Clarence Woodward, a 41-year-old inmate with 27 prior counts on his rap sheet, died in custody at Rikers Island early on August 25. Woodward had been charged with murder after allegedly hacking a father of two to death with a meat cleaver in a Bronx laundromat — an attack committed while he was on parole in 2024.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist, took to social media to mourn.
Not the victim. The suspect.
"I am deeply saddened by the death of a New Yorker in City custody at a jail on Rikers Island early this morning," Mamdani wrote. "My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss."
A New Yorker. That's the framing. Not "an inmate charged with a brutal murder." Not "a man with 27 prior counts who allegedly butchered someone with a meat cleaver while on parole." A New Yorker. In City custody. As if the city were somehow the villain in this story — as if the real tragedy were that a man accused of one of the most savage murders imaginable had the misfortune of dying in jail before he could get back out on the street.
Notice what's missing from Mamdani's statement. There's no mention of the victim. No thoughts for the father of two who was hacked to death in a laundromat. No acknowledgment that Woodward was on parole — meaning the system Mamdani now runs had already given this man a second chance, and he allegedly used it to pick up a meat cleaver.
NYC Councilwoman Vicky Paladino noticed the same thing. "I wonder if he was 'deeply saddened' by the murder this guy committed," Paladino wrote. "Can't find a tweet about that one."
She's right. You can search Mamdani's feed. The meat cleaver murder of a father in the Bronx didn't rate a mayoral statement. A suspect dying of a medical emergency at Rikers did.
Former LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt put it more bluntly, as reported by RedState: "Commie Mamdani is 'deeply saddened' that a guy who murdered a guy with a meat cleaver had a medical emergency in jail."
The progressive reflex here is almost mechanical at this point. An accused killer dies in custody and the machinery cranks to life — the somber tweets, the "thoughts with the family," the careful language that erases every fact about why this person was behind bars in the first place. It's not about the individual. It's about the narrative: jails are the problem, the system is the oppressor, and anyone who ends up in custody is, by definition, a victim.
That framing requires you to forget certain details. Like the meat cleaver. Like the 27 prior counts. Like the fact that a man was on parole and allegedly chose to murder someone in broad daylight in a Bronx laundromat. Like the children who lost their father.
Mamdani didn't forget those details. He just decided they weren't worth mentioning.
There's a version of politics where a mayor can express concern about conditions at Rikers — a facility with real, documented problems — while also acknowledging that the man who died there was accused of an unspeakable act of violence. A version where you can hold both things. Mamdani chose not to hold both things. He chose one side, and it wasn't the side of the father who got butchered.
Twenty-seven prior counts. On parole. Meat cleaver. Father of two.
The mayor's thoughts are with the other family.