Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Delivers Remarks at NYPD Memorial Wall With Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
- 1 passage
- 816 words
- 2026-10-13
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a solemn privilege to be here alongside Commissioner Tisch and NYPD leadership as we remember 42 members of the New York City Police Department who gave their lives in service to this city. And it is an immense honor to be here alongside the loved ones and the family members of the fallen officers we are here to commemorate. I'm also proud to be here alongside Battery Park Association President Raju Mann, our NYPD Chief of Department Mike LiPetri, NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella; we have our Detectives’ Endowment Association President Scott Munro, Sergeants Benevolent Association Vice President Edmund Small, Lieutenants Benevolent Association President Lou Turco, Captains Endowment Association Vice President Robert Hachemeister and NYPD master of ceremonies, Captain Jack Conway. Now, if you listen, you may hear the sound of a city in motion, the hum of a ferry, waves against the seawall, an excavator at work. But beneath that sound lies a silence, the silence left by 42 members of service. It was a silence that resonates in their homes and precincts, on the streets where they walked the beat and the lives of the 8.5 million New Yorkers they protected. The work of being an NYPD officer demands immense sacrifice. Every day, our officers wake up and choose to take on an enormous burden, to risk their lives for strangers that they've never met. And every day, no matter the danger, no matter the threat, these officers answer the call made of them. Forty-one of the officers we honor today served in the rescue and recovery efforts after the horrific terror attacks of September 11. In the depths of our city's darkest moment, they came together as one. In the weeks and months that followed, they searched the pile for survivors, passing buckets of debris from hand to hand. On Staten Island, they sifted through a mountain of wreckage at Fresh Kills, searching for anything that could bring a grieving family an answer. And as the rest of the city slowly returned to its routines, they kept working, with unwavering devotion, breathing in toxic air and fumes and offering all that they had, day after day. We know all too well the toll that that sacrifice took. Years later, they fell ill, and their families, who had already given so much, were asked to once again give more. Among those we remember today is Sgt. Albert Morabito, who served the NYPD for four decades in the 19th Precinct and on Highway Patrol. Today, his son Paul and his daughter Amanda wear that same uniform. We also remember Detective Richard Teemsma, who answered the call to serve twice, first as a United States Marine and then as a member of this department in Midtown South, the Emergency Service Unit and the Bomb Squad. Today, his son carries both his name and his calling, as he serves as a sergeant in the NYPD. The officers we honor today served in different eras and under different commands. But they were united by a shared courage, one that asked for no witness and sought no reward, a willingness to shoulder the city's dangers so that the rest of us would never have to. One of the officers we honor today, Detective Didarul Islam, carried that courage to his final breath. Last year, in the midst of the most horrific mass shooting our city had seen in 25 years, Detective Islam placed himself in harm's way so that his fellow New Yorkers could escape to safety. After his senseless murder, his family welcomed me into their home. They spoke to me of the husband, the father, the brother they were mourning, a man who was compassionate, humble, selfless and kind. And every family here today is reckoning with that same loss, the loss of a parent or partner, son or daughter, brother or sister, someone who gave everything and asked for nothing in return. To all of you, I know that no name etched in granite can capture the fullness of the person that you lost. No ceremony can lift the weight that you carry. I thank you for loving these New Yorkers, for raising these New Yorkers, for tending to them as they tended to all of us. While we cannot feel the silence they left behind, we will refuse to let their memory fade. We will speak their names, and we will stand beside you as they stood beside this city. As the names of our fallen officers are unveiled, let us also not simply remember, but let us renew our obligation to every officer who rose to the city's defense in its darkest moments. Let us renew our commitment to the families of those that we have lost and let us prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice by building a safer, better city for all. Thank you very much.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Delivers Remarks at NYPD Memorial Wall With Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.