A New York Police Department captain has become an unexpected folk hero after a video surfaced of him criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling the mayor “an embarrassment.” The captain, Capt. James G. Wilson, has garnered a wave of support for his candid remarks about the mayor, who is known for his radical socialist views.
Prominent Republicans and influential conservatives have rallied behind Capt. Wilson, advocating for his right to free speech. They argue that his reassignment from Brooklyn’s 94th Precinct, where he was the second-in-command, to the NYPD’s 911 call center in The Bronx, reflects a double standard within City Hall. They claim there is one set of rules for far-left supporters and another for everyone else.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Republican from Queens, commented, “If Capt. Wilson had criticized Donald Trump, he’d likely be celebrated with accolades and even honored at Gracie Mansion. But because he spoke against Mamdani, a wave of manufactured outrage has been unleashed, aiming to stifle any public dissent. This tactic is all too familiar, yet more New Yorkers are waking up to the reality of this censorship.”
Echoing these sentiments, Council Minority Leader David Carr from Staten Island pointