Zohran Mamdani has a slew of political assets, including a winning smile, a slick way with social media and a positive approval rating.
But he seems to understand that public safety is his kryptonite.
His campaign-trail disavowal of his past anti-cop agitation and his decision to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch are obvious examples of this reality.
No wonder he’s working so hard to sell the idea that New York City is safer than ever.
But is it really?
Last week, Mamdani pushed back hard against PIX 11 News reporter Dan Mannarino’s question regarding city crime statistics.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Mannarino pointed out, “said that rape and felony assaults are concerning to her . . . the NYPD is touting low numbers, but she’s looking at different numbers. Somewhere in there is the truth.”
Mamdani waved away Menin’s worry.
“Well, I believe the NYPD,” he said. “What we’re seeing are some of the lowest numbers that New York City has seen in recorded history, especially when it comes to murders and shootings.”
Especially when it comes to murders and shootings, Mr. Mayor?
No: Murders and shootings are the only major crime categories near their historic lows.
It was a slick answer, but deliberately misleading.
Shootings and homicides are indeed on track to beat their modern historical lows — an incredible feat, considering the multi-year spike in both measures through 2021.
Thanks no doubt to the NYPD’s hard work, the most socially costly components of the city’s public safety challenges are under control.
But it’s simply wrong to suggest that crime in general is anywhere near all-time lows.
Through July 12, the city has reported just a hair under 59,000 “major crimes” — including murder, rape, robbery, burglary, felony assault, grand larceny and auto theft.
That number is 24% higher than the 47,438 major crimes reported through the same date in 2019 — a year in which New Yorkers were spending more time on the streets and in the subways than they do in this post-pandemic work-from-home era.
The difference in the number of felony assaults was even greater, at 46.5% (15,824 so far this year, compared to 10,799 through the same date in 2019).
That’s what has Menin so concerned — and what Mamdani was eager to blow off.
Worse, though, was his response to Menin’s distress about a recent rise in reported rapes.
According to the latest NYPD data, rapes are up 6.6% compared to the same time last year.
No worries, the mayor assured us: “What I think is important to know is a lot of the increase in rape also comes from an expanded definition of what counts as rape.”
He was referring to a January 2024 state law that expanded the legal definition of rape to include multiple kinds of non-consensual sexual misconduct — but that 2024 change does not explain why the city is seeing a year-to-date increase.
His tone-deaf response drew criticism from across the political spectrum: City Council Democrat Susan Zhuang condemned it as a “deflection,” while Republican Bruce Blakeman said Mamdani “owes rape victims an apology, not an excuse.”
The mayor’s efforts to paint a rosier picture than the crime numbers justify suggests he knows full well that his public-safety narrative is crucial for his political health.
And his allies on the far left know it, too.
That’s why they’re working hard to play up the crime declines.
“Since electing a socialist … NYC crime rate is down,” socialist state Sen. Jabari Brisport gloated on X. “Conservatives . . . get wrecked.”
Socialist News Media boasted, “Under a Socialist mayor, New York City has reported its fewest shootings and murders in its recorded history.”
Ironically, those allies are celebrating the byproduct of a stronger and more active NYPD — which added 4,000 new cops to the force last year, and has recently drawn the ire of both the NYCLU and the Legal Aid Society for doing too much enforcement.
It’s no coincidence that major crime is trending downward while the mayor has avoided taking action on his police-related campaign promises.
The NYPD is still fielding mental-health calls, the Strategic Response Group is still intact, the city is still housing more than 6,500 offenders in its jails, and the gang database hasn’t been abolished.
Nevertheless, the mayor did just give in to his far-left base’s demands and denied the NYPD 580 new (and much-needed) officers.
Mamdani’s critics are right to object to that decision — and they’re right to keep making noise when the mayor’s happy talk is at odds with reality.
Because the second New Yorkers buy the idea that public safety is no longer a problem is exactly when you can expect the Mamdani of 2020 to reemerge.
Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the author of “Criminal (In)Justice.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
