When the road is struck by the rubber.
According to Keegan Stephan, a 41-year-old former Occupy Wall Street organiser, Mamdani’s victory must depend on how the candidate leads the sprawling force of more than 36, 000 uniformed officers with annual budgets that can exceed $11 billion.
Stephan, a former civil rights attorney in New York, explained how overpolicing makes more arrests for low-level crimes, particularly in Black and brown neighborhoods.
He claimed that this increases the likelihood of undocumented individuals being targeted by federal agents by being funneled into the legal system.
According to Stephan, “the only way to actually oppose Trump and federal law enforcement is to stop the NYPD from overpolicing communities of color itself.”
Mamdani made a clear decision regarding how he would interact with the police, and on Tuesday announced that Jessica Tisch would be his choice for the top police officer under Adams.  ,
Stephan wasn’t happy with that choice.
According to Stephan, “I find it incongruous for a Mamdani-type politician to appoint the same police commissioner as Eric Adams, who advocates for a completely different kind of policing than Mamdani claims to.”
He cited Adams’ support for “quality of life” enforcement and the NYPD’s increased use of the “stop and frisk” tactic, both of which, under his leadership, raise arrest rates for low-level crimes in minority communities.
During Adams’ administration, complaints against NYPD officers grew to a 10-year high in 2024.
Tisch, according to him, has been responsible for a real rise in low-level offences, which have been statistically proven to target communities of color and impoverished people. I worry that she may be a hindrance to making those changes because it seems very contrary to Mamdani’s vision of policing in the city.
In terms of police reform and political protest in the city, Mamdani’s message is “significantly better” than Cuomo, Sliwa, or Adams, according to Stephan.
The candidate wants to see the establishment of a $1 billion Department of Community Safety to handle non-criminal calls, including those involving homelessness and mental illness.
He has also pushed for a change in the police commissioner’s power to give the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) ultimate authority over police discipline. Additionally, he has stated that he will end the Strategic Response Group, a police force that has a history of using excessive force against protesters.
The NYPD’s personnel would have an enormous amount of influence if Mamdani chose to lead the department, given its enormous power, which maintains its own political might despite being under the mayor’s control.
Source: Aljazeera
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