“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the Queens assemblyman said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

Mamdani made the comparison during the 2023 Democratic Socialists of America’s national convention, where he was the keynote speaker.

During a separate panel discussion titled “Socialist Internationalism: The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism,” Mamdani said it was important to connect “hyperlocal” and “international issues” with residents.

“We are in a country where those connections abound. Especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to capitalist interests over here,” he said..

“For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them connected,” he continued. “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”

“We have to make it materially connected to their lives.”

Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee, is now distancing himself from his police bashing comments.

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He has tried to make nice with the department and its supporters while running for mayor, distancing himself from comments he made in 2020 when he called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and backed “defund the police.”

With City Hall within his grasp, he now says he would retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner.

He has tried to make nice with the department and its supporters while running for mayor, distancing himself from comments he made in 2020 when he called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and backed “defund the police.”

But police veterans, including former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, the longest-serving police boss, are not buying Mamdani’s pivot.

Kelly on Monday endorsed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor.

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