New York mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani previously questioned the “purpose” of jails and prisons, drawing sharp criticism from law enforcement officials on Friday, who condemned the remarks as “out of touch” and potentially dangerous.“I think that frankly, I mean, what purpose do they serve, right?” Mamdani said in August 2020 when a co-host of “The Far Left Show” asked him whether he believed prisons were obsolete, reported the New York Post.“I think we have to ask ourselves that … I think a lot of people who defend the carceral state, that defend the idea of it and the way it makes them feel, they’re not defending the reality of it and the practices that are part and parcel of it,” Mamdani added. “Because if you actually break it down … how many people come out the prison system better than they went into the prison system?”The clip, which resurfaced on social media this week after being posted by the “End Wokeness” account and widely circulated in conservative circles, sparked backlash within the law enforcement community.In the interview he asked “how much harm is actually being prevented versus created” while referring to incarceration of offenders. “I think when you ask these kinds of questions, people don’t always have clear answers, what they always want to pivot to is ‘What are you going to do about murderers?’ and ‘What are you going to do about rapists?’ and sometimes you have to ask them, ‘What are you doing about them right now?’” he added. “It’s scary that a mayoral candidate could be this out of touch with the realities of living in communities that have historically experienced violence and crime,” a source said, as per the New York Post. “Sounds like he will change his tune once he realizes how unhinged that sounds in the real world.”“It’s the poor neighborhoods that the stalker, domestic abuser, and shooting recidivist will return [to],” said another law enforcement source. “But the rules of civil society that make this city the luxury item most of Zohran’s constituency want to live in is a product of that, bad people in jail so they can pretend they live on a movie set.”“Letting criminals walk the streets without any repercussions is not repairing anything,” said a Manhattan cop. Mamdani has previously expressed his stance on prisons stating, “White supremacy has many faces, from the police & prison systems in America to occupation & apartheid in Palestine,” he posted on X in 2020.GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa, who is set to face Mamdani in the November general election, denounced the resurfaced clip, calling it “absolutely preposterous.”“Of course we need jails to keep dangerous individuals off our streets,” Sliwa stated. “But he is no different than Eric Adams who is shutting down Rikers or Andrew Cuomo who pushed to close it while celebrating the shutdown of over 18 state prisons and passing laws that coddle criminals and let them avoid the jail time they deserve.”Zohran Mamdani has defeated Dormer governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in New York City. The general elections are scheduled for November.
