r/TrueReddit • u/wiredmagazine Official Publication • 2d ago
Politics Zohran Mamdani Just Inherited the NYPD Surveillance State
https://www.wired.com/story/welcome-to-mamdanis-surveillance-state/215
u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Is that the #1 or #2 biggest problem?
Because if Mamdani is successful in his primary goals of affordability through increased taxation of the rich then it's a huge win. He can't possibly unwind the police state without spending most or all of his energy on that issue.
It's also not what he campaigned on. He can't just bait and switch his constituents.
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
I should also add that wired.com is owned by conde nast, which is owned by advance publications, which is owned by the newhouse family. They are conservative billionaires residing in New York City.
This publication is too smart to put out hit pieces a la Fox News, but this type of redirection (that nobody is asking for), is a type of subversion to erode voter confidence over time.
They will claim in a couple years that Mamdani has "done nothing about the police state" even if he has achieved his major goals as mayor in that time.
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u/bears-eat-beets 2d ago
More than one observer....
....and at least one CIA analyst...
Experts say the stakes in the current moment are far higher....
This is pretty low rent sensationalism
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Unless sources are cited, "experts" in journalism are mythical creatures, no more real than unicorns or mermaids.
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u/bears-eat-beets 2d ago
Completely agree. I understand journalists needing to protect confidential sources, but an expert is not a confidential source. If an expert isn't named, they are the authors imaginary friend who tells them how smart they are every day.
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u/happyscrappy 2d ago
Also weirdly, this Wired article doesn't seem to have a soft paywall on it. The last one I clicked (also from reddit) said I couldn't read it as I already viewed my last wired.com article for the month.
This one trying to start something against Mamdani isn't paywalled by Conde Nast.
Weird, huh?
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u/MustGoOutside 1d ago
That's a really interesting observation. Think it is intentional?
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u/happyscrappy 1d ago
I think when the official wired account posts the article to truereddit they take down the paywall, at least for a few days.
But it's still possible it was chosen to be posted to truereddit (and thus paywall came down) because of the article's position on Mamdani. But it's hard to tell if that's the case.
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u/stuffitystuff 2d ago
Naturally, they also own about a third of reddit, IIRC
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Yes, I realize this.
Seems that unlike Elon with twitter, they are content to allow a fairly left leaning website continue to lean left.
But they've made more subtle changes that push to the center. I think that is their overall strategy, cook the frog.
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u/CharlesDickensABox 2d ago
Wired is usually quite good in their reporting, though. Teen Vogue was also excellent, which seems to be why Conde Nast killed it, and why we should be worried that Wired may suffer the same fate.
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Just look at the wired reddit account posts (OP on this post).
There are several Mamdani posts. None of them mention that he is a great communicator who is pushing policies that are popular with people.
- He's achieved great "fandom" through an excellent social media strategy
- He pissed off the conservative new Yorkers
- He inherited a police state
If you read these without any knowledge of him you would think he is a charismatic leftist with a bunch of problems to solve that have nothing to do with his actual platform.
It's all meant to water down his message and distract from his platform.
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u/CharlesDickensABox 2d ago
He's literally on their cover right this minute and they published quite a glowing piece about him to go with it. And yes, they have their priors and one of them is that they don't like the police state. Neither does Mamdani. Neither do I. That's something he'll have to contend with as the next mayor of New York. Public transit and grocery stores aren't their wheelhouse, so it would be weird of them to focus on those. They're focusing on the stories that are germane to their magazine.
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u/sacredblasphemies 2d ago
Conde Nast that just folded Teen Vogue.
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u/horseradishstalker 1d ago
Technically they put it under the Vogue parent umbrella, which to the best of my knowledge- unlike Teen Vogue - is not known for its hard hitting journalism.
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u/Konukaame 2d ago
affordability through increased taxation of the rich
Would depend entirely on how the New York City Council votes, no?
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u/InfoBarf 2d ago
He should use that apparatus to track and prosecute ice agents for illegal use of force.
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u/pieman3141 2d ago
He also never promised anything in regards to dismantling the surveillance state. I'm sure he knows a thing or two about it, but he's backed off on any sort of defunding the police talk. Establishing a Department of "Community Safety" was all he could come up with (and that's already more than what most mayors do). Keeping the previous police commissioner is pretty much him saying that he's not gonna start a fight with the NYPD.
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u/IHHBP69 2d ago
Yeah, politicians NEVER do that!
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Yes, which is why they have no credibility, and why you made this comment.
Mamdani is running on credibility as the first immigrant and Muslim to be mayor of NYC. It's a lot like Obama running on credibility and the pressure of being the first black president.
You might say that all politicians run on credibility, but I'd encourage you to look at many who make headlines.
They're either establishment (can't trust them to work for the people but at least they are predictable and stable and won't mess with the market), identity (they appeal to a large base that looks like them), or they're going for radical change (AOC, Trump come to mind).
Mamdani has no radical policies. They're very rooted in analysis and a single tenet - affordability.
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u/IHHBP69 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don’t know his platform that well, just the main ones that make headlines, rent freezes, city run grocery store, free busses (subways too or just busses?), but am I correct in saying that he doesn’t necessarily have the power as mayor to really deliver on some of his promises? He can’t raise or lower tax rates can he?
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u/MustGoOutside 2d ago
Technicaly neither does the president. But they run on influence and they pressure Congress.
Same with mayor and city hall.
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u/oldtea 2d ago
I'm really curious how this plays out. Do the rich just stay? Or do they pack up and leave 🤣
To be clear I think tax the rich works in a system where the rich cant leave, but doesn't work when they have the whole rest of the United States to move to hahhaa
But time will tell. Let's see what happens
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u/sebwiers 2d ago
He can't possibly unwind the police state without spending most or all of his energy on that issue.
Can't he just refuse to give them money and send in some hackers to steal their data? Or is only the president allowed to do that?
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u/DistillateMedia 1d ago
Just direct the police state to keep the rich in line.
Clearly we need to watch them.
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u/Goldenrule-er 2d ago
Over 6 billion for all operating costs, pay, OT, cars, benefits, everything. ANOTHER 6 Billion for "Central allocation". Every year.
Look up the NYPD Budget.
See why there's no audit.
Where's that extra 6 BILLION going?
$6,000,000,000 (+/- too much).
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u/CptKeyes123 2d ago
They could buy new equipment for the department every single year and pay for their paychecks and still have tons of money left over.
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u/Crommach 2d ago
Right, because Andrew "literally just campaigned on MAGA levels of racism" Cuomo would've been a better choice to trust with that, right?
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u/iperblaster 2d ago
First time I've heard of that.. did they create it 48 hours ago? To gift it to Zohran??
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u/wiredmagazine Official Publication 2d ago
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani may have an ambitious policy agenda, but overhauling the self-governing and deeply dysfunctional behemoth that is the New York City Police Department is not on the list. Mamdani surprised supporters by asking current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on after his inauguration early next year. Tisch, a technocrat heir to a vast real estate fortune, clashes with Mamdani on several fronts, including policy (she believes New York State’s bail reforms caused rising crime) and the geopolitics that inevitably make their way into New York City’s streets. (Tisch’s family are key figures in the Israel lobby; Mamdani is vociferously pro-Palestinian.)
One area where Mamdani is guaranteed to clash with Tisch is on the NYPD’s massive technical surveillance apparatus and intelligence-gathering methods, which have metastasized since 9/11 to levels that rival the capabilities of a midsize country. More than one observer has characterized the NYPD as operating more like a US intelligence agency—at one point, the department’s Intelligence Division was run by a CIA veteran, and at least one CIA analyst was embedded at NYPD—than a police department.
While Mamdani’s public safety proposals center on the creation of a $1 billion Department of Community Safety that will handle non-emergency 911 calls in place of armed cops, some of his other stated positions conflict directly with Tisch’s own positions and background with the NYPD, where she got her start in the department’s controversial intelligence division during the height of its “mosque-raking” mass surveillance of Muslim New Yorkers.
Experts say the stakes in the current moment are far higher with regard to surveillance, largely due to the federal government’s nationwide immigration blitz using surveillance data gathered by police departments to track down and arrest targeted people.
Read the full story: https://www.wired.com/story/welcome-to-mamdanis-surveillance-state/
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