Zohran Mamdani Claims He’s Apologizing ‘Individually’ To Police Officers After Ripping NYPD as Racist, Homophobic

Queens Assemblyman and New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) said on Wednesday that he having individual “conversations” with NYPD officers after saying he intended to apologize for past comments accusing the department of being racist and homophobic.

Mamdani joined The View on Wednesday for a lengthy interview that wrapped up with Alyssa Farah Griffin pressing him on inflammatory statements he’s walked back on both the police and Israel. In an exchange on his past comments on Israel with Sara Haines at a different point in the interview, Mamdani condemned Hamas and their Oct. 7 attack while also accusing Israel of “war crimes” over their strikes on Gaza.

“Back in 2020 you called for defunding the police, something you’ve since walked back. You also called the NYPD racist, anti-queer and a threat to public safety in 2020 but now agree they deserve an apology. You initially refused to denounce highly-charged rhetoric related to Israel, then later said you would discourage its use. How can New Yorkers trust you and not be concerned that consultants are getting in your ear to get you elected but you also hold all of those positions,” Griffin said to Mamdani.

In a June 2020 post to social media, Mamdani called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” The mayoral candidate recently told The New York Times that he intended to apologize to the NYPD, explaining the comments were made “at the height of frustration” following the murder of George Floyd in police custody that year in Minneapolis.

Mamdani said on The View that his work in government has given him a new perspective on the jobs of police officers.

“My job as a mayor is to represent those officers who put their lives on the line, represent Muslim New Yorkers who are illegally surveilled, represent Black and Brown New Yorkers who have been the victims of police brutality and do all of it with a commitment,” he said.

“And Jewish Americans,” Griffin added.

“Absolutely,” Mamdani assured her.

Griffin asked Mamdani whether he had offered a “formal apology” to the NYPD and he claimed he is making amends “individually.”

“These are conversations that I’m having individually with officers. And I have appreciated that because it’s through those conversations with rank and file officers that I’ve learned more about the difficulties of this job,” Mamdani said, calling for more resources to deal with mental health issues and homelessness.

A focus on those issues, the self-described Democratic socialist argued, has led to longer call times and a shrinking police force. Police, he said, are being asked to deal with too much.

“We’re asking them to handle mental health calls,” he said. “We’re asking them to deal with homelessness, and every year now cops respond to 200,000 mental health calls so our proposal is allow the officers to do their job of tackling serious crime and create a department of community safety that deals with homelessness, that deals with mental health crises so we don’t have response times like we do today which are closer to 16 minutes.”

Check out the full exchange below:

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Zohran, Back in 2020 you called for defunding the police, something you’ve since walked back. You also called the NYPD racist, anti-queer and a threat to public safety in 2020 but now agree they deserve an apology. You initially refused to denounce highly-charged rhetoric related to Israel, then later said you would discourage its use. How can New Yorkers trust you and not be concerned that consultants are getting in your ear to get you elected but you also hold all of those positions.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Well, they can rest assured that isn’t consultants in my ear. I think this is another part of to be a young person looking to lead is also to leave the opening for growth and understanding. And I can tell you growing up in this city, I thought often about safety and justice, and I saw how justice was often left aside. Whether it was the Central Park Five, whether it was Sean Bell, whether it was Eric Garner, whether it was watching the news of Michael Brown. Then in 2020, to see the murder of George Floyd, it felt as if there had never been a wider chasm in my life between those things and after that becoming an Assembly member and learning about the ways in which you deliver justice is by intertwining it with safety, can’t be done alone and learning that behind the headlines, behind the caricatures we’re speaking about police officers who are just trying to do their best and my job as a mayor is to represent those officers who put their lives on the line, represent Muslim New Yorkers who are illegally surveilled, represent Black and Brown New Yorkers who have been the victims of police brutality and do all of it with a commitment.

GRIFFIN: And Jewish Americans.

MAMDANI: Absolutely.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Everybody! You’re talking about everybody.

MAMDANI: This is a run on sentence that includes every New Yorker because of the fact that safety and justice can be non-negotiable, no matter who we’re speaking about.

GRIFFIN: And can I ask, have you formally apologized to the NYPD?

MAMDANI: These are conversations that I’m having individually with officers. And I have appreciated that because it’s through those conversations with rank and file officers that I’ve learned more about the difficulties of this job, the difficulties where, you know, for example, when I started running this race about 200 officers were leaving the department every month. Now it’s 350. When you ask officers why, they’ll tell you forced overtime. What they mean by that, you got three days off at the end of the week, you’re planning a trip and at the last minute you’re told, second day you got to be back. And part of the reason you got to be back because we’re asking cops to do everything we can think of. We’re asking them to handle mental health calls. We’re asking them to deal with homelessness, and every year now cops respond to 200,000 mental health calls so our proposal is allow the officers to do their job of tackling serious crime and create a department of community safety that deals with homelessness, that deals with mental health crises so we don’t have response times like we do today which are closer to 16 minutes.

Watch above via ABC.