Overview

• He returned from Uganda to New York following the midtown Manhattan mass shooting that killed four people, including Officer Didarul Islam, and faced scrutiny over the timing of his response and past calls to cut police funding.
• After meeting Islam’s family, he told reporters “I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” marking a formal walk-back of his 2020 defund-the-NYPD stance.
• He proposed a Department of Community Safety to handle mental health crises, aimed to reduce NYPD overtime and insisted that officers focus on serious crimes rather than broad headcount cuts.
• His personal engagement, including an invitation into Islam’s home and plans to attend the officer’s funeral, is designed to demonstrate empathy and hands-on leadership.
• Rivals Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have seized on his past social media posts to question his grasp of public safety as he campaigns toward the November general election.