How Mamdani's dangerous rhetoric is reshaping New York City

Tisch was careful to note that detectives were still working to determine motive, and that mental illness may have been a factor. Well, yes, I don’t think anyone who commits a crime like this is exactly mentally stable — though, of course, he should still be held responsible for his actions like anyone else. Yes, nobody yet knows with certainty what was in the attacker’s head when he lunged at a stranger leaving a synagogue on the holiest day of Jewish mourning. What we do know is the atmosphere into which that attack landed — and that atmosphere did not appear from nowhere.