Mamdani says 'Defund the Police' stance was just a 2020 thing, but he kept pushing it years after

New York City Democratic mayoral hopeful, Zohran Mamdani, has suggested that his calls to “Defund the Police” were made amidst his anger following the death of George Floyd in late May 2020, but a review by Just the News shows the self-proclaimed socialist continued calling to defund the NYPD in 2021 and beyond — and that he linked his defund calls not just to BLM, but to his anti-Israel stance too.

Mamdani has tweeted repeatedly about the need to “Defund the Police" — a position he tried to back away from when he ran for mayor this year. While Mamdani is now attempting to portray his calls to defund the New York Police Department as comments localized to the time period just after Floyd’s summer 2020 death after being arrested by Minneapolis police, his efforts to slash the NYPD continued unabated into 2021 and beyond, as he connected his efforts to hobble the police department to his strong anti-Israel views.

“Don't believe the MAGA billionaires funding Andrew Cuomo's fear-driven campaign: I will not defund the police,” Mamdani tweeted in June of this year. The self-described socialist claimed the next month in a July press conference that “my statements in 2020 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers held at the murder of George Floyd.”

And the New York Times reported earlier this month that Mamdani said “that he intended to apologize for comments he made in 2020” about defunding the police. The outlet reported earlier in September that Mamdani specifically intended to apologize for having tweeted in June 2020 that “we don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”

The Times reported that Mamdani “said that the remarks, which he wrote in June 2020 in a social media post in support of the defund the police movement, were made after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a month earlier.” The Democratic mayoral nominee told the outlet that the comments were made “at the height of frustration” and were not reflective of his current campaign or “my view of public safety and the fact that police will be critical partners in delivering public safety.”

Anti-police sentiment predated Floyd's death

But the socialist frontrunner to be the mayor of America’s largest city did not simply tweet about defunding the New York Police Department during a narrow window in the summer of 2020. Mamdani had criticized the NYPD’s funding prior to Floyd’s death, and continued posting about defunding the NYPD not just into late 2020, but well into 2021 as well. On top of this, Mamdani’s campaign website included calls to defund the NYPD well into late 2023.

The 2021 twist that Mamdani would put out in his calls to defund the NYPD is quite similar to the messaging by his ally Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour — as the duo sought to blame Israel for alleged police brutality in the United States.

Mamdani’s mayoral campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

Mamdani calls law enforcement "racist"

Mamdani tweeted as early as October 2019 about the NYPD receiving too much taxpayer funding, saying, “Six strategic response vehicles. Four helicopters. Dozens of officers. All for a single suspect - the 4th person killed by the NYPD in 10 days. Imagine the stability and security we could achieve if that level of investment were made in communities & not policing by occupation.”

He also tweeted in early May 2020 — during the COVID-19 pandemic and weeks before Floyd’s death — that “the NYPD & @NYCMayor are using a health crisis as a cover for doubling down on racist law enforcement.”

Mamdani posted on Instagram in late May 2020 — just days after Floyd’s death — that “instead of investing in services that stabilize communities & increase public safety, NYC spends billions to brutalize people coping with the fallout from austerity” and that “this makes us all less safe, not more.” He contended that “step one toward a solution is cutting the NYPD budget by $1 billion/year.”

He similarly tweeted around the same time about the need to “Defund the NYPD. House the poor.” Mamdani also tweeted around then that “from coast to coast right now, mayors & governors of deep blue cities & states are collaborating with a violent, right-wing government to enforce curfews, round up protestors & run them down in the street - including @NYCMayor. Defund the NYPD.”

Mamdani repeatedly posted in early June 2020 about the need to defund the police.

He posted a graphic on Instagram saying “We Demand: Defund the NYPD” and captioned it: “We can’t reform our way out of a racist police system that’s working exactly as designed - as a means of control over black & brown New Yorkers. We need to dramatically curtail the power & presence of the NYPD. $1B in cuts over 4 years is only the first step toward that goal.”

Mamdani tweeted then that “the NYPD is out of control” and that “their budget needs to be slashed by at least $1 billion.” He also tweeted around the same time: “There’s no reforming this system. Defund the police.” Mamdani claimed that “they can never keep us safe because safety isn't their goal. #DefundTheNYPD.” And in response to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly saying that defunding the police just meant reforming the police, Mamdani tweeted, “No, we want to defund the police.”

Mandami: "Build a socialist New York"

He tweeted in mid-June 2020 that “we can't reform a system working exactly as designed - to control Black, brown & poor New Yorkers. We need to defund the police.” He claimed that “together, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a socialist New York. Solidarity forever.”

In an attack on the Democratic NYC council speaker around that time, Mamdani tweeted, “We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts — defund the police.”

“We marched by the thousands to demand they #DefundTheNYPD,” Mamdani posted on Instagram at the time. “Instead, they're playing budget tricks, like moving $300 million from the NYPD budget that pays to put cops in schools into the education budget, where it will still pay to put cops in schools. They're hoping we don't notice, and that they'll be able to take credit for defunding the police without actually doing it.”

Mamdani also tweeted around that time that “47/51 councilmembers are Democrats. Trump isn't the mayor. Republicans aren't making them fund a racist & violent NYPD. That's who they are. We won't forget. And we will #DefundTheNYPD.”

The socialist state assemblyman tweeted in early July 2020 about his criticism of NYC’s Democratic leadership, saying, “None of these people are fit to lead. We need a socialist city council to defund the police.” He also tweeted around then that “in NYC, 99% of officeholders are Democrats, yet they refuse to defund cops who murder with impunity. Electing Democrats isn’t enough. We need a political revolution.” Mamdani also posted on Instagram around that time that “we need to #DefundTheNYPD & invest in New Yorkers.”

He tweeted in late October 2020 that “we need to elect a socialist city council to defund the NYPD.” The socialist contended in early November 2020 that “queer liberation means defund the police.” Mamdani claimed in a mid-November 2020 tweet about NYC police and prosecutors that “the entire carceral system is an unreformable public health hazard. Defund & dismantle.” And he said in a late November 2020 tweet that there was a need to “defund this rogue agency.”

Mamdani ended 2020 with continued calls to defund the police.

In a tweet in early December 2020, he said that the NYPD vice squad’s “funding must be zeroed out & the squad abolished in the next budget.” And in another tweet about the NYPD, Mamdani declared: “Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.”

Mamdani links Defunding the NYPD to his anti-Israel attacks in 2021 and beyond

A Just the News review previously found that Mamdani embraced a nearly decade-long association with Sarsour as he rose from an activist to New York State assemblyman and now the Democrat Party’s nominee to run America’s largest city. Mamdani’s views on the Jewish state, law enforcement, and far-left policies have been closely aligned with Sarsour, whose views on Israel have stirred years of controversy and accusations of anti-Zionism.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, said in 2017 that “we profoundly reject Linda Sarsour’s positions that delegitimize Israel.” Greenblatt said of Sarsour in 2022 that “she repeatedly has demonized supporters of the Jewish state and used inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, despite the fact that such slander indisputably encourages real-world antisemitism.” 

Sarsour reportedly said in 2018 during a speech for the Islamic Society of North America annual convention that ADL was an “organization that takes police officers from America, funds their trips, takes them to Israel so they can be trained by the Israeli police and military, and then they come back here and do what? Stop and frisk, killing unarmed black people across the country."

Mamdani made it clear that there was also an anti-Israel bent to his “Defund the Police” arguments as he continued pushing them well after 2020.

"Our city and state governments have partnerships with Israeli municipalities and the [Israeli] state and we can hold our governments accountable by really going after those partnerships...with the goal of dismantling them,” Mamdani said in a June 2021 podcast called South Asian Avant-Garde.

“When I think of partnerships, I think of how the NYPD [New York Police Department] and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] have had a relationship for many years. A relationship that has meant, you know, tactics of oppression crossing from one country to the other, and that has meant an increased, you know, surveillance and oppression of marginalized people wherever they may be. And I think that the Jewish Voices for Peace had a spotlight on this relationship," he said.

Mamdani said the goal must be the “dismantling” of these alleged relationships.

In response to the sort of allegations made by Sarsour and Mamdani, the ADL said that "this charge has been propagated by ideological critics of Israel who seek to inject alleged Israeli – and at times American Jewish – complicity into issues of American societal injustice" and that "those who make this spurious argument have focused more on tarring Israel than promoting real solutions to confronting and transforming systemic American inequities and abuses."

Mamdani attempted to make similar allegations in an Instagram post in June 2021 promoting a rally he organized titled, “From Steinway to Ferguson to Sheikh Jarrah: Defund State Violence.”

Ditmars-Steinway is one of the neighborhoods in Mamdani’s 36th Assembly District.

Ferguson is a reference to the 2014 police shooting of theft suspect Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Witnesses said Brown punched Wilson in his car and struggled for control of the officer’s gun. A brief chase ensued which ended with Brown charging at Wilson, who then shot and killed Brown. Some witnesses who initially claimed Brown had his hands up at this moment later recanted, and an Obama Justice Department investigation did not support the claims that Brown was trying to surrender when killed.

The “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” mantra which emerged from Ferguson and came to be a BLM chant is without any factual basis.

Asked protesters to bring masks, posters flags and keffiyehs

The Instagram post from Mamdani promoting the June 2021 protest said that “we fight the scourge of state violence from Steinway, to Ferguson, to Sheikh Jarrah” and urged supporters to join him as “we link hands between our demands to end U.S. military aid to Israel and to defund the NYPD & refund our communities.” Sheikh Jarrah is a neighborhood in East Jerusalem which is the site of land disputes between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mamdani urged his supporters to “bring masks, posters, flags, and keffiyehs” to the protest. Al Jazeera has noted that the keffiyeh was “the personal trademark of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader” and that “the keffiyeh has been adopted globally…to support the Palestinian cause.”

Mamdani tweeted about the need to “Defund State Violence” as he promoted the rally. The Sunnyside Post reported at the time that Mamdani and others had organized the rally and that “they are calling for the local divestment from the NYPD and for the federal government to stop funding the Israeli military.” The outlet said that “Mamdani … will be speaking at the rally along with Linda Sarsour.”

“We take to the streets to stand against the idea that violence against some creates security for others,” Mamdani said in a statement to the outlet. “The calls to defund the NYPD and end military aid to Israel are rooted in the same belief that true safety comes from an investment in our communities.”

Tying BLM to anti-Israeli crusade

Mamdani posted a video of himself leading the protesters in a chant in which he attempted to link the leftwing BLM movement and the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement.

“When I say ‘BLM’ I want you to respond with ‘BDS’ because these are the intertwined calls for justice and for liberation,” Mamdani told the hundreds of protesters, then leading them in a call-and-response where he shouted “BLM!” and then shouted back “BDS!” Mamdani declared to the crowd that “there are no more boundaries to this fight.”

Mamdani was leading the chants in front of a giant banner about the need to “Disarm,” “Defund,” and “Abolish” the NYPD. The banner included a since-defunct website — DefundNYPD.com — which, at the time, was run by Mamdani’s NYC Democratic Socialists of America Party. The DSA-run website declared at the time that “it's time to defund the NYPD and refund the people!” The DSA-run site included “TALKING POINTS” on “How to Talk About Defunding the NYPD.”

After the rally, Mamdani tweeted: “To the organizers, speakers, and everyone who came out — thank you for your solidarity & love.” He specifically thanked the NYC DSA’s “racial justice, defund, & anti-war working groups” as well as Linda Sarsour. Mamdani further thanked anti-Israel groups like Jewish Voice for Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.

He also thanked fellow New York State assemblyman Jabari Brisport, a self-described “Socialist” and another big advocate of defunding the police. Later in 2021, Brisport would wish a “Happy Birthday to the Prince of Astoria, @ZohranKMamdani!” and Mamdani would reply, “Thank you, dear Deacon of Defund [praying hands emoji].”

“We came together to stand against the idea that violence against some creates security for others,” Mamdani said on Instagram in June 2021 just after the rally. “Our tax dollars are funding the brutalization and killing of our brothers, sisters, and family beyond the binary both domestically and abroad. Our calls to defund the NYPD and divest from Israel are rooted in the belief that true safety comes from investing in our communities and dismantling these violent systems.”

Mamdani also linked his opposition to Israel to his disdain for the NYPD when he tweeted in 2023 in defense of Fatima Mousa Mohammed, who attacked Israel and the NYPD in her commencement speech at City University of New York Law School.

