Mamdani

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has moved into the lead with a combination of standard democratic policies and some that are considered extreme. He favors raising taxes on the rich to provide universal child care, freezing rents and offering free bus service. This is the standard liberal approach to redistribution of income. He said there should be no billionaires but he would work with them to pay for some social benefits. He has proposed city owned grocery stores to be placed in poor neighborhoods. He suggested to defund the police stating they were racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety but has since back off of this idea. He wants to create a new “Department of Community Safety” that would deploy mental health care teams, rather than armed officers, to handle certain emergency calls involving people in crisis. He is a defender of Palestinian civil rights and accuses the Israeli government of committing a genocide in Gaza. He uses the phase “globalize the intifada” a call to violence against Israeli civilians. He is an active member of the Democratic Socialist of America, a group that advocates for universal health care, immigrants’ rights, tuition free college, a 32-hour work week and getting rid of mandatory jail time for some crimes. He has not said he wanted to get rid of jails but he supports an “Agenda for Decarceration” that includes proposals to eliminate cash bail, decriminalize drug possession and prostitution, and fight the construction of new jails.