Eric Adams rips Zohran Mamdani’s plan to cut NYPD task force that responded to NYC massacre
Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday ripped socialist mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s vow to cut the elite NYPD task force that responded to the deadly Manhattan mass shooting — warning the move would be “extremely dangerous.”
Hizzoner lashed out after it emerged his mayoral rival had previously promised to disband the police department’s Strategic Response Group — or SRG — if he’s elected as the Big Apple’s next mayor.
“They are the elite of the department,” Adams told CNBC when asked about Mamdani’s plan to cut the special operations division that quickly mobilizes in the event of citywide emergencies.
Adams said the tactical unit — who were among the first to storm the scene of Monday’s massacre — is made up of “well-trained” officers that know how to combat “extremely dangerous situations.”
“When you start dismantling the pieces of the law enforcement apparatus that is specifically designed to carry out functions — that is extremely dangerous,” Adams said.
“A lack of knowledge and understanding of these roles really could harm law enforcement.”
“There are no routine jobs in the police department. They can turn violent instantly,” he continued. “So I think it’s the wrong decision to do and we should never endanger public safety in the city. It’s not an experiment, it’s experience.”
The mayor’s reaction came after it emerged Mamdani had promised in December 2024 to axe the task force — despite the far-left Queens assemblyman expressing how “grateful” he was for the first responders who responded to Monday’s attack inside the Midtown skyscraper that left four people dead.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
“As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements and brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment rights,” the socialist mayoral frontrunner wrote in a social media post during his campaign.
The NYPD’s chief of detectives, John Chell, echoed the mayor’s sentiment, telling Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that the elite group of officers are “our best trained.”
“As incident commander, they give me a level of confidence,” the chief said. “I know certain things they get done. They’re the best we’ve got.”
The defense of the task force came less than 24 hours after Mamdani praised the first responders who dealt with the shooting.
“I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer in critical condition in my thoughts,” Mamdani wrote on social media. “Grateful for all of our first responders on the ground.”
Mamdani, meanwhile, has faced a wave of backlash over his past smears of the NYPD, including social media posts from 2020 when he called to “Defund the Police” in the wake of the George Floyd protests that swept the nation.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
