During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) responded to a question on if he has changed his support for bail reform in light of a fatal beating in New York allegedly carried out by a man whose bail had been lowered and had numerous prior arrests by saying that “what we would do is actually address the systemic problems that would ensure that someone who goes through the system this many times” has their issues addressed through getting mental health services.
Host Martha MacCallum asked, “I want to talk to you about public safety and your relationship with the police. So, just in terms of public safety, I want to go to an example first, because I hear from people that they don’t feel safe walking home at night. There are drug addicts on the street, right around the corner here, you can walk around the corner and see people shooting up, a lot of garbage on the streets right now. The subway is something that people are really concerned about. Last week, 64-year-old Nicola Tanzi, who was a church leader, a pillar in his community, was brutally beaten to death…in a subway station in Brooklyn. 25-year-old David Mazariegos had a 20-inch sword, he’s the suspect in this case. He was out, they lowered his bail so that he could get out. He was already awaiting a trial for attacking someone in Chelsea, 33 past arrests. You were in favor of bail reform. Does that make you want to change your mind or think twice about reversing that?”
Mamdani answered, “This is a horrific incident, and it’s the same video that I saw, and it’s one that horrifies New Yorkers across the five boroughs and it’s completely unacceptable. And what it makes me think about is the necessity of providing public safety in our New York City subway system and across the five boroughs, and also, how do we end the revolving door? Because when you look further into the case of whether this individual or so many individuals, especially those suffering from mental health issues, what we find is, so often, the only mental health system that we have that’s functioning in this city is Rikers Island. 40% of the incarcerated population there are suffering from serious mental illness.”
MacCallum then cut in to ask, “But why was he on the street, is the question. Why was he on the street?”
Mamdani responded, “Because we have a broken system. A system –.”
MacCallum then cut in to ask, “They lowered his bail, he had a bail he couldn’t pay, then they lowered the bail, and then he could pay it. Imagine if you’re this family and they look at 33 prior arrests. And why, why was this man on the street? What would stop him in your administration from being on the street?”
Mamdani answered, “Because what we would do is actually address the systemic problems that would ensure that someone who goes through the system this many times is actually — his issues are addressed, the services are provided. Right now, all we have is going in and out, especially when it comes to mental health. I’ll give you an example –.”
MacCallum then cut in to ask, “Where would he be, in your world? Where would he be, in a mental institution?”
Mamdani answered, “He would actually be getting services from the first time that he was arrested, as opposed to having to go through them 33 times. If you look at The New York Times, they did an investigation on 1,000 different incidents of violent crime in the city tied to mental health episodes. They found that so many of those same New Yorkers were failed by the interactions they had with the city when they went for help for mental health assistance. And that failure is a blight, it is a stain on our city, and it’s a failure that I’m looking to fix by actually transforming this with the only comprehensive plan for public safety of any of the candidates. Because what we are going to do is put out a plan and a proposal that we have shared with New Yorkers to create a department of community safety that would bring together all of these pre-existing silos that address mental health [crises], that address homelessness into one department, provide it with the funding necessary, and actually address this crisis.”
MacCallum followed up, “Where do these people go, though, is my question, are you going to put them in a mental institution so they can be taken care of, or are you going to leave them at home on medication? What’s the plan?”
Mamdani answered, “There is a plan right now that allows for involuntary confinement, which I think should be a last resort, because of the fact that, when you look at the actual results, this is something that, so often, doesn’t actually have that’s what — that what has been spoken about, but what we have today that actually works for New Yorkers with serious mental illness, there are things like Fountain House, this is a clubhouse model, peer-led, rehabilitative treatment for New Yorkers with serious mental illness. It costs $4,000 to have someone in Fountain House for a year. That’s the cost of being on Rikers for three days. And what we see, however, is that those services, they increase employment by 50%, they reduce hospitalization by up to 45%, and they actually reduce the cost of health care as well for those same New Yorkers. This is what we’re looking at. This is why we say that Rikers is broken, the system is broken.”
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