Blog #169 The Future for NY City…DSA Dysphoria
Zohran Mamdani belongs to the Democratic Socialists of America, which listed these campaign platforms before the text was erased from its NYC website. Here’s how Mamdani responded when we asked him about them:
DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS, ALL PRETTY CRIMES AND ALL WORK
What NYC-DSA says:
Decriminalize all recreational drugs immediately and direct resources wasted on the drug war towards public health. Fully legalize marijuana for adult use with appropriate regulation to ensure that the industry benefits communities harmed by the drug war and does not become a capitalist enterprise. All drug war prisoners must be released.
Address the opioid epidemic and other substance abuse issues as public health problems—not crimes—through a harm-reduction model that includes measures such as safe injection sites and the wide availability of Narcan.
Decriminalize all petty offenses immediately — particularly “crimes of poverty” like fare-jumping and sleeping on the subway. Repeal the gravity knife law.
What Mamdani says:
His campaign said on background that the NYPD will enforce all misdemeanor crimes if he’s elected, but did not comment on the record.
LET OUT PEOPLE JAILED FOR DRUGS, SEX WORK, OTHER MINORS
What NYC-DSA says:
Expunge all convictions of drug crimes, sex work, and petty offenses and immediately release all who are incarcerated for such crimes.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
CHANGE YOUTHFUL OFFENDER TO 26
What NYC-DSA says:
Change the use of “youthful offender” prosecutions to enable young adults up to age 26 to be kept out of the criminal justice system whenever possible.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
ABOLISH PRETRIAL DETENTION AND CASH BAIL
What NYC-DSA says:
Abolish routine pretrial detention and cash bail. The abolition of cash bail must not result in added invasive surveillance or flawed algorithms that perpetuate the injustices of cash bail in neoliberal metrics.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani backed Albany’s “no bail” bill and was critical of Gov. Hochul’s rollbacks as an assemblyman.
CLOSE RIKERS ISLAND BUT OPEN NO NEW JAILS OR PRISONS
What NYC-DSA says:
Close Rikers immediately and demand that no new jails be built in its place. The jail population must be immediately reduced to the lowest possible level.
Ensure that reductions in the incarceration rate result in prison closures. No new prisons should be built.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani has vowed to close Rikers, but made no mention of stopping borough-based jails. Instead, he has emphasized the need to work with DAs to release people pretrial or divert them from the criminal justice system altogether.
DISMANTLE CCRB AND REPLACE WITH ELECTED BOARD
What NYC-DSA says:
Replace the toothless, unaccountable Civilian Complaint Review Board with an Elected Civilian Review Board empowered to prosecute police misconduct. Institute other measures that empower direct community control of the police, such as a community board.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
GANG DATABASE
What NYC-DSA says:
Discontinue the use of gang databases.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani, during the primary, called for the NYPD tool to be dismantled.
HALL MONITORS FOR COPS
What NYC-DSA says:
Implement use of civil liberties supervisors in police precincts.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
ALLOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO VOTE AND RUN FOR OFFICE
What NYC-DSA says:
Grant state citizenship to all New Yorkers.
Expand the right to vote in local and state elections to all New Yorkers, and the ability to hold political office, regardless of immigration status.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
ANTI-ICE AND EXPANSION OF SANCTUARY
What NYC-DSA says:
Extend and expand sanctuary protections across the state. Restrict ICE access even more.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani has vowed to resist ICE.
DECERTIFY BANKS THAT CONTRACT WITH, OR FUND, ICE
What NYC-DSA says:
Decertify banks that contract with, or fund, ICE.
End state and local contracts with companies that contract with DHS and ICE and share data with ICE.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
NO NEW CHARTER SCHOOLS
What NYC-DSA says:
End the creation of new charter schools, ban the expansion of existing charter schools, and transform existing charter schools into public schools.
What Mamdani says:
“I oppose efforts by the state to mandate an expansion of charter school operations in New York City,” he said previously.
REMOVE COPS FROM SCHOOLS
What NYC-DSA says:
End the use of police and school safety officers in schools.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
PRO TEACHER POLICIES
What NYC-DSA says:
End teacher evaluations on the basis of standardized testing.
Guarantee tenure, due process rights, pensions and an immediate end to the arbitrary denial of tenure to probationary teachers.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
DEI SCHOOLING AGENDA
What NYC-DSA says:
Allocate funds to push DEI in public schools.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
END MAYORAL CONTROL
What NYC-DSA says:
End mayoral control over city public schools.
What Mamdani says:
While no detailed education plan has been released, this is part of Mamdani’s official platform.
REPARATIONS
What NYC-DSA says:
Build support for reparations and pass legislation like the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.” Coming out of the commission, we would want budget lines for reparations at municipal, state, and federal levels.
Support reparations for Native American and Black communities.
What Mamdani says:
“New York City actively participated in the slave trade; it should reconcile and repair this legacy,” he said during the Dem primary race.
ALLOW MINORS TO TRANSITION WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT
What NYC-DSA says:
Allow trans minors access to transition related care without parental consent.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
HORMONE THERAPY/SURGERY
What NYC-DSA says:
Expand public funding for hormone therapy, surgery for trans people.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani has included this as part of his official campaign agenda.
MAKE ALL PUBLIC TRANSIT FREE
What NYC-DSA says:
Guarantee a right to free, clean, quality public transportation by fully funding, repairing and expanding the deteriorating New York public transit system and ultimately abolishing fares. Expansions should prioritize service into underserved communities, including bus rapid transit and light rail, and unify transit and payment systems.
What Mamdani says:
Mamdani has called for free buses.
CITY-RUN FOOD STORES
What NYC-DSA says:
Expand existing public food programs and municipal food purchasing and ensure purchases are from farms that protect farmworkers rights and utilize regenerative and sustainable practices, including in urban farms, and eliminate food waste, all to decarbonize and ensure access to healthy food.
What Mamdani says:
This has been a key pillar of Mamdani’s campaign.
CITY TAKE OVER OF UTILITIES/TECH INFRASTRUCTURE
What NYC-DSA says:
Collectively Owned Technology: Municipalize existing network infrastructure and utilities where possible.
What Mamdani says:
He ran for assemblyman on a platform of publicly owned utilities.
ABOLISH BOARDS OF ELECTIONS
What NYC-DSA says:
Abolish The New York State and New York City Boards of Elections, which are poster children for self-dealing major party control, and build new, nonpartisan institutions in their place that aim to serve and enfranchise all New York voters and candidates.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
SEIZE FOR LAND HOUSING
What NYC-DSA says:
Encourage the city to take eminent domain actions to create more affordable and de-commodified housing.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond
UNIVERSAL RENT CONTROL
What NYC-DSA says:
Pass Universal Rent Control.
The New York State legislature must strengthen and expand rent stabilization to cover all apartments, regardless of building size, age, or location.
What Mamdani says:
Refused to respond