New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) rushed to condemn the fatal shooting of a 7?month?old girl in Brooklyn as an unthinkable loss and heinous murder, even as his long record of anti-police activism and soft-on-crime policies hangs over the tragedy.
According to RedState, Mamdani issued a statement on X after 7?month?old Kaori Patterson?Moore was struck and killed by a stray bullet while riding in her stroller as her parents walked with her in Brooklyn. His remarks, heavy on sentiment but light on accountability, praised law enforcement and medical staff, despite his years of vilifying the NYPD and working to strip them of the very tools designed to stop violent criminals before they strike.
A 7-month-old baby was shot and killed today in Brooklyn an unthinkable loss, Mamdani wrote on X, as he attempted to strike a somber tone in the wake of the killing. Im grateful for the hospital staff who did everything they could and the NYPD for their ongoing work to find those responsible for this heinous murder.
The mayor then added a familiar progressive refrain, insisting that the city must not grow accustomed to the bloodshed that has become routine under lenient criminal justice policies. We cannot accept this violence as normal. Too many families have suffered this pain.
Standing beside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a press conference, Mamdani shifted blame away from the criminals who pulled the trigger and toward the inanimate object they used. A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant, he lamented, before pivoting to his preferred narrative. Today is a devastating reminder of how much more work there is to be done to combat gun violence across this city.
His framing was sharply undercut by Tisch, who indicated that Kaori was likely the unintended victim of a gang-related shooting, underscoring that the real crisis is violent offenders, not lawful gun owners. While Mamdani spoke of gun violence, the commissioners comments pointed back to the gang activity that flourishes when police are hamstrung and prosecutors refuse to keep dangerous criminals behind bars.
The mayors sudden public gratitude toward the NYPD struck many observers as hollow, given his history of hostility toward law enforcement and his efforts to dismantle gang-tracking tools. On X, critics noted the irony of a defund-the-police-aligned mayor expressing shock that such a crime occurred in a city where violent offenders are routinely cycled back onto the streets, often with the blessing of progressive prosecutors and judges.
Maybe if crazy leftist prosecutors would stop letting criminals go free because of equity or racism or whatever, that wouldnt be the case, Zohran, PolitiBunny, from RedStates sister site Twitchy, fired back, capturing the frustration of many New Yorkers. Jim Walden, a former independent mayoral candidate, echoed that anger, saying, We should focus on the familys loss today. But every time you now thank NYPD, it burns my blood after you spent your career attacking them and coddling criminals.
Another critic did not mince words about Mamdanis posture toward law enforcement and criminals. You really should be ashamed of yourself, (mayor). But we all know you still hate police and policing and would dine with this vile criminal if you could get away with it, politically.
Others pointed directly to the policy environment Mamdani champions, where leniency is extended to repeat offenders and ideological judges prioritize equity over public safety. Your soft-on-crime policies and liberal judges who release repeat offenders cause this! one commenter wrote, while another added with biting sarcasm, Get rid of some more cops. Seems to be working. Dumbass.
Those familiar with Mamdanis record see little chance that this tragedy will prompt a serious reassessment of his approach to crime and punishment. This is, after all, the same man who once claimed that violence is an artificial construction, a statement that neatly encapsulates the progressive fantasy that crime is merely a social abstraction rather than a brutal reality inflicted on innocent people.
Zohran Mamdani on why he wants to empty jails: VioIence is an artificial construct, one resurfaced clip noted, highlighting his ideological commitment to decarceration. In his worldview, criminals are often treated as victims of circumstance, while tools like guns are cast as the true villains, even when the blood of a murdered infant stains the sidewalks.
The reality in Brooklyn, however, is not theoretical. A very violent, very authentic, and real gang-affiliated criminal killed an innocent baby resting in a stroller, Zohran, as critics pointed out, and Her blood ran on the streets on which you seek to handcuff the police more than the animals roaming the city.
Mamdani was an early and vocal supporter of the defund the police movement, repeatedly branding the NYPD as an institution beyond reform. We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts - defund the police, he declared in one post, making clear his desire to shrink the force rather than empower it to fight crime.
He has also long targeted the NYPDs Criminal Group Database, commonly known as the gang database, which Commissioner Tisch credits with aiding dozens of gang takedowns, preventing retaliatory violence, and contributing to hundreds of arrests in 2025 alone. Mamdani has derided this tool as a vast dragnet that disproportionately ensnares young people of color with tenuous gang ties, and he has backed City Council legislation to abolish it outright, despite its role in dismantling the very networks that produce tragedies like Kaoris death.
Now, only months into his tenure, Mamdani has gone further by revoking an executive order that allowed federal monitoring of gangs such as Tren de Aragua at Rikers Island, while simultaneously strengthening sanctuary protections and proposing to cancel the hiring of 5,000 additional NYPD officers and cutting the departments budget. These moves come as the streets he now governs continue to bear the deadly consequences of weakened enforcement, with law-abiding families paying the price for ideological experiments in criminal justice.
The mayors statement on Kaori Patterson?Moores killing may sound compassionate on the surface, but it emanates from a politician who built his career attacking the NYPD and working to dismantle the very tools that might have stopped her killer before he ever pulled the trigger, leaving New Yorkers to wonder how many more unthinkable losses it will take before their leaders choose public safety over progressive dogma.
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