New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani once made an anti-police statement that suggested a conspiratorial connection between the city’s police department and the Israeli military.
“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” the democratic socialist said in newly resurfaced video obtained by the New York Post on Tuesday.
Mamdani reportedly made his remarks in 2023 during the Democratic Socialists of America’s national convention, where the Queens assemblyman served as the keynote speaker.
At the time, he said it was important to connect “hyperlocal” and “international issues” while speaking as part of a separate panel called “Socialist Internationalism: The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism.”
“We are in a country where those connections abound — especially in New York City, where there are so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to capitalist interests over here,” he said
“For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them connected,” he continued. “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF. We have to make it materially connected to their lives.”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has cut Mamdani’s lead in the mayoral race by half, roughly a week before Election Day, according to a Suffolk University poll released Monday.
The poll is the first public survey in the last three months to show the race so close.
Propelled to an upset victory in the June Democrat primary by his progressive positions, including his previous defund-the-police rhetoric, Mamdani has been trying to distance himself in recent weeks from his more extreme comments.
Earlier this month, he publicly apologized to the NYPD for derogatory comments he made in 2020, when he called the force “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” He also said recently that he plans to ask Jessica Tisch to stay as police commissioner if he wins the November election.
The Post reported that many police veterans are skeptical of Mamdani’s attempt to modulate his message, however, including former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who endorsed Cuomo for mayor on Monday.
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