Ending the secretive, racially biased labeling of individuals as gang affiliates or terrorism suspects without due process.
Dissolving Gang Databases and Terrorist Watchlists
The NYPDs gang database and its cooperation with federal terrorism watchlists are tools of pervasive, secretive surveillance that label individualsoverwhelmingly young Black and Latino men, and Muslim New Yorkersas threats based on vague criteria like social media associations or clothing, not criminal activity. Mamdanis policy orders the immediate freezing and dissolution of the NYPDs gang database, the destruction of all records within it, and a ban on the department contributing to or using such databases. He would also end NYPD collaboration with federal watchlist programs that lack transparency and due process.
Individuals who have been on these lists would be notified and offered legal support to challenge any lingering restrictions. Mamdani argues these databases are a form of digital racial profiling that can lead to heightened police harassment, denial of immigration status, and loss of employment, all without any criminal charge or day in court. These lists are a guilty-until-proven-innocent shadow justice system, he says. They criminalize identity and association, not action. They have no place in a free society. We will end this practice and restore the basic right of New Yorkers to live without being secretly branded as criminals or terrorists by their own government.
