Compassionate Left-Wing Activists Outraged Mamdani Is Saving Homeless People from Freezing to Death

Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at backlash on the left after Mayor Mamdani dared to take a single common-sense step toward protecting homeless New Yorkers, and we cover more media misses.

The Left Is Already Unhappy with Mayor Mamdani

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani came under fire from his political allies last week when he announced he would restart homeless encampment sweeps, after his administration’s inaction on homelessness led to the deaths of 19 people during a recent cold snap.

Mamdani ended the practice on his fifth day in office, after previously vowing to do so in December, but now says his intent was always to reinstitute the sweeps in a new way. (The New York Daily News notes Mamdani’s explanation “sounds too convenient, as there were no such explanations when the sweeps were ended and outrage ensued from these columns and elsewhere.”)

Instead, reports indicate the reversal is a reaction to criticism the Mamdani administration received after the deaths of at least 19 people during a Code Blue freeze. Mamdani’s office maintains that none of the deceased were living in encampments, however.

Still, New York City Council Julie Menin blamed Mamdani’s policies for the deaths, saying, “These New Yorkers should be alive today.”

The city has received more than 3,300 complaints about encampments so far this year, according to 311 data obtained by the New York Post, which first reported on Mamdani’s about-face.

In announcing the return of the sweeps, Mamdani ensured he would make several changes to the process: The sweeps will now be led by the Department of Homeless Services, not the police department, and the Department of Homeless Services plans to send outreach workers to the site of an encampment every day for a week after posting a notice that the encampment will be cleared, in an effort to move people into shelters and longer-term housing.

“Unlike in the past administration, much of the interaction with homeless New Yorkers was defined by the first day when you provide a notice, and the seventh day when you initiate a sweep,” Mamdani said. “In our administration, every single day of that time period will be characterized by outreach, outreach from homeless-services workers to homeless New Yorkers.”

However, the commonsense move has drawn criticism from several advocacy groups, including the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless; the two groups said the mayor’s “pledge to discontinue homeless sweeps is another broken promise.” Other groups, including Win and VOCAL-NY, echoed those criticisms in statements to the New York Times.

Critics of the sweeps say they “terrorize” homeless people.

“There’s no new version of sweeps or a better version of sweeps,” Marcus Moore, an organizer with Safety Net Activists, told City Limits. “Sweeps does not help anybody.”

Peter Sterne of City and State NY said the encampment sweeps “are still fundamentally based on coercion, and I think much of his base will be upset by his reversal on this policy.”

The return of the sweeps was announced just days before Mamdani declared a state of emergency for the city as a blizzard blanketed the boroughs in more than a foot of snow Sunday into Monday. Ahead of the storm, the mayor doubled down on his commitment to get homeless New Yorkers off city streets, saying outreach workers from the Department of Homeless Services would patrol the streets.

Despite the criticisms from homelessness advocates, the decision won approval from more rational sources, including Speaker Julie Menin, who called the return of the sweeps “an important step forward.”

“Allowing New Yorkers to stay on the street during extreme weather is inhumane,” the Democratic speaker said. “It was clear that the City needed to take a closer look at how this policy was being implemented. Protecting lives must remain our top priority.”

The New York Daily News editorial board also celebrated the decision: “Another day, another reversal by Mayor Mamdani. This one was yesterday, ‘Day 48 of a new era,’ when he backed down on his rash and dangerous policy from Jan. 5 (Day 5 of the new era) to stop all sweeps of homeless encampments in the aftermath of a cold snap that froze to death 20 people.”

“We are glad that he did a backflip on this, lives are at risk,” the board added.

Headline Fail of the Week

“There’s A Name For The Discomfort You’re Feeling Watching The Olympics Right Now,” Huffpost explained in a recent piece.

Americans who are rooting for U.S. athletes while “hating” the U.S. government are experiencing “cognitive dissonance,” psychologists told the outlet.

“If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA!’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone,” Huffpost told readers in a subheading.

“While President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda separates families, and federal agents detain 5-year-olds and kill unarmed civilians, American athletes are winning medals on behalf of the nation at the Olympics right now,” the piece reads. “This whiplash between pride for United States competitors and national shame for the federal government is common.”

The post was widely panned on social media, receiving more than 26,000 replies on X — many of which were fiercely patriotic.

Media Misses

• NPR public editor Kelly McBride acknowledged it was “inappropriate” when NPR Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep recently compared the clothing of a masked suspect who was seen on video at Nancy Guthrie’s house on the day of her abduction to that of a federal immigration agent. “So, let me think about this: We have this man. He walks up to the porch, he’s armed, and his face is covered, a little like a federal immigration agent — although it’s more covered even than that,” Inskeep said. “He’s wearing gloves, his head’s down, other times head up, something in the mouth, looks like a flashlight in the mouth, walks up to the security camera. That’s what I see.””NPR news executives would not discuss this on the record. But no one defended it either,” McBride wrote Thursday. “Comparing the intruder on Guthrie’s porch to a federal immigration agent was both irrelevant and inflammatory. The short phrase was interpreted by listeners to be a commentary on the controversial tactics of federal law enforcement. Some news consumers who care deeply about the dramatic story of Guthrie’s kidnapping felt like the comment was a sign of disrespect.”
• The Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) said it is expanding vasectomy services for “people who carry sperm.””For many of our patients, getting care that gives them control of their fertility and ability to plan their future is a joyful experience,” Dr. Luu Ireland, chief medical officer, said in a statement.”Birth control is for and is used by people of all genders. By offering vasectomy, we are providing men and people who carry sperm an option for long-term contraception while also eroding the idea that pregnancy prevention falls just on people who can get pregnant. It’s for all of us.”