{"id":61900,"date":"2025-12-05T15:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61900\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:59:07","slug":"zohran-mamdani-ripped-by-john-chell-over-ending-nyc-homeless-encampment-sweeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61900\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani ripped by John Chell over ending NYC homeless encampment sweeps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was ripped by a former top NYPD cop over the far-lefty\u2019s plan to end homeless encampment sweeps<\/a>, predicting the shift will lead to a sharp rise in shanty towns along city streets.<\/p>\n

Ex-Chief of Department John Chell railed Friday against Mamdani\u2019s vow to cease the sweeps, a massive change in policy announced by incoming mayor on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder current law, you generally cannot force individuals into shelter\u2014and the majority refuse services,\u201d Chell wrote on social media. \u201cOutreach does not automatically mean acceptance. Ending street intervention programs before building sufficient housing, shelter, and treatment capacity is not a plan\u2014it\u2019s a gamble.<\/p>\n

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani plans to end homeless encampment sweeps. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post<\/p>\n

A small homeless camp has been set up on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 33rd Street, in Manhattan, New York on August 24, 2020. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

\u201cThose resources must be created first and clearly codified,\u201d he wrote, adding, \u201cOtherwise, the predictable result will be a sharp rise in encampments, declining street conditions, and serious quality-of-life impacts across our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former chief-turned-TV pundit, who recently retired from the NYPD, criticized the plan from Mamdani as more of the young socialist\u2019s \u201crhetoric\u201d that won\u2019t translate into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time for experiments,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, 34, told reporters on Thursday he planned to nix the series of operations dismantling makeshift camps around the city, saying the policy hasn\u2019t led to enough people in permanent housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you\u2019re doing to be a success,\u201d Mamdani said in a shot at the Adams admin policy.<\/p>\n

Ending street intervention programs before building sufficient housing, shelter, and treatment capacity is not a plan\u2014it\u2019s a gamble,\u201d Ex-NYPD Chief John Chell said. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he would instead focus on connecting people with housing \u2014 however offered up no details on how to fix the issue, which has plagued numerous mayors.<\/p>\n

More than 45,000 complaints for encampments were reported this year alone.<\/p>\n

The sweeps were brought back by Adams earlier on in his first year as a key initiative to clean up city streets.<\/p>\n

Over 45,000 complaints for NYC homeless encampments were reported this year alone. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

A homeless person passes in front of NYPD police officers in Washington Square Park on Saturday, November 1, 2025 in New York City. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways, in trees, in front of schools, in parks,\u201d Adams said in March 2020, shortly after rolling out the policy shift.<\/p>\n

Adams has faced criticism for the sweeps, with his opponents saying he failed to place enough people with permanent housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was ripped by a former top NYPD cop over the far-lefty\u2019s plan to end homeless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2000,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-61900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-homelessness","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}