(The Center Square) — Nassau County Republican Executive and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman leads demands for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to fire a member of his transition team who has described NYPD officers as killers.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who takes over City Hall on Jan. 1, has enlisted more than 400 people to serve on his transition team, many as volunteers assisting the mayor-elect’s incoming administration on policies and key appointments. That included Kazi Fouzia, a self-described “revolutionary organizer” and member of the Desis Rising Up and Moving group, who was tapped to lead Mamdani’s “Worker Justice” transition committee.
But Blakeman is demanding that Fouzia be removed from the post after a video surfaced in which she referred to New York City Police Department officers as “killers” who prey on the city’s Bangladeshi community.
“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 party’s nomination to challenge incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s election, said Fouzia’s “anti-police rhetoric” is “part of a broader, deeply troubling pattern” by both Mamdani and Hochul. He said both were endorsed by the Working Families Party, which he described as “a radical group that has repeatedly called for defunding the police 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.
The Mamdani transition team had no immediate comment on Blakeman’s claims.
In the video, Fouzia criticized fellow Bangladeshis for posting photos of their relatives after they were hired by the NYPD, saying they shouldn’t be proud because they would eventually become “killers” that “brutally beat our people.”
“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 was also previously criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, which issued a report last week claiming that Mamdani’s transition team is riddled with antisemitic, anti-Zionist or anti-Israel activity from members.
The group, which has been monitoring incoming Mamdani’s mayoral administration, cited a Facebook post by Fouzia the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel celebrating it as a “justified” act of resistance.
Roughly 20% of Mamdani’s transition team has ties to groups said to be anti-Zionist, such as the Students for Justice in Palestine, according to the ADL’s report.
Amid the criticism, Mamdani has defended his transition team and has repeatedly vowed to root out antisemitism as the city’s first Muslim mayor. He has suggested that critics are conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel’s policies.
