INGERSOLL: Look Closely At The Men Standing Behind Zohran Mamdani

Below is State of the Day, a morning newsletter by Daily Caller Editor-at-Large Geoff Ingersoll. Sign up here.

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Greetings, Dear Reader,

Let’s talk about heroes and zeros today.

CHIEF AARON EDWARDS

Aaron Edwards has a wife and two small children. He also has one of the most dangerous jobs in America. He’s a New York City police officer.

He was just a kid when 9/11 happened.

“I was a college student back in September 2001,” Edwards told the New York Post. “I saw what happened, and I took one of the first tests” afterward for the academy.

“I saw it, I felt it. When everyone was running out [of the Twin Towers], we had our police officers and the other first-responders running in. I thought that was selfless heroism. It just drew me to the profession,” Edwards said. “Since I started, I fell in love with policing.”

In 20+ years of policing since, Edwards had done just about everything. He’d walked a beat. He policed narcotics. He led officers in mitigating a dual crisis just a few years ago, when waves of both illegal immigration and violent crime struck the city.

Jumping on hand grenades is probably not an assumed risk for domestic local law enforcement. Nonetheless, when two radical Islamic terrorists threw homemade bombs at an anti-immigration protest, Edwards and fellow officer Sgt. Luis Navarro, snapped into action.

This particular image is wild. It shows Navarro approaching the bomb. Edwards is already making an angle to pursue the terrorist. The fuse is clearly lit. Both are firmly in the kill zone. Neither shows a single sign of flinching or hesitation.

A left-wing activist flees after throwing a homemade explosive device towards police during a protest organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang against alleged “Islamification” and to ask for a “stop of public Muslim prayer” in New York, in front of Gracie Mansion, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence, in New York on March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)

A second viral image, produced by a New York Post photographer and linked here, shows Edwards vaulting over a barrier in pursuit of the bomb thrower.

The suspects were both tackled, shackled and booked.

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor and a dyed in the wool communist, held a press conference honoring Edwards and Navarro, he spent more time condemning “white supremacy” than he spent talking about radical Islamic terrorism. While the perpetrators pledged allegiance to ISIS, that term – radical Islamic terrorism – didn’t even appear in his comments. But “bigotry” made a number of appearances, directed at the protesters rather than the hateful, violent bigots who wanted them dead.

It’s typical of Mamdani. Unlike Edwards, who cited heroism on 9/11 as an inspiration, Mamdani took office citing 9/11 as a moment when he felt like Muslims like his mother were being unduly oppressed. While it might be true, like his press conference, it’s decidedly not the context nor the perch from which we should be hearing about anything other than violent murderous terrorism and our commitment as free Americans to stopping it.

Save the poor me story for later, Z.

Both Edwards and Navarro stood stolidly behind Mayor Mamdani as he railed on “anti-Muslim bigotry” moments after Muslims tried to blow people up in New York City. If they were offended or put off, they gave no indication. They are men of honor, integrity, and action.

They are more than Mamdani could ever hope to be, even as he is their boss, the mayor of America’s most iconic city.

Ultimately Mamdani will pass like a fart in the breeze. Annoying, but there and gone.

Men like Edwards and Navarro will remain. America will be better for both of them.

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