When I look at the mayoral race in NYC, it reminds me of the same old political nonsense I dealt with during 20 years with the NYPD.

This guy, Zohran Mamdani, is just the latest version of liberal manipulation of commonsense policies that used to work in that concrete jungle.  Like all politicians, mayors run for office with promises to make life better for the 8 million or so residents who try to get through each day without getting murdered, raped, robbed, or otherwise violated by the skulking cretins in their orbit.

We can call Mamdani a communist, socialist, a Democrat socialist, or any other appellation that tends to get the public’s attention.  What really matters is not some political or social designation, but what the policies are that have managed to give him the Democrat nomination for the city’s highest office.

During any campaign for public office, the candidate must make promises that will appeal to the greatest number of voters, even if those promises are absurdly impossible to keep.  Apparently, enough NYC voters think this latest version of free stuff for the lazy will carry the charlatan across the finish line.  It saddens me to think that so many New Yorkers believe that free transportation, free child care, free housing, etc., along with other giveaway programs, are what they strive for.

Aside from his antisemitic views — which, if there was a scintilla of decency left in the electorate, would disqualify him from even appearing on the ballot — this eloquent Pied Piper, with a pleasant smile to mask a sinister plot, wants to replace the department responsible for community safety — namely, the NYPD — with a new department called the Department of Community Safety (DCS).  Leave it to a bureaucrat to look for more ways to expand an ever-burgeoning bureaucracy.  The proposed budget for this latest brainchild of left-wing orthodoxy is $1.1 billion.  If past is prologue, that number is just a fraction of the actual cost, which, by the way, will come out of the pockets of those who actually work for a living and pay taxes.

One section of this new and soon to be bloated addition to the public debt will be entitled Community Mental Health Navigators (CMHN).  The plan is to establish outposts in every neighborhood with the CMHN readily available to assist those with serious mental illness.  This will include licensed mental health pros who will respond to the scene when someone is reported to be exhibiting emotional struggles.  Mamdani says it’s needed because the city has already used a similar system, with limited success.  However, as only a dyed-in-the-wool liberal thinks, if he throws more money at the problem, it will work even better.  He cites stats that indicate that 40% of about 6,400 people in city jails have a mental health diagnosis.  He goes on to say, “That’s not leadership; it’s abdication,” adding, “Jails are not places where people can recover from a mental health crisis.”  This is merely another example of hand-wringing compassion for lawbreakers and zero concern for their victims. 

To state the obvious, they’re in jail because they broke the law!  Saying they are dealing with mental issues is an appeal that can be made during a trial.  When I arrived at the scene of a crime, often encountering a bloody victim of someone’s violence, my job was to summon an ambulance and arrest the perp.  When said perp put up a fight, his mental state had nothing to do with my responsibility, which was to remove the threat to myself and others.  In my experience, most people who commit crimes, especially recidivists, can be characterized as antisocial misfits, violence-prone thugs, or savages with no redeeming qualities.

Calling them mental health sufferers is the job of their defense attorneys when the evidence against them is overwhelming.  It’s tantamount to the hackneyed defense that the client had a disadvantaged childhood, which led him to a life of crime.  Although some people are plagued by mental problems, as soon as they victimize innocent people, the police must intervene in order to protect others.  Sadly, such commonsense solutions are not so common anymore.  So far, Mr. Mamdani has been effective in deluding primary voters, who are far fewer in numbers than those who go to the polls in the general election.

Inasmuch as the most important function of a city’s chief executive is to keep people safe, it’s a no-brainer that NYC needs someone more like Rudy Giuliani than like Bill de Blasio.  Without question, that person is Curtis Sliwa, the man who has been fighting crime on the streets and subways for more than a generation.  As founder of the Guardian Angels, he and his army of volunteer crime-fighters, is well respected by New Yorkers, who feel as safe on the streets when those distinctive red berets arrive, as they do when that marked radio car, with lights flashing, shows up.

If voters want protection for themselves and their families, there’s only one candidate who has earned their votes, and he’s the GOP nominee.  They should forget about party labels and vote for the guy who has been patrolling the streets of that crime-ridden city for more than 40 years, effecting tens of thousands of apprehensions that were turned over to NYPD for processing.  That’s a lot of bad guys taken off the streets, and an incalculable number of lives saved.  Moreover, that’s a lot of crime-fighting for no salary or pension benefits.

Image via Pexels.