Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is urging New York City police officers to consider relocating to his state as socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gains traction in NYC’s upcoming election.
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist and vocal critic of law enforcement, has repeatedly called for defunding and dismantling the NYPD.
The far-left candidate’s rise has drawn sharp warnings from conservatives across the country.
In an interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum, DeSantis said Mamdani’s policies would devastate public safety and drive even more New Yorkers to flee the city.
“If he’s elected, I think it’ll be an example of voters of New York City committing an act of ballistic podiatry because it is going to come back and bite the city,” DeSantis said.
“He is so far Left, and he mixes his leftism with Islamism.
“He’s going to make the (former NYC Democrat Mayor Bill) de Blasio years look like the golden age.”
Mamdani’s Anti-Police Record
Mamdani’s anti-police rhetoric stretches back years.
In 2020, he posted on social media:
“No, we want to defund the police.”
“Queer liberation means defund the police.”
“The NYPD [is] racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
He later wrote, “There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked and corrupt.
“Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.”
In 2023, Mamdani claimed that the “boot of the NYPD is on your neck,” comments that sparked widespread backlash even among some Democrats.
DeSantis said those statements are evidence of a deep hostility toward law enforcement that would make it impossible for police officers to perform their duties safely or effectively.
“If you’re working in NYPD, do you want to go out there and risk your life knowing that the mayor hates you?” he said.
“No, a lot of them are not going to want to do that.”
“Come to Florida”
DeSantis pointed to Florida’s pro-law enforcement policies, including a $5,000 recruitment bonus for officers who move to the state, as an alternative for officers fed up with New York’s political climate.
“In Florida, we’ve established a $5,000 recruitment bonus,” he said.
“So if you are somebody that doesn’t want to serve under that guy as mayor, you come to Florida, any state or local law-enforcement agency, you get $5000 right at the top.”
DeSantis said that law enforcement officers across the country are watching cities like New York and Chicago suffer the consequences of left-wing criminal justice policies.
“I will tell you: If you say you’re going to disband the NYPD, if you put the criminals back on the street, if you engage in far-Left policies that would make George Soros blush, people do respond to that,” he said.
“And of all the people that have migrated to Florida since I’ve been governor, I would say the number one reason they’ve left places — like New York City under De Blasio, like they’ve left Chicago under this mayor and the previous mayor, like leaving San Francisco and Los Angeles — is public safety.
“Those leftist politicians turn their backs on the police, turn their backs on the rule of law, and then the citizens were the ones that paid the price.”
“Working-Class People Pay the Price”
DeSantis also warned that Mamdani’s far-left agenda would hurt the very people progressives claim to represent.
“And I will tell you the disproportionate impact on those far-Left policies that do help the criminal element is actually not even the wealthy people, though they’re affected to a certain extent, it’s the working class people; it’s the middle class,” he said.
“Those are the folks that get affected the most. I do think that he will spark migration out of the city, particularly if he follows through on his far-left, anti-law enforcement policies.”
WATCH:
If elected, Mamdani would become the most openly anti-police mayor in New York City history.
According to DeSantis, his rise should serve as a cautionary tale for every city choosing ideology over public safety.
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