Will Zohran Mamdani Defund New York City Police? |
Police
Billy Binion | From the February/March 2026 issue
In the February/March 2026 issue of Reason, we explore Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's policy goals and what they mean for New York City. Click here to read the other entries.
Central to Zohran Mamdani's 2020 campaign for New York State Assembly was a pitch to radically constrain law enforcement. "Queer liberation means defund the police," he posted two days after securing his seat representing Astoria, an apt coda to that election season.
It was November 2020, just months after the George Floyd protests began—a time when calls to defund the police were more common. Such a plan was arguably always a tougher sell in a mayoral campaign where candidates have to court a more politically diverse electorate than the one in western Queens, a district that overlaps with that of the socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.).
Which helps explain why Mamdani pivoted fairly dramatically on criminal justice in his run to be mayor of America's most populous city. "I am not defunding the police," he said on the campaign trail. "I am not running to defund........