A Transformative Approach to Public Safety Must Be Part of the Vision our New Mayor Delivers

Justice Committee responds to the election of Zohran Mamdani

We congratulate Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani and the hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of New Yorkers who powered his historic campaign to victory and elected the first South Asian and first Muslim mayor of our city. This win demonstrates what New Yorkers can achieve when we organize together, and the overwhelming desire and need for a city in which we can all thrive. Our approach to public safety must be part of this change.

For four long years, our communities have endured Mayor Eric Adams’ corrupt and harmful regime: police misconduct and stop and frisks have surged to their highest in over a decade, officers who have taken lives have been protected at the highest levels, and billions in public funds have been funneled into criminalizing Black, Latine, immigrant, and low-income communities – while the already meager services we rely on have been defunded, and the investments our communities need have not been made.

Our city is crying out for a new, transformative approach to public safety. We hope Mayor-Elect Mamdani will deliver this, but his pre-emptive decision to retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD Commissioner raises serious concerns about whether or not he is prepared to do so. Tisch has spent her tenure repeatedly protecting abusive officers, expanding surveillance, and doubling down on broken windows policing. Just a few months ago, Tisch outrageously overturned her own deputy commissioner’s guilty verdict - defying common sense and the law - and refused to fire Allan Feliz’s killer, NYPD Lt. Jonathan Rivera. It’s inexplicable why Tisch went out of her way to shield an officer with 39 misconduct allegations, including pending fireable charges stemming from misconduct he committed after killing Allan. Soon, the Police Commissioner will be tasked with deciding whether to fire Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco, who killed Bangladeshi teen Win Rozario in front of his mom and little brother, and Officer Wayne Isaacs, who killed Delrawn Small in front of his four-month-old baby and teenage step-daughter. New Yorkers deserve just leadership, not loyalty to the NYPD’s culture of impunity. 

Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s campaign promised a new direction for this city. To realize this vision, Mamdani must start by replacing Commissioner Tisch, firing abusive officers, dismantling the NYPD’s entrenched impunity, ending broken windows policing, removing the NYPD from mental health response, and ensuring radical transparency and accountability. We call on Mayor-Elect Mamdani to govern in partnership with those who know the stakes best: the families of loved ones killed by NYPD, survivors of police violence, and the grassroots organizations led by and accountable to them.