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One of the key concerns critics of Zohran Mamdani have is how he will deal with law enforcement and th NYPD if he wins the mayoral election. Mamdani has been on record in the past that he supports defunding the police, and he has ideas that suggest serious changes would be in the air. Mamdani has proposed using social workers instead of police officers to deal with certain low-level responses, such as dealing with deranged people in public who may or may not be a danger to themselves or others. Retired NYPD officer turned politician Mike Sapraicone has upheld the law on both sides of the badge and thinks Mamdani had the wrong idea about social workers. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, he discussed why using social workers instead of cops is an idea destined to fail horribly.
“On paper, a lot of the stuff he says look reasonable, but it’s not proven results,” Sapracione told host Larry Mendte. “The things he wants to do with the Department of Community Safety, I mean, these things have been tried in small towns…and they’ve been nothing but disastrous. This young man- you have to give him credit for running a great campaign social media-wise, but he has no concept of what he’s allowed to do and what he can’t do, and he’s feeding to a group of these younger people who probably never voted before who are now starting to say, ‘Hey he’s right about some of the things he’s saying’, and not caring how it can be done or if it can be done.”
As an example of what social workers could be up against, Sapracione told the story of a deranged homeless man he brought to a hospital in handcuffs who thought he was Willie Mays: “I insisted not to [uncuff him]. I said it’s really not the best policy. [The doctor] insisted to leave and close the door. As soon as I uncuffed him and closed the door, he jumped up and beat her senselessly. Social workers do a great job, but they’re not prepared to handle and not trained to handle what law enforcement does.”
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