Bruce Blakeman, the Republican executive of Nassau County and a GOP candidate for governor, is calling on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to remove a member of his transition team who has referred to NYPD officers as killers.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist set to take office on Jan. 1, has assembled a transition team of more than 400 people, including volunteers tasked with advising the incoming administration on policy priorities and key appointments. Among those selected is Kazi Fouzia, a self-described “revolutionary organizer” affiliated with the group Desis Rising Up and Moving, who was appointed to lead Mamdani’s “Worker Justice” transition committee.
Blakeman is insisting that Fouzia be dismissed from her position after a video emerged in which she labeled New York City Police Department officers as “killers” who target the Bangladeshi community in the city.
“Calling our police officers — the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect New Yorkers — ‘killers’ is disgusting, dangerous, and completely unacceptable,” Blakeman said in a statement. “Mayor-elect Mamdani cannot allow someone who publicly demonizes law enforcement to sit on his transition team. Kazi Fouzia should be fired immediately.”
Blakeman, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s election, said Fouzia’s remarks reflect what he called a broader pattern of “anti-police rhetoric” by both Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Hochul.
Blakeman said both Mamdani and Hochul were endorsed by the Working Families Party, which he characterized as a radical organization that has advocated for reducing police funding and weakening law enforcement.
“By empowering a radical anti-police activist and standing shoulder to shoulder with ‘Defund the Police’ allies, Mamdani and Hochul have made their priorities crystal clear,” Blakeman said.
In the video,Fouzia criticized members of the Bangladeshi community for sharing photos of relatives after they were hired by the NYPD, saying they should not take pride in the appointments because the officers would eventually become “killers” who “brutally beat our people,” according to excerpts circulated online.
“What are you proud for?” Fouzi said in the 2020 video clip. “That your relative would become a killer one day, or brutally beat our people?”
Fouzia’s appointment has also drawn criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which said in a report released last week that Zohran Mamdani’s transition team includes members engaged in antisemitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israel activity.
The ADL, which said it has been monitoring Mamdani’s incoming administration, cited a Facebook post by Fouzia made the day after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which she described the assault as a “justified” act of resistance.
According to the ADL report, approximately 20 percent of Mamdani’s transition team has ties to groups it characterizes as anti-Zionist, including Students for Justice in Palestine.
Mamdani has defended his transition team amid the criticism, saying he is committed to addressing antisemitism as New York City’s first Muslim mayor. He has also said critics are conflating antisemitism with opposition to Israeli government policies.
Meanwhile, outgoing NYC Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former NYPD captain, warned of “dark days” ahead for the NYPD under Mamdani.
“I think we should be concerned and we are seeing some early indicators. Look, . . . a large number of people who live on our streets deal with mental health illness. We should not be allowing them to live on our streets. . . . We want to bring on 5,000 new police officers to make sure [cop retirements] don’t hurt our law enforcement,” Adams told the New York Post.
“I think New Yorkers need to be alarmed, and I’m hoping that when the mayor-elect becomes mayor he will rethink some of the Democratic Socialist Party’s ideas and policies and see that they’re harmful to New Yorkers. Removing 3,000 inmates from Rikers Island – that is a real issue because they’re going to go back into the communities that they exploited and they preyed on,” he added.
