{"id":3192,"date":"2026-06-28T17:35:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2026-06-28T17:35:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:35:58","slug":"slippery-mamdani-wont-say-whether-he-supports-prisons-as-he-embraces-divisive-dem-hopeful-darializa-avila-chevalier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3192","title":{"rendered":"Slippery Mamdani won’t say whether he supports prisons as he embraces divisive Dem hopeful Darializa Avila Chevalier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Sunday refused to say whether he supports the existence of prisons.<\/p>\n

Read more Mamdani weighs in on changing the Constitution so he can run for president<\/a><\/p>\n

While showering praise on Darializa Avila Chevalier \u2014 the divisive far-left democratic socialist who won the Dem nod for New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District and has called to abolish prisons \u2014 Mamdani dodged revealing if he agrees with her on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are prisons,\u201d Mamdani told ABC News\u2019 \u201cThis Week\u201d while refusing to answer the question about his stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re also showing in this city is that safety is not something that\u2019s up for debate; it is something that we\u2019re actually delivering on,\u201d he said as if campaigning.<\/p>\n

While running for state assembly in 2020, Mamdani questioned the need for prisons, saying in an interview, \u201cWhat purpose do they serve?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people who defend the carceral state, they defend the idea of it and the way it makes them feel. They\u2019re not defending the reality of it and the practices that are part and parcel of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you actually break it down and ask people how many people come out of the prison system better than they went into the prison system, how much harm is actually being prevented versus created?\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2025 race for mayor, Mamdani also grappled with his past social-media posts bashing the New York Police Department as \u201cracist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.\u201d He called to \u201c#DefundTheNYPD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, he claimed, \u201cI am not running to defund the police\u201d and that he has \u201cgrown\u201d as an individual.<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t appear to have fully distanced himself from his past criticism of prisons. <\/p>\n

Read more Obamacare recipients include more than 1M without Social Security numbers, Dr. Oz, RFK Jr. reveal: \u2018Plagued by fraud\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

As mayor, Hizzoner has pushed to shutter the Rikers Island jail complex, which holds the majority of the Big Apple\u2019s worst criminal offenders. <\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier, who took down Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat in the primary last week, scrubbed her social media of her previous calls to abolish prisons as well as the border and her championing of communism.<\/p>\n

She also once blasted former President Joe Biden as a rapist, wrote \u201cf\u2014\u201d Kamala Harris and boasted about wiping her dirty hands on the American flag while trashing the US.<\/p>\n

The Dem candidate slammed men of color on Twitter, too, for engaging in interracial relationships with white women.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBlack men [handshake emoji] Arab men fetishizing ugly colonizer women,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus of her candidacy was about the struggle that working people are facing,\u201d Mamdani claimed in Sunday\u2019s interview. \u201cAnd I think that we can have disagreements on policy positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have to agree on is what are we fighting for and who are we fighting for. She showed that in her race, and I think that many people will come to appreciate that in her leadership to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a Post request for comment Sunday about Mamdani\u2019s position on prisons.<\/p>\n

Read more Cape Verde\u2019s soccer team captain accused of raping translator before star World Cup run<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While showering praise on Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was coy Sunday about whether he agrees with her on the existence of prisons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nSlippery Mamdani won't say whether he supports prisons as he embraces divisive Dem hopeful Darializa Avila Chevalier - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3192\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Slippery Mamdani won't say whether he supports prisons as he embraces divisive Dem hopeful Darializa Avila Chevalier - 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