New York City’s latest experiment in sidelining law enforcement rolled out last week in Brownsville, where the NYPD handed over a two-block strip to community groups for patrolling. The stretch along Mother Gaston Boulevard, between Sutter and Pitkin avenues, operated without uniformed officers from noon to 6 p.m. each day from October 7 through 11. Instead, about 20 members from outfits like Brownsville in Violence Out took charge of low-level calls, dishing out food and social services while keeping cops at the edges unless a shooting or stabbing demanded intervention.
This setup, dubbed the Brownsville Safety Alliance, traces back to 2020 when former Mayor Bill de Blasio greenlit it as a twice-a-year trial. Now it’s ramped up to quarterly runs, funded through city contracts funneled to nonprofits like CAMBA, which has pocketed over $915 million since fiscal year 2020. Program director Dushoun Almond, known locally as “Bigga,” runs the show, claiming his team’s street cred helps de-escalate dust-ups that cops might inflame.
“We use our credibility,” Almond said. During this round, things stayed mostly quiet—a gas main leak was the highlight, with Almond calling it “real good news.”
Yet an unauthorized NYPD flyer that circulated warned officers to stay out unless facing “an extreme police emergency (e.g. person shot, stabbed, etc.).” The department yanked it, insisting nothing changed in operations, but the memo’s mention of monitoring at the Police Commissioner level raises eyebrows about who’s really pulling strings here.
Retired cop John Macari spotlighted the flyer on his podcast, fueling chatter that this is more than a feel-good initiative—perhaps a calculated move to test how far anti-cop policies can go in a city still reeling from rising crime.
Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a socialist eyeing the mayor’s office, showed up at an April session and gave the program his stamp of approval. Almond noted Mamdani “believes in what we do.”
Police insiders aren’t buying it. One source fumed that top brass are “trying to appeal to him,” labeling the whole thing “insane.” Another veteran cop from the Bronx put it bluntly: “If this is what these politicians want, let them have it. Let it burn down and then they’ll want us back.”
Brownsville’s no stranger to trouble. The 73rd Precinct has seen murders plummet 83% this year compared to last, and shootings down 40%, but robberies jumped 23%, felony assaults 26%, burglaries 40%, and grand larcenies 30%. Just last June, stray bullets hit two young girls in nearby Hilltop Park, a grim reminder of the area’s volatility. Christopher Hermann, a former NYPD supervisor now at John Jay College, called it one of NYC’s most dangerous spots historically.
“I am not sure how designating this as a police-free zone will help residents feel or actually be safer,” he said.
Locals are split. Hardware store worker Jose praised the patrols for talking sense into people: “People listen.” But Jamixa Alvarez, a 28-year-old at the Cricket Wireless shop right in the zone, stressed the basics: “But right now we need our cops.” Even as the week ended without major incidents, a Saturday evening brawl involving teens with metal pipes and scooters erupted, scattering only when an NYPD cruiser rolled by.
Republican mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa slammed it as “a reckless experiment that invites chaos and puts residents and businesses at risk,” vowing to scrap it on day one if elected. The program’s originator, ex-precinct commander Terrell Anderson, got bounced to a housing unit in May amid an Internal Affairs probe for allegedly keeping over 70 sketchy recruits at the academy, including one tied to a sex-for-overtime scandal. Coincidence? Or a sign of deeper rot in a system bending over backward for leftist visions?
Whispers online and in podcasts suggest this “alliance” might be a Trojan horse for broader schemes, letting gangs embed deeper while politicians like Mamdani push a no-cops utopia. As one Instagram post put it, Brooklyn now has “POLICE FREE ZONES” where officers only show for the worst—echoing fears that such zones could spread, creating havens for unchecked crime under the guise of community care. With President Trump restoring order nationally through executive actions on energy and cybersecurity, New York’s drift toward these experiments stands in stark contrast, begging the question: who’s benefiting from the chaos?
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Resulted in thugs venturing in white neighborhoods.
“There’s nothing like giving somebody what they want to make them not want it anymore”! Wait for it! Al Capone and the like lived in a police free city until they didn’t because it became a police controlled city! It’s EASY to start up a police free zone but nearly impossible to remove it! Police free zones invites the worst of the worst to move in as one’s ‘neighbors.
You stupid libtards.
Get out of my country.
Mamdani, Stupid is as stupid does.
A strategy that has worked over and over throughout the ages. Drive prices down with crime them Blackrock buys up the distressed building’s, burns them down and redevelop’s when the people have had enough, pricing out the bad elements and forcing them to move on.
After Mamdani establishes police no-go zones, will civilian Muslim enforcers establish their own system of policing?