New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is catching heat
after publicly backing a 22-year-old man who allegedly charged at NYPD officers with a large kitchen knife— and suggesting the man needs therapy, not a courtroom.
Jabez Chakraborty was shot by officers in Queens after the encounter, which began when his own family requested an involuntary removal. That request, by its nature, requires both police and EMS to respond. Officers arrived because the family called for help. And when Chakraborty allegedly came at them with a blade, they did what officers are trained to do.None of that stopped Mamdani from visiting Chakraborty's hospital room, meeting with his family, and holding a news conference where he framed the incident not as a law enforcement matter — but as a mental health tragedy in which the real failure was the system's reliance on police.
At his news conference, Mamdani steered the conversation away from the man who allegedly lunged at officers with a kitchen knife and toward the suffering of the suspect's family.
"We are talking about a family that is enduring the kind of pain that no family should and an individual that has lived with schizophrenia for many years." He then laid out a broader vision — one that should alarm every New Yorker who dials 911 expecting a police officer to show up:
"A person experiencing a mental health episode does not always have to be served first or exclusively by a police officer. It is important for us to have all of the options available."
In isolation, that sounds reasonable. In practice, it has produced a mayor who:
- Signaled the disbanding of the NYPD's protest unit
- Proposed replacing cops with social workers and "transit ambassadors" on certain 911 calls
- Called for higher taxes on the top 1%
- Appointed an ex-con as NYC corrections commissioner
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