NEW YORK- Crime-fighting New York State attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy, who will professionalize and depoliticize New York’s top law enforcement office if elected in November, issued the following statement today in response to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s veto of Intro. 175-B, legislation passed by the New York City Council requiring the NYPD to establish and publish buffer-zone protocols governing protest activity around schools and educational facilities. 

“A mayor’s first veto is a statement of his priorities,” Ms. Komatireddy charged. “Mayor Mamdani has chosen his: the right of a mob to block the schoolhouse door over the right of a child to walk through it unmolested. And not a word from our attorney general, Letitia James, who’s charged with protecting the public. It’s disgraceful.”

Jewish schools in particular have come under increasing attack in New York, and have been forced to spend tens of millions of dollars on security measures to protect their students. 

“We have watched, for nearly two years, as students have come under threat. Schools have hired security guards and spent millions on protection, and even then there are days when parents must keep their kids home because of the threat,” Ms. Komatireddy, a former top federal prosecutor, said. “That is why the City Council concluded in a bipartisan vote that students deserve protection.”

“Making sure students of all races and religions can go to school safely is part of America’s civil rights legacy. Today, the mayor turned his back on that legacy.”

“There is a First Amendment right to protest. There is no First Amendment right to interfere with someone’s education. As Attorney General, I will prosecute hate crimes and protect civil rights, including a student’s right to get an education without discrimination, harassment, and bullying,” Ms. Komatireddy pledged.