During her May 2023 speech, Mohammed attacked “the racism” and "the self-serving interest of CUNY Central — an institution that continues to fail us, that continues to train and cooperate with the fascist NYPD, the military, that continues to train IDF soldiers to carry out that same violence globally.” She contended that “the law is a manifestation of white supremacy that continues to oppress."

Mohammed also claimed that "Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old and young” and that it “continues its project of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their homes, carrying the ongoing Nakba [catastrophe].”

She proclaimed that “may the rage that fills this auditorium … be the fuel for the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world.”

The CUNY board of trustees and chancellor responded with a statement saying that “the remarks by a student-selected speaker at the CUNY Law School graduation, unfortunately, fall into the category of hate speech as they were a public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race, or political affiliation.”

Mamdani responded with a defense of Mohammed and an attack on Israel and the NYPD.

“This is disgraceful from @ChancellorCUNY & CUNY trustees,” Mamdani tweeted in May 2023. “Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s remarks are not hate speech. Classifying rightful criticism of Israeli settler colonialism, Zionism, & the NYPD as such is an act of political cowardice, all to pacify the worst right wing impulses.”

Mamdani’s campaign website calls for Defunding the NYPD as late as 2023

Mamdani’s “Zohran for Assembly” website in 2020 included a call to defund the police — and his campaign website continued to include the call for defunding the NYPD during his 2022 reelection bid and beyond, with this section appearing on Mamdani’s campaign issues page as late as December 2023, according to the internet archive WayBackMachine.

The wording on Mamdani’s campaign website 2020 website appeared to remain essentially identical from June 2020 through December 2023.

The Mamdani campaign website included a section on “Defund the NYPD.”

“We can’t reform our way out of a racist police system that’s working exactly as designed - as a means of control over black & brown New Yorkers,” Mamdani’s campaign website said during his 2020 and 2022 runs and as late as the end of 2023. “We need to dramatically curtail the power and presence of the NYPD. That means cutting $3 billion from the NYPD budget and reinvesting those savings in health, housing, and community services. This is a first step on the road to a safer and more humane New York.”

Mamdani’s campaign site also said he believed in the need to “institute an immediate hiring freeze and cancellation of all new officer classes, and a reduction in the force’s headcount by 1,300 officers through attrition” as well as the need to “immediately cancel all officer overtime” and “institute a moratorium on all new equipment purchases.”

In 2022, Mamdani also put out a controversial guide on “Small Business Public Safety Resources” where, in instances in which someone was experiencing a drug overdose or drug-related issue, the socialist state assemblyman told his constituents not to tell the emergency operator that there was a drug overdose and to avoid police involvement.

“For medical emergencies, call 911. Tell the operator that the person is not responsive and not breathing,” the guide from Mamdani’s office stated. “Do not mention a possible overdose! This will ensure the call is prioritized, and should result in medical help only.”

Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch criticized Mamdani for the tip sheet, according to the New York Daily News at the time.

“I don’t understand why elected officials would put their anti-police ideology ahead of saving a life. Nearly every New York City police officer on patrol carries and is trained to use naloxone,” Lynch said in reference to the overdose reversal medication. “We’ve used it to save lives almost 400 times in the last year alone.”

Lynch also told the outlet: “Cops are often the first units to respond to a life-threatening medical emergency because we’re not stationary — we’re already on patrol in our neighborhoods and might be just a block away. When we get there, our first priority is to render aid. Why would they want to reduce an overdose victim’s chances of survival by trying to keep cops away?”

Mamdani also called to dissolve the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group as recently as December 2024.

“Today the NYPD deployed the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to harass + arrest striking @teamsters,” Mamdani tweeted at the time. “As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.”

Explaining away his stance in an interview with CBS News

"In asking the members of that unit to respond to protests, as opposed to what was the stated reason, is a decision that has led to the violation of a number of New Yorkers' civil rights, and it's a decision that has been the basis of my critique of the use of the group towards that end," Mamdani said on CBS News this summer.

With Mamdani holding a commanding lead in the NYC mayoral race, according to polling averages by RealClearPolling, the city will likely soon find out whether the socialist has truly moved on from his desire to defund the NYPD.