Mamdani Courts the Cops: He is doing a lot better than you might think.

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/mamdani-cops-new-york-mayor/



Even before he formally declared for mayor, Zohran Mamdani’s supporters and critics agreed on one thing: His toughest challenge would be addressing the issue of public safety in New York and winning over a highly skeptical police force. In July, all 13 NYC public safety unions endorsed Mayor Eric Adams, who has since dropped out.

Mamdani has gone about the project of winning support from the police in the same fashion that has made him such an effective campaigner generally—by listening. And as mayor, he could end up achieving something that has eluded other mayors: real reform that unites the interests of citizens and ordinary cops. Or, as he puts it, “reconciling safety with justice.”

Without fanfare, Mamdani has been meeting in small groups with hundreds of rank-and-file patrolmen and women to listen to what’s on their minds. The thing about active listening is not that it makes great campaign video—it’s that you learn things. Mamdani’s meetings with beat cops are on a par with his famous conversations with Halal street vendors, in which he learned that the price of a plate of lamb or chicken is $2 more than it should be because they have to bribe middlemen to get permits.

In his meetings with cops, Mamdani learned that police are quitting the department at the rate of 350 a month, up from 200 a month when he began his campaign, mainly because of forced overtime. “You plan a weekend with your family and at the last minute you are told you have to work,” Mamdani said on a recent edition of The View with Whoopi Goldberg.

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[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Listening to your potential constituents is KEY to success. He knows that!

I think he'll make a great Mayor.