By: Russ Spencer

As the dust settles from socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, veteran law enforcement officials and policy experts are issuing stark warnings about the future of public safety under his potential administration. In interviews with The New York Post, current and former NYPD brass, rank-and-file officers, and political insiders say Mamdani’s far-left agenda poses an existential threat to the stability of the NYPD — and to the safety of New Yorkers.

Despite Mamdani’s last-minute pivot during the campaign — publicly vowing not to defund the police or shrink the department — critics view the reversal as political expediency, not conviction.

“New Yorkers aren’t buying it, and neither are the cops,” said Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association. “The city would be totally unsafe for people who live here. If you put a guy like him in there, our people are going to get hurt, and nobody’s going to want the job. It’s going to put recruitment back five more steps.”

Munro’s remarks reflect growing alarm among NYPD leadership and rank-and-file officers who have watched the political climate in the city lurch further left over recent years. Many view Mamdani’s rise as the breaking point — a sign that policing, already politically fraught in the post-George Floyd era, could be entirely reimagined in ways that endanger both officers and civilians.

“I’ve had guys call me and say ‘If he wins, I’m quitting,’” one senior police source told The Post. “It’s just weird that New York City would vote for him. I know he’s not here for the police.”

Indeed, Mamdani’s campaign has been fueled by opposition to traditional law enforcement. He has frequently characterized the NYPD as systemically racist and has endorsed stripping officers of certain powers. While he now claims he would retain Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the architect of recent crime declines — including an 8% drop in major felonies compared to 2019 — many observers say the damage has already been done.

“He’s trying to take the existing Police Department and turn them into social workers,” said Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who will face Mamdani and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November’s general election. “He wants to neuter the Police Department.”

Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a vocal law-and-order advocate, told The Post that Mamdani’s proposed Department of Community Safety — a separate agency focused on “violence interrupters” and mental health teams — amounts to a dangerous fantasy.

“Cops would not be able to function as they have taken their solemn oath to do — to protect us, to go out there and grab those who are committing crimes and to have them locked up,” Sliwa said. “He has a weird notion of how policing is, as if it should be people like Mahatma Gandhi walking around functioning as social workers. That does not work.”

Mamdani’s plans for 911 response teams composed of non-police mental health professionals, especially on the city’s increasingly volatile subway system, have drawn particular concern. In recent months, incidents involving emotionally disturbed individuals have spiked, even as officers and mental health professionals struggle to coordinate care and maintain order.

One NYPD officer nearing retirement told The New York Post that morale is at its lowest point in years — and that Mamdani’s ascension would be the final straw for many.

“This guy thinks the entire NYPD is racist,” the officer said. “I think right now the department is more diverse than it ever was before. He’s just going off a narrative that if you hate cops, you’re going to get elected.”

A longtime detective said the prospect of a Mamdani-led City Hall conjures images of chaos. “It would be Gotham City out of Batman,” he said. “Except the bad guys would run the show.”

That sentiment is only deepened by what some see as hypocrisy. Mamdani, while criticizing police institutions, continues to accept 24-hour NYPD protection as a mayoral candidate.

“You have police protecting you, but you don’t want to protect the people of New York City?” the detective asked.

Even some Democrats are uneasy. Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran strategist and consultant for Democratic campaigns and law enforcement agencies, told The New York Post that Mamdani’s professed support for the NYPD is little more than theater.

“His supporters say he’ll defund the police,” Sheinkopf noted. “That’s who he is, and that’s what’s gonna happen, and we can’t afford to lose a single cop. If this guy gets in power, we’re gonna lose a lot of cops.”

Still, Mamdani has defenders, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who dismissed the criticisms as scaremongering.

“He wants to keep the city safe,” de Blasio told The Post. “It’s not going to help him achieve his economic agenda if the city isn’t safe. He has a chance to choose a leader who shares his vision of getting more mental healthcare work done by healthcare professionals, rather than police officers.”

But that argument isn’t convincing to many on the force — especially given the city’s traumatic experiences with progressive criminal justice experiments in recent years, such as bail reform laws that saw repeat offenders released with no supervision.

As the general election approaches, the stakes could not be higher. With Mayor Adams and Curtis Sliwa both drawing support from the city’s more moderate and conservative enclaves, some strategists are warning that a fractured vote could clear a path for Mamdani’s victory — and, some say, a dramatic unraveling of the city’s public safety infrastructure.

As The New York Post noted in a recent editorial, the question facing voters now is no longer simply about policy — it’s about survival.