Mayor Mamdani Compares ICE Officer to a Mass Shooter

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Sunday that an ICE officer involved in a shooting is comparable to a mass shooter. You can read the report yourself here.

I've read a lot of dumb things said about ICE agents over 26 years in the Border Patrol. This one earns a spot near the top.

A mass shooter walks into a school, a church, a shopping mall, and opens fire on strangers. The goal is body count. An ICE officer, whatever went wrong in this incident, was engaged in an enforcement action against someone in the country illegally. Those two things share nothing except the involvement of a firearm. Conflating them is cheap, the mayor knows it's cheap, and he said it anyway because it plays well with the abolish-ICE crowd he's performing for.

For people who've never worn the badge: when an officer-involved shooting occurs, the incident gets reviewed. Multiple times, by multiple bodies, sometimes for years. If the shooting was bad, the officer answers for it. If it was within policy, that comes out too. That's the process, and the process doesn't care about a mayor's press conference.

Mamdani skipped all of that and went straight to the worst available comparison. He isn't interested in what happened. He's interested in the headline.

Word to the mayor: the men and women doing these arrests are the same ones pulling convicted killers, child rapists, and traffickers off the streets of his city. We've covered those arrests here week after week, and DHS doesn't exactly keep quiet about the criminal records behind them. The work doesn't stop being real because a politician finds it useful to smear the people doing it.

Calling that kind of work the work of a mass shooter doesn't make it true. It makes the job harder for agents, and it tells every illegal alien in the five boroughs that the mayor of New York has their back over the officers'. He'd deny that's the message. It is, whether he admits it or not.

The scoreboard doesn't care about rhetoric. Arrests keep happening. Removal flights keep flying. Records keep falling. And a mayor who compares a federal officer to a mass shooter has told you everything you need to know about whose side he's on.

Comments (50)

nonaggression_ned21 days ago

Fun watching two guys argue about which side the boot lands on while nobody questions whether the state should be kicking doors in Keene or Queens at all.

patrolsgt_ret21 days ago

Sergeant here, 29 years, retired 2020. The authors point about the review process is exactly right, every officer involved shooting I ever saw went through multiple reviews, sometimes years of them, and Mamdani skipped all that to get a headline. Comparing a federal officer doing an enforcement action to somebody shooting strangers in a mall is cheap rhetoric and the mayor knows it. Heres the part that matters for the street guys: when the mayor of that city says something like this, every agent making arrests in the five boroughs just lost a little more cover.

middlepathmike20 days ago

Can we all agree the mayor went too far with the mass shooter line but also that rushing to defend the shooting before the review finishes is its own kind of politics? both sides here are playing to there base.

DevilsAvocado9919 days ago

love the "scoreboard doesn't care about rhetoric" line like arrests are a fantasy football stat and we're supposed to cheer

beth_tucson19 days ago

My husband comes home from shift and tells me about the guys they pull out of the desert, rapists, traffickers, the works, and this mayor wants to call ICE the same as some psycho shooting up a mall. Mamdani doesnt have to send his kids to bed wondering if daddys coming home from work tonight, he just gets to run his mouth for the cameras. Easy to smear people doing the job when youve never done anything harder than a press conference.

paminprovence19 days ago

I hear you on the worry, Beth, I genuinely do, and my family back home in Ohio would probably say the same thing you just did. But here in France I watch a country handle immigration without anyone needing to call enforcement officers heroes or villains, and the whole american framing just looks unhinged from this distance. C'est fatigant, honestly, watching you two fight over who worships the uniform harder while the actual policy stays broken.

You get to watch from your kitchen in Provence and call it fatiguing, I sleep next to a man who straps on a vest every night so go ahead and tell me again how the framing is unhinged.

paminprovence18 days ago

You're right Beth, your husband straps on a vest and mine straps on a visor for the marché, that's the gulf between us and I've never pretended otherwise. But sleeping next to a cop doesn't make you an authority on rhetoric, it makes you scared, and scared people are exactly who this framing was designed for. I think about my brother in Akron every single day and whether this country is still livable for him. Don't confuse my distance for disinterest.

Dale RutledgeWriter18 days ago

Your brother in Akron is a lot safer with a vest on the street than a visor at a market in Provence, and the people who actually strap on the vest would tell you that themselves. Distance doesn't protect anyone, including him.

I don't recall calling it fatiguing, but yes, I do watch from here, and your husband strapping on a vest doesn't actually make the comparison less unhinged. Two things can be true at once, Beth. Your proximity to the border gives you a perspective and it also makes you defensive about anything that touches it.

beth_tucson18 days ago

You sit in Provence sipping wine and lecturing me about "unhinged" while my husband's out tonight 40 minutes from a border you've never been within a thousand miles of. France handles immigration, really, is that why half your suburbs are no-go zones for cops? You keep calling it worship, I call it wanting my husband to come home alive, and if you can't tell the difference that's your problem not mine. Come spend a week down here and then tell me how fatigant it is.

You've never been within a thousand miles of Provence, clearly, because the "no-go zones" you're describing are a fantasy you swallowed whole from the same media ecosystem that's making you this frightened. I have never once lectured you about your husband's safety and you know it, so kindly stop wrapping yourself in that when what you're actually doing is cheering on a politician who called a federal officer a mass shooter. France does handle immigration, badly and cruelly enough, c'est vrai, but nobody here is electing people who talk like that. And yes, it is fatigant, watching you do this to yourselves from across an ocean.

beth_tucson17 days ago

You sit over there in France watching America through your screen and you think you know what goes on here, I live 40 minutes from the line and my husband patrols it every single week so dont you dare tell me what Im frightened of. Nobody elected Mamdani either but hes still out there calling a federal officer a mass shooter and people like you just nod along. Keep sipping your wine and clutching your pearls at us from across the ocean, we'll handle our border whether you approve or not.

beth_tucson16 days ago

You sit over there filing your nails and lecturing me about my border town, Pam, so dont tell me youre fatigued.

paminprovence16 days ago

I'm not filing my nails, I'm drinking a pastis and worrying about your eternal rage, ma chérie.

paminprovence15 days ago

I'm not filing my nails, Beth, I'm watching your country fall apart from a safe distance and honestly too tired to do more than wave.

beth_tucson15 days ago

You've been "watching from a safe distance" for months now Pam, real easy to wave from a patio in Provence while my husband's out there dealing with the actual fallout. If you're too tired to care then quit commenting, go enjoy your wine and let the people who actually live this handle it.

paminprovence14 days ago

You're right Beth, I do have the wine, and from here your side of the argument looks exactly like someone who's been too close to the heat to remember what started the fire.

beth_tucson14 days ago

Too close to the heat, you mean I actually live here and see it every day instead of sipping wine in France and reading about it. My husband puts on a vest and goes to work, your contribution is typing about the fire from 5,000 miles away. Enjoy provence, some of us dont have that luxury.

beth_tucson13 days ago

Too close to the heat, you mean I actually live here and see it every day while you sip wine in France and lecture me about my own state. Enjoy your provence, I'll be here 40 minutes from the line waiting for my husband to come home safe like he does every shift. Come stay a week and then tell me who forgot what started the fire.

Enjoy your wine in Provence, you can afford to be smug about the fire when its 5000 miles from your house.

paminprovence13 days ago

You again. The fire is 5000 miles from my house because I made a life somewhere that doesn't treat cruelty as a governing philosophy, and my family in Ohio is still in it, which is exactly why I don't get to look away. But sure, tell me more about how distance is the problem and not what you're defending.

beth_tucson12 days ago

You sit in France lecturing me about cruelty while my husband works the corridor you abandoned, and your family in Ohio gets to live with the consequences of whatever you vote for from your little villa. Come home and say this to any of the agents working that sector, they'd love to hear your theory.

paminprovence12 days ago

My "little villa" is a rented flat above a boulangerie, but sure, keep the fantasy going if it helps your argument.

beth_tucson11 days ago

Cruelty as a governing philosophy, from your villa in the south of France, that's rich. My husband's out there tonight 40 minutes from the line while you lecture america from a cheese plate, and your family in ohio deserves better than you using them as a prop. Come home, spend one week down here, then tell me who the cruel one is.

paminprovence11 days ago

I'll trade you the cheese plate for one week of your paranoia, cherie, my family in Ohio can speak for themselves.

beth_tucson10 days ago

Paranoia, you keep using that word like you know what it means from your kitchen in provence. My husband puts on a vest every night so people like you can sip wine and lecture us about the border you'll never live near. Ohio family and all, you still dont get a vote on what we deal with down here cherie

you know my husband's border patrol stories by heart by now, and yet you never explain what any of it has to do with a mayor pointing out cruelty.

Pointing out cruelty? He put a federal officer in the same sentence as a mass shooter, from a podium, on camera. You've been sipping rosé in Provence so long you forgot what an actual Border Patrol agent does all day, and yes my husbands stories are relevant because unlike you we LIVE this, you watch it from a patio chair 5,000 miles away. Come stay a week at my house, then lecture me about cruelty.

paminprovence10 days ago

Yes, the rosé line was clever, well done. My family in Ohio also believes proximity to something makes them an expert on it, and I love them too much to tell them the border isn't the moral measuring stick they think it is. Enjoy your husband's stories, I'll keep watching from the patio with the free healthcare.

You're lecturing me about the border from a patio in France, hope the rosé was worth it.

The patio chair line again, honestly you recycle it more often than your husband recycles his stories. I never forgot what Border Patrol does all day, that's rather the point of the disagreement. And I did live there, forty years, including the Ohio part, so spare me the residency requirement you invent whenever the argument slips away from you. Distance is awkward for you, I know, it means I can read three papers a morning here instead of whatever feed has you this wound up.

beth_tucson8 days ago

Three papers a morning from a porch in France and you still cant figure out what a border agent actually does all day, thats almost impressive. My husband doesnt recycle stories, he comes home with new ones every week because the mess never stops, youd know that if you lived here instead of just lecturing about it from another continent. Forty years in Ohio qualifies you to talk about corn, Pam, stay in your lane.

paminprovence8 days ago

Ah yes, the weekly "my husband saw a thing" dispatch, as if anecdotes from one man's lunch break outweigh actual reporting. I never claimed forty years in Ohio qualified me for anything except loving people I no longer understand, but do keep swinging at that scarecrow. You tell me to stay in my lane while you defend a mayor being smeared from a porch in Arizona, which is truly a pot-and-kettle situation, chérie.

beth_tucson7 days ago

Lunch break, thats cute. My husbands lunch break is a taco in a patrol car 40 minutes from the border, and what he "sees" on that shift is the actual reality you read about from a cafe in France. You keep lecturing americans from another continent about smear campaigns, chérie, maybe worry about your own backyard before you audit mine.

paminprovence6 days ago

We meet again, and once more your argument is "I live closer to a problem therefore I understand it better." Mon dieu, that logic would make every war zone a philosophy department. I never said your husband's shift isn't real, I said comparing an ICE officer to a mass shooter was the topic, and you've somehow turned it into an audit of my postcode. My backyard in Ohio voted for this, chérie, which is precisely why I worry.

beth_tucson6 days ago

You lecture me about america from a farmhouse in provence and somehow IM the one who brought up geography, thats rich. Worry about your own backyard chérie, mine has actual cartel traffic in it and my husband walks into it every night.

paminprovence5 days ago

You know what, I hope your husband stays safe, genuinely, that's a real fear and I won't mock it. But your cartel backyard doesn't buy you a monopoly on worrying about america, ma chère, my family in Ohio is living this mess same as you. And I notice you skipped right past the article to swing at me, which tells me even you can't defend what Mamdani supposedly said here.

beth_tucson5 days ago

Thank you for the well wishes, now go back to explaining ohio to me from a cafe in provence. And no, I didnt skip the article, a mayor comparing an ICE officer to a mass shooter while my husband wears that kind of vest to work is exactly why I swing first.

paminprovence4 days ago

Swing first" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, you know that, right? You want a medal for threatening people online while your husband does his job, a job which, last I checked, involves him wearing the vest, and you wearing the grievance. I never explained Ohio to you, I told you my family lives there, which you'd remember if you read as carefully as you claim to read the articles. Bonne nuit.

I dont need to defend it, the headline does the work for itself, and there you go again lecturing me about ohio from a café in provence.

You skipped the part where your "family in Ohio" is 2000 miles from the line, comparing worry from your couch in provence to my husbands shift is hilarious.

paminprovence3 days ago

Fair point about the distance, beth still gets to be wrong from closer range.

beth_tucson3 days ago

Wrong from closer range, sure. You're typing that from a village in the south of france while my husband works checkpoints 40 minutes from the line, but tell me again how you've got the better view. Distance isn't the issue with you, it's that you get everything secondhand from your headlines and then lecture the people who live it. Come stay a week, I keep offering.

Wrong from closer range, thats cute coming from someone watching all this from a french cafe. You've never had cartel scouts on your street, I have, so spare me the lecture about who gets to have an opinion. Come stay a week here in provence of arizona and then tell me im wrong.

I worry about my backyard because my family back home keeps voting to make yours dangerous, chérie, that's the difference between us.

I genuinely hope your husband stays safe, I mean that, and I'd never wish cartel traffic on anyone. But forgive me if I don't accept border proximity as a credential for political wisdom, or you'd have to explain why Arivaca keeps voting the other way. Being scared near a problem doesn't make your reading of it correct, chérie works both ways you know.

beth_tucson4 days ago

Thank you for the safety wish, my husband would probably say the same. But "chérie" from someone watching this from a porch in Provence is rich, I'll take my political wisdom from 40 minutes off the line over your espresso-fueled takes any day.

You're watching from "a safe distance" and waving, thats your whole contribution while my husband is actually out there dealing with it every night. Must be nice sitting in Provence judging a country you left, we'll manage just fine without your tired little wave from across the ocean.

You sitting in France sipping wine watching us deal with a border you dont have to live next to is rich, "c'est fatigant" you say, try having your husband work a double shift 40 minutes from the line and see how fast you appreciate the uniform.

Mayor Mamdani Compares ICE Officer to a Mass Shooter

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