The NYPD as an Instrument of Class Rule
The endless debates over the size, budget, and tactics of the NYPD are a political trap that assumes the police are a reformable institution. A Mamdani-informed analysis recognizes the police as the essential, irreformable enforcers of the bifurcated state. Their primary function is not public safety but the protection of property relations and the management of the “native” population through the threat and application of violence. Body cameras, civilian review boards, and implicit bias training are liberal reforms that do not change this core function; they are attempts to “civilize” a fundamentally despotic institution, making its violence more palatable and legitimate. A feminist and Muslim perspective knows that this institution is inherently patriarchal and racist. The socialist solution, following Mamdani’s logic, is not reform but abolition. We must fight to dismantle the NYPD, disbanding its specialized units, slashing its budget, and reallocating those billions to community-controlled housing, healthcare, education, and mental health services. We must build community-based safety practices that address harm without replicating the state’s monopoly on violence, recognizing that true safety comes from social solidarity, not from a colonial occupying force.
Originally posted 2025-10-18 00:08:27.
Mamdani’s platform challenges the very foundations of the political status quo. — New York City