Presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman has called on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to immediately can his cop-hating transition team member Kazi Fouzia, an activist who slammed the NYPD as “killers” in recently resurfaced comments.
Fouzia, a self-described “revolutionary organizer” who serves on Mamdani’s transition panel for worker justice, ridiculed fellow Bangladeshis for celebrating relatives joining the NYPD because they could become “killers” during a discussion called “What’s App: Our Role in Black Liberation Movements.”
“What are you proud for? That your relative would become a killer one day, or brutally beat our people?” said Fouzia, director of organizing at the South Asian immigrant-rights nonprofit group Desis Rising Up and Moving, or DRUM, in the resurfaced video.
She made the outrageous comments in 2020 around the time of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and riots.
Mamdani having such a cop-hater part of his braintrust is beyond the pale, Blakeman, the current Nassau County executive, said Monday.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani cannot allow someone who publicly demonizes law enforcement to sit on his transition team. Kazi Fouzia should be fired immediately,” he said.
“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,” said Blakeman.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani cannot allow someone who publicly demonizes law enforcement to sit on his transition team. Kazi Fouzia should be fired immediately.”
Blakeman is facing off against Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who is seeking re-election next year. Hochul endorsed democratic socialist Mamdani — over her rival Andrew Cuomo — in his historic bid for mayor after he clinched the Democratic primary.
The Republican used the comments to try to tie Hochul to Mamdani and the lefty Working Families Party, which has called for defunding the police.
Hochul has previously run on the WFP ballot line.
“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.
“As governor, I will stand with law enforcement, reject the ‘Defund the Police’ agenda, and ensure extremists have no influence over the future of New York.”
Mamdani and Hochul’s camps had no immediate comment.
Blakeman has ratcheted up his campaign after upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik surprisingly dropped out of the governor’s race this month.
President Trump has since endorsed his old pal Blakeman for governor, clearing his path to the GOP nomination.
No Republican has won a statewide election since ex-Gov. George Pataki in 2002, making Hochul the solid frontrunner even as polls show half of New Yorkers want a new governor.
