NYC councilwoman speaks out after violent Queens mob attack incident
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New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino is speaking out after a violent mob took over the Queens neighborhood she represents, beating a couple and setting a car ablaze over the weekend.
“This was a planned attack. This was all pre-planned. They were ready to do the same thing they did,” Paladino said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday, describing how the gang blocked intersections and set fire to a vehicle while another resident was beaten nearby.
According to the New York Post, the attack began around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning after a group of drivers were seen speeding through residential lawns and doing donuts at the corner of South Drive and 141st Street in Malba, a neighborhood in Queens.
Paladino had previously shared that a private security guard who was trying to calm the situation was attacked by the crowd and his vehicle was set on fire.
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Firefighters work to extinguish a vehicle fire during a street check in the Malba neighborhood of Queens, New York, on Sunday, Nov. 23. (@VickieforNYC/X)
Paladino claimed the police response time was long because New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said he planned to keep the NYPD force at its current budget of 35,000 officers.
“[It’s] A sufficient number. But what we need to do is let these officers focus on policing. What I mean by that is that in 2020, the NYPD response time was less than 11 minutes. Today it’s closer to 16 minutes. A big part of that is because officers now have to deal with 200,000 mental health calls a year,” Mamdani told NBC News on Sunday.
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New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino attends a meeting at New York City City Hall on November 13, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“So our proposal is to create a Department of Community Safety, task it with the mental health crisis and the homelessness crisis. And let officers focus on serious crime.”
Paladino told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that the Democratic socialist would ultimately be a “wait and see mayor,” expressing concern that Mamdani “could talk out of both sides of her mouth.”
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“As soon as January 1st came, boom,” he said.
“Thank God we have it [NYPD commissioner] Jessica Tisch.”
Fox News’ Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
