NYPD captain transferred after caught in uniform calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani 'an embarrassment'

Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on May 5, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

NEW YORK — An NYPD captain has been transferred after he was caught in uniform on video while policing a protest calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani “an embarrassment,” officials said Tuesday.

“He’s expendable,” Captain James Wilson said of the Democratic Socialist mayor in a back-and-forth with activists outside Brooklyn’s Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during a tense anti-ICE protest. “He’s nonsense. You know, temporary.”

Wilson, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, smiled wryly and gave his opinion freely to a crowd goading him in the 34-second clip that went viral online.

When stunned members of the crowd questioned why he was criticizing his boss, Wilson said, “He’s not my boss. Not my mayor.”

“All Democrats, waste of human race,” he added.

On Monday, the department transferred Wilson from his assignment at the 94th Precinct to the Communications Division, an NYPD spokesman confirmed.

The department didn’t give a reason for the transfer. His union, the Captains Endowment Association, declined to comment.

NYPD guidelines say cops are supposed to remain politically neutral while performing their duties.

A request for comment from the Mayor’s office was not immediately returned.

The rant comes five months into Mamdani’s tenure as mayor, during which he’s been at loggerheads with NYPD unions and occasionally had policy disagreements with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom he convinced to stay on for his term.

During the mayoral race, Mamdani vowed to reform policing in the city and get rid of the department’s controversial Strategic Response Group. While he’s mostly been hands off in the NYPD’s day-to-day activities, he told the New York Times last month he would overrule Tisch on policing matters he disagreed with.

“Yes, ultimately I hold the final decision no matter which department or agency we’re speaking about,” Mamdani said.

Wilson joined the NYPD in 2006. He was promoted to captain in 2021 and was assigned to the 94th Precinct on April 20 — just two weeks before Monday’s transfer.

Three complaints had been filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board against Wilson during his career, but only one — an abuse of authority complaint over searching a home in 2013 — was substantiated.

Wilson earned $194,000 last year, according to the website SeeThruNY.

On Saturday night, activists gathered after an ICE detainee was brought to the hospital for treatment. Eight protesters were arrested.

Activists and local elected officials have since criticized the NYPD, claiming cops assisted ICE by holding open doors and keeping protesters away from them.

City Hall said the cops didn’t violate New York’s sanctuary city laws, which stipulates that NYPD cops not engage in civil enforcement of immigration matters but are allowed to disperse disorderly groups.

Mayor Mamdani said Monday that the NYPD did not coordinate with ICE and were just responding to protests outside the hospital.