this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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United States | News & Politics

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Mamdani starting to crack (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/nyregion/mamdani-police-apology-floyd.html

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, said on Thursday that he intended to apologize for comments he made in 2020 calling the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”

He 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 comments were made “at the height of frustration,” he said in an interview with The New York Times, 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.”

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

that's demsocs for you. you can't promote actual socialist policies without a strong mass movement to back it up.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Don’t apologize

[–] Bronstein_Tardigrade@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Why? It's not like the piggies and their supporters are going to vote for him. All he will accomplish with an apology is to piss off his own supporters. DSA: Democratic Sellouts of America.

Takes me back to the NYPD doxxing and following DeBlasio's daughter after he tried to cut their budget.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

This guy is folding like origami. Democrats will let you down every time.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 49 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He believes his left flank is unbreakable, so now he's trying to shore up his right.

Except that's not how it works. The left flank won't just sit idly while their candidate appeals to their right, usually when this happens it caused reformers to hemorrhage their left. Without a clear party line on rightist deviations it'll just make voters lose faith.

And then when they lose, the left will be the ones to blame: not the rat fucking happening in the elections, not the candidate making bonehead moves, but the voters somehow.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If the left flank will throw him out for saying "I'm sorry I called the police racist" then no wonder the Dems keep trying to win the center.

If even an inch of pragmatism is a step too far then even I would give up.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

But it's only "pragmatic" because there are non-leftist voters who might throw him out for saying "cops are racist".

[–] stickly@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

It's more pragmatic because the NYC police are a legal mafia. Be a shame if there was a "lapse" in his protection because some officers were a little upset at his bluntness.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's not the calculus here. The problem is that the NYPD has a budget larger than the DPRK's entire military including their nuclear program. The NYPD is also a bunch of thugs, extortionists, rapists, assassins, kidnappers, and torturers

And that department runs the security detail for the mayor and the mayor's entire family. The mayor is required to be in their proximity at almost all times. They drive him around, they escort his vehicles, they manage crowds every day around him.

The pragmatism isn't limited to getting votes. It's life or death.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 19 hours ago

Downvoters better stop malding and start arguing

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

That's a really good point, and it sounds like it would be pragmatic to not rely on the cops for security. That's another place a Party would help, to provide security to candidates so they don't have to rely on domestic right-wing death squads.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

This is why I am not all that excited for Zohran's tenure. I am excited that he got the votes, but the reality is he will not have the power to do what he intends to do because realpolitik drives NYC.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

It also looks like he's also going to be coming into power at the start of a recession, and a mere mayor can't do a lot in those conditions.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml -3 points 2 days ago

No, it's pragmatic because frankly the police (even as corrupt and racist as they are) are necessary and making an enemy of them will undermine anything else he'd try to achieve.

[–] bestagon@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

How is anything supposed to get better if we’re expected to swallow our representatives denying the institutional racism present in our society, especially when we’re the ones targeted by the violence and selective law enforcement?

[–] Fancy_Gecko@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 days ago (2 children)

to all dear Americans : you are not voting yourself out of this

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

In the US, the left typically doesn't win at the ballot box. It's all about what happens between elections.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

not sure where i heard it, but we don't elect our saviours, we elect our opposition.

it's better to have him as opposition than anyone else.

[–] dx1@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The very video about Palestine he got famous for, he was already full of shit in. "Israel has a right to exist... (as a state with equal rights)"? No. It doesn't. States don't have a right to exist and that state is predicated on claiming to have equal rights while being institutionalized apartheid.

This is more of the same. I left NYC, among other reasons, because it's a miniature police state, with the NYPD leading the charge. The fuck is he even going to do as mayor if he's not going to rein them in?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

I did not really mind the Palestine comments because he basically denies the state of Israel in the way he framed it. But at the pace of Zohran is going now, all that will be done when he gets in power is building like 3 government ran supermarkets.

It's not Zohver yet but it is going downhill.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

he's running to the right and; if he has any staying power; he will become another aoc or bernie.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago

By AOC or Bernie, are you referring to two people that have done a thousand times more to shift the Overton window left than you and a dozen friends will ever achieve?

I just love all the ineffective edgy leftists constantly telling the only people making progress that they're doing it wrong.

[–] unconsequential@slrpnk.net 25 points 3 days ago

“You won’t change them, they’ll change you.” The ultimate lesson of any reformist.

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 days ago

Pathetic

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

"...I'm sorry that I didn't call them that in 2019."

[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Hopefully he's just saying what he needs(in that regard) until in power. I won't hold my breath though.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 25 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don't see why he would need to say that. He's leading plenty in votes. And the statement is factually accurate.

[–] dditty@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago

And his original statement was made in 2020 after George Floyd's murder. Like come on man, pigs are f***ing racist and it was the right time to say that

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

Tbf, he could legitimately be fearing for his life.

But that's the generous take here.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

We don't vote for our saviours, we vote our opposition.

and Mamdani is still better opposition to have than Cuomo

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don’t see him saying he was wrong, or that he’s changed his intentions.

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

I just take it as "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings"

[–] dx1@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You should work on your skills at interpreting political speech. It's about positioning yourself in terms of sentiments, not making explicit, accurate statements. The fact that he's even engaging in this kind of thing shows you he's false, right off the bat.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The condemnation he's getting here for saying this is absurd.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This is the New York police we are talking about. They are extremely racist and they are incredibly corrupt. These are some of the last people we would want to see Zohran cozy up to. Especially since he is far ahead in the polling and there seems to be no reason to say this.

[–] stickly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

As I said in another comment, the reason to not get on their bad side is the fact they're a highly insular and powerful gang that just so happen to be in charge of his protection detail for his entire (hypothetical) term.

It's easy to tweet the truth to power until that corrupt power is the only thing stopping the next Maga nut from taking a shot at you. Whole situation is completely unsurprising and not a mark against his character for me.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 2 days ago

How dare you suggest Mayor Adams is anything other than of exemplary character?! 🥊