Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (AP)
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax on Saturday that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is undercutting the city’s police and sending the wrong message on crime as New York confronts a series of violent, apparently random attacks.
“You have a mayor who is indifferent,” Giuliani said on Newsmax’s “Saturday Report.” “In New York, the police work is as good as ever.
“She’s a great police commissioner. They’re doing a great job. They’re being undercut by a mayor.”
Giuliani, who served as mayor from 1994 through 2001, credited Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch and the NYPD but maintained that City Hall’s approach makes officers’ jobs more difficult.
Giuliani also pointed to mental illness as a factor in seemingly random violence, saying the nature of some recent attacks was different from the crime he confronted as mayor.
“I had a lot more crime to deal with, like five times, six times more crime,” Giuliani said. “But I don’t remember these shoving on the subways, just random ripping apart of people.
“The mental health thing has gotten out of control.”
Giuliani said his administration paired police officers with social workers to move homeless people off the streets and into services.
“I used to send social workers, except I did it like the way an intelligent person would do it, with a police officer,” Giuliani said. “I don’t think … that people have a right to live on the street.”
The former mayor also reflected on the approaching 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying Americans must remain vigilant against Islamic extremism while distinguishing extremists from Muslims generally.
“When I say Muslims, I mean extremist Muslims. I don’t mean all Muslims,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani recalled that in the aftermath of 9/11 he publicly warned New Yorkers against targeting Muslims or Arabs and established a task force aimed at preventing retaliatory attacks.
“I said no one should attack anyone who’s Islamic, Arab, or thinks like that, that we’re not like that,” Giuliani said. “Not only did I say that, I also put out a task force to make sure it didn’t happen.”
Giuliani said the wishes of victims’ relatives should take precedence at the ceremony and said Mamdani should stay away if his presence would upset them.
“If he had a little bit of a heart, even with his views, he wouldn’t go because he would know he’s disturbing the people who are the most important people at that celebration,” Giuliani said.
“They are” the most important people, Giuliani added, referring to the families. “You got to listen to the families.”
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