New York City Mayor Eric Adams is continuing to resist calls to resign after being indicted on federal corruption charges. In recent weeks, at least seven senior city officials have resigned, leaving the city government in a state of crisis. This comes a year before New Yorkers will vote to pick the city’s next mayor. Adams has vowed to run for reelection, but opponents, including fellow Democrats, are lining up to run against him.
We are joined now by New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who has just announced he will join the race. Mamdani is a Ugandan-born Democratic Socialist who was elected to the New York State Assembly four years ago.
He is running on a platform centered on the needs of working-class New Yorkers and easing the cost-of-living crisis. He shares a number of his policy proposals and also discusses his pro-Palestine advocacy in the State Assembly, where earlier this year he introduced the Not on Our Dime Act, which would prevent New York charities from providing financial support for Israeli settlement activity.
I once tried to get a restraining order and it was going to fall to a judge. What that means is that we’d all get in a room together, I’d give my entire schedule and then I’d explain (in front of the other person) why I feel unsafe, and then the judge can say yes or no.
I did not do that. Instead, I just moved, changed jobs, and sold my car.
I’m sorry you had to deal with all that to be safe. I hope you are in a better situation now. 😔
While the principle of our justice system is supposed to be the whole “better to let someone guilty go free then to punish someone innocent,” that’s naturally going to leave quite a number of people never getting the justice they deserve.
I have no clue what the right way to punish people is, but I feel people definitely have valid anger at the justice system even if things have been done by the letter of the law. The law is not perfect by design, so we should absolutely have the right to criticize it.
Yeah, with perspective, I realize it was maybe not as necessary as it felt at the time, but maybe that’s luck. I do keep a google alert up for his name and he beat the shit out of someone with a restraining order against him a few years ago, so there’s that, but I didn’t have nearly the emotional entanglement with him at the time that they did.
I’m now living in a different country (and he definitely can’t get a passport), so much less concerning now.
Edit: also thank you for the concern, that’s really sweet.
It’s better to have been overly cautious than to find out after the fact you left yourself too open to danger. I’m glad you were able to realize the situation you could have been in and were able to act on it despite the difficulty involved.
I don’t know you, but no matter who you are, I’d prefer you to be safe and happy. Nobody deserves to be miserable or scared.