NYC Mayor-elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed on the marketing campaign path he not desires to “defund the police,” however a lefty political strategist he tapped to supervise his transition staff is an impassioned supporter of the anti-cop motion.
Elena Leopold, government director of an all-female transition staff, was among the many greater than 230 previous and current staffers of then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio who signed an June 2020 “open letter” to de Blasio demanding “radical change” on legal justice insurance policies – particularly on the NYPD.
“We’re demanding the mayor act instantly to … cut back the NYPD working price range by $1 billion in Fiscal Yr 2021, and reallocate that cash to important social providers, together with housing assist and rental aid, meals help and well being care,” wrote Leopold, a former senior advisor and marketing campaign strategist for de Blasio, and the others.
Leopold, who based a number of political consulting companies with deep ties to lefty politicians since leaving Metropolis Corridor, joined Mamdani’s marketing campaign as a chief advisor in June after he received the Democratic mayoral main.
The letter — posted June 3, 2020 in the course of the top on the Black Lives Matter protests — additionally demanded the town instantly hearth and launch names of cops who used “extreme power” or coated their badge IDs throughout protests.
It additionally known as for making a fee of “civil rights attorneys, journalists and activists, together with abolition organizers,” to analyze the Mayor’s Workplace and NYPD’s response to BLM riots that raged in NYC over the earlier month.
We’re demanding radical change from the Mayor, who’s on the point of shedding all legitimacy within the eyes of New Yorkers,” the letter stated.
De Blasio initially refused to slash the NYPD price range after “defund the police” grew to become a rallying cry nationwide following the police-custody demise of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Nevertheless, he in the end caved to the calls for of activists and progressive Council members by signing off on a brand new metropolis price range that, whereas not decreasing the scale of the police workforce, shifted almost $1 billion from cops to social and youth providers — regardless of the Massive Apple in 2020 seeing a 41% hike in killings.
Mamdani, then campaigning for his present Queens meeting seat, wasn’t happy and accused the mayor and Council of utilizing “price range methods to maintain as many cops as potential on the beat.”
“We don’t want an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a significant risk to public security. What we want is to #DefundTheNYPD,” he posted on X on June 28, 2020.
However in July Mamdani backed off the controversial stance within the wake of a Midtown mass capturing that left 4 lifeless, together with an NYPD officer, whereas he was celebrating his latest nuptials in his native Uganda.
“I’m not working to defund the police,” insisted Mamdani, hours after visiting slain cop Didarul Islam’s grieving kinfolk.
Council Minority Chief Joann Ariola stated Mamdani’s determination to nominate Leopold to the transition staff reveals he hasn’t utterly deserted the concept of slashing NYPD spending.
“Am I stunned? Not one bit,” stated the Queens Republican. “What Mr. Mamdani says when he’s pandering to a crowd, and what he really hopes to do, I imagine, are very various things.
“We’ve seen him make statements that go from progressive to reasonable to nearly conservative, relying on who he’s speaking to. … Nicely, we see who his buddies are, they usually’re the identical individuals who need to dismantle public security on this metropolis.”
Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island) stated he’s “able to work with the mayor-elect’s staff” however is “involved in regards to the path this alerts for policing.”
Leopold will oversee a transition staff with deep ties to Metropolis Corridor: former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and metropolis price range professional Melanie Hartzog, together with ex-Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan and nonprofit president Grace Bonilla.
Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec declined to remark.
