Mamdani apologizes for 2020 remarks on NYPD

NEW YORK, United States (MNTV) — New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has publicly apologized to the New York Police Department for remarks he made during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Speaking in a Fox News interview, the Democratic frontrunner expressed regret over his earlier comments and said he now seeks to work collaboratively with officers to improve public safety.

“I apologize for the language that I used,” Mamdani said. “I spoke to them about the fact that I want to work with them to deliver public safety because what we’re seeing in the city right now is we’re asking officers to do nearly everything we can think of.”

Mamdani noted the wide range of duties assigned to police officers, including responding to mental health crises and homelessness, with the NYPD handling around 200,000 mental health-related calls each year.

He said his perspective has evolved since serving in the New York State Legislature, where representing over 100,000 residents in western Queens reshaped his understanding of justice and safety.

“One of my focuses was, ‘How do we deliver that justice?’ And now what I know is that to deliver justice, you also have to deliver safety,” he said. Mamdani emphasized balancing the concerns of police officers, communities affected by police violence, and Muslim New Yorkers worried about surveillance.

His apology refers to a June 2020 social media post in which he wrote: “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 comments came amid nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer sparked global outrage over racial injustice and police brutality.