NYC Mayor Mamdani vetoes NYPD protest plan bill citing free speech concerns
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued his first veto on Friday, halting the decision. City Council bill Int. 175-B This would force the NYPD to announce plans to address protests near schools and other educational facilities.
It is the latest sign of Mamdani’s growing conflict with Council leadership, deepening an early power struggle with Council President Julie Menin over policing, public safety and freedom of expression.
“The issue is how broadly this bill defines an educational institution and raises constitutional concerns regarding New Yorkers’ fundamental right to protest,” Mamdani said in a statement. he wrote. “While the bill is being written, restrictions may be encountered everywhere, from universities to museums to teaching hospitals.”
“This could impact workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their schools divest from fossil fuels, or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights,” he continued.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are off to a shaky start, already fighting over the NYPD’s veto of covering student protests. (Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News)
“International 175-B is not a narrow public safety measure; it is legislation that has alarmed much of this city’s labor movement, reproductive rights groups, and immigration advocates, among others. Nearly a dozen unions have raised alarm about its impact on their ability to organize,” the mayor added.
Menin will try to rally the votes to override Mamdani on the bill, which received just four votes last month before it could be vetoed, 30 to 19.
“Ensuring that students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial,” Menin said in a statement. he wrote. “This bill requires the NYPD to clearly state how it will provide safe access when there are threats of obstruction or physical injury, while fully protecting First Amendment rights.”
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NYPD officers detain a demonstrator during a protest along Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on April 13, 2026, amid a two-week ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Eric Dinowitz, would require police to submit a protest-response plan to the mayor and speaker and post it online. It would also require the police commissioner to provide a public point of contact for any efforts to manage demonstrations near training centres.
Dinowitz pushed back against claims that the bill threatens freedom of expression.
“Should students be harassed on their way to school? I think the answer is no.” he told the New York Times.
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Opponents on the left said the measure would expand protest policing and chill protected speech.
The conflict also exposed one of the biggest political fault lines at City Hall: how to respond to protests linked to the war in Israel and Gaza. The issue gained momentum last fall after a heated protest outside a Manhattan synagogue, where some demonstrators shouted “death to the IDF” and “Globalize the intifada.”
“Sending the message to New Yorkers that we have anything to worry about with protests near or near schools, libraries, teaching hospitals is absolutely the wrong message, especially in these times when the Trump regime is coming to protest with a sledgehammer,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Times.
Jewish groups, including UJA-Federation of New York, condemned the veto, denouncing “City Hall’s gross failure to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”
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“At a time when our city’s Jewish and other communities face increasing threats, this legislation represented an important step toward ensuring that every school and community institution is better protected,” the group said in a statement. he wrote.
Mamdani and Menin, the city’s first Jewish speaker, had shown signs this week that they were trying to calm things down, including at dinner Thursday to discuss the pending veto and other issues, the Times reported. Friday’s decision indicated that the detente would not last long.
