Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani’s plan to shift responsibility for hate crimes from the New York Police Department to his proposed “Department of Community Safety” (DCS) has both advocates and victims sounding the alarm.
Mamdani discussed the idea during a Wednesday press conference in which he addressed last week’s shooting in Manhattan that left an NYPD officer and three civilians dead. The candidate listed “gun violence prevention, homelessness, mental health crises, hate crimes, [and] victims’ services” as tasks the DCS would handle.
An overview of the DCS linked on Mamdani’s campaign website explains that he would fight hate crimes as mayor through creating “restorative justice processes,” instituting “community-based bystander training,” and enlisting “mental health navigators.”
“The DCS will oversee stronger, more effective solutions to hate violence, investing in approaches that prevent violence through education and community-building, interrupt violence through community-based bystander training and rapid response at the local level, and repair damage through restorative justice, counseling, and peer support,” the DCS guide reads.
Several hate crime survivors told the Washington Free Beacon that having the DCS rather than the NYPD respond to such incidents will have serious consequences. Joey Borgen, a 33-year-old accountant who lives in New York City, went even further.
A mob of Islamists affiliated with the pro-Hamas Within Our Lifetime (WOL) organization attacked Borgen in May 2021, beating Borgen—who wore a yarmulke at the time—in broad daylight in the middle of Times Square. At least four individuals involved have been sentenced, while additional prosecutions remain ongoing.
“The NYPD saved my life,” Borgen told the Free Beacon. “If the NYPD weren’t there, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. Just straight up, like, they saved my life.”
Manhattan’s George Soros-funded district attorney, Alvin Bragg, initially planned to offer plea deals and only changed course after Borgen participated in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Bragg’s conduct, Borgen said.
Mamdani, who has also received support from Soros and his political network, has participated in at least one WOL event in the past. Video shows him speaking at a rally held by the organization, which explicitly advocates violence against Jews in the United States.
“Zohran has stood side by side with the same hate group that almost killed me,” Borgen said.
A majority of hate crime incidents in New York City unfold in the same way, with 345 of the 641 reported hate crimes in 2024 having Jews as their targets. Of the 300 reported hate crimes in the city to this point in 2025, 170 have been directed at Jews. Assaults and aggravated harassment have made up the majority of hate crimes in New York City so far this year, a source familiar with the data told the Free Beacon.
Miss Israel 2021 winner Noa Cochva had a similar experience in March 2024, when a pro-Hamas agitator assaulted her and left the beauty queen with a black eye. Just two months later, an activist at an anti-Israel rally in Washington Square Park pulled out a knife and lunged at her.
Cochva told the Free Beacon that the prospect of a Mamdani victory scares her.
“I think it will be really devastating,” she said. “It can really affect the way people feel safety in the city. And a lot of people will not feel safe because of it.”
She said the pro-Hamas movement in particular presents public safety problems in New York.
“Two days ago, I was just near the consulate of Israel and there were crazy protests,” Cochva told the Free Beacon. “And I was just talking to one of the people that works there in the consulate, and I told her, like, ‘this is insane that so many cops are here right now to protect you guys. What happens if Mamdani wins?’”
The term “hate crime” in New York City covers a wide range of violent and nonviolent offenses. While all fall under the NYPD’s jurisdiction, the police have a much more limited presence in response to lower-level crimes like synagogue vandalism.
“It depends on the precinct, depends on the climate in that particular area,” Democratic state assemblyman Kalman Yeger, who represents a heavily Orthodox Jewish district in Brooklyn that has seen waves of anti-Semitic attacks, told the Free Beacon.
“I’ve seen everything from ‘track down the video and hunt down the guy’ to—true story—the responding police officer suggesting to a synagogue that they ought to take down the sign,” he said.
Yeger publicly urged his constituents with the means to leave New York City to do so after Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary election.
“Your children’s lives and future will depend on the choices you make now,” he warned.
Yeger told the Free Beacon that moving jurisdiction of hate crimes away from the NYPD would mean the end of investigations.
“Crime is investigated by law enforcement and then prosecuted by the district attorney, just like the TV shows say,” he said. “And there is no way to investigate crime without law enforcement. What you’re suggesting is that hate crimes ought to be dealt with by bureaucrats in some other to-be-named-later agency which is not law enforcement.”
About his call for his Jewish constituents to leave the city, Yeger said, “I’m a public official; I have an obligation to be honest with my neighbors.”
Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to repeated Free Beacon requests for comment.
