he"

Zohran Mamdani leads the New York City mayoral race by focusing on affordability while Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa lag behind. Cuomo makes public safety central, pledging unconditional backing for the NYPD, expansion of the Strategic Response Group, and hiring five thousand officers. Mamdani has proposed a $1 billion Department of Community Safety and shifting police disciplinary authority away from the police commissioner, but he has not outlined substantive reforms to daily NYPD operations. Some police officers reportedly fear his potential administration, yet Mamdani appears reluctant to engage in a prolonged confrontation with the NYPD.

Read at The Baffler