As a retired police officer who spent over 30 years pounding the pavement of toughest neighborhoods, putting my life on the line to protect the innocent from the predators that lurk in the shadows, I am heartbroken and furious. Heartbroken because the city I love — one of the greatest cities in the world — has just elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist whose radical agenda threatens to dismantle the very backbone of public safety: the NYPD. Furious, because his so-called “$1 billion plan” to create a bloated new Department of Community Safety (DCS) isn’t just misguided — it's irrational, dangerous, and reeks of the kind of communist central-planning that has ruined nations and lives across history. And in the midst of our current economic shutdowns and post-election chaos, where businesses are shuttering and families are struggling, the last thing we need is to slash the NYPD’s budget and divert precious resources to yet another layer of bureaucratic red tape.

Let me paint a picture for you, fellow Americans who still believe in law and order. Mamdani’s plan pours a staggering $1 billion into this new DCS, tasking it with handling “non-criminal crises” like mental health episodes and homelessness — issues he claims the police are ill-equipped to manage. Instead of bolstering the ranks of our brave officers, he’s proposing to gut the NYPD by slashing overtime budgets and disbanding elite units like the Strategic Response Group, all while maintaining a freeze on hiring more cops. This isn’t reform; it’s a calculated assault on the men and women who rush toward danger when everyone else runs away. Police officers across the country — from the streets of Chicago to the highways of Texas — don’t deserve this slap in the face. We’ve earned our keep through blood, sweat, and too many fallen comrades.

Think about it: In a time when violent crime surges and our officers are already stretched thin, Mamdani wants to sideline them for social workers and “outreach teams.” As if a clipboard and a kind word can de-escalate a knife-wielding maniac in the subway! I’ve been there — we’ve all been there. Police handle mental health calls with precision and professionalism, filtering the truly serious threats from the silly, woke-fueled rants that clog the lines. Non-serious cases? We transfer them swiftly to experts like the NAMI HelpLine, the National Mental Health Hotline, or the 988 lifeline. It’s a long-established practice: fast, smooth, and effective. We don’t waste time on secondary distractions because lives depend on our focus. Why fix what isn’t broken? This plan doesn’t empower communities; it endangers them by creating a parallel bureaucracy that will drown in red tape, endless meetings, and inefficiency — the hallmark of every failed socialist experiment from the Soviet Union to Venezuela.

And let’s call it what it is: communist-like. Mamdani’s vision of government overreach — city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, and now this DCS monstrosity — smacks of state control run amok. He’s funding this folly with punishing tax hikes on millionaires and corporations, driving jobs and wealth out of the city at a time when we can least afford it. Critics are right — this could turn our buses into homeless shelters and our streets into no-go zones, all while the NYPD is handcuffed and underfunded. Remember his past rants? Back in 2020, he was all in on “defund the police,” calling the NYPD “racist” and a “threat to public safety.”

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. https://t.co/2RCXU8heg2

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 29, 2020

Now he’s backpedaling, claiming he’s not defunding anyone, but actions speak louder than words. Reducing overtime and disbanding units is a cut, plain and simple.

My blood boils thinking of the officers — good, honorable people who kiss their families goodbye each shift, never knowing if they’ll return. They deserve better than this betrayal. In red states like Florida and Texas, leaders are backing the blue with more funding and respect, not stripping them bare for ideological pipe dreams. But this isn’t just a New York problem — it’s a warning for the entire United States. From coast to coast, radical leftists are pushing similar agendas, undermining police departments in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and beyond, all in the name of “progressive reform.” Americans everywhere, wake up! This isn’t progress; it’s a path to anarchy wrapped in feel-good rhetoric that threatens the safety of our neighborhoods, our families, and our nation.

As patriots across the country, we must fight back at every level: local, state, and federal, support pro-police candidates nationwide, and demand that these radical agendas be stopped before they spread like wildfire. Our nation’s survival — and the legacy of every officer who ever wore the badge from sea to shining sea — depends on it. God bless our law enforcement heroes, and God bless America!

Image from Grok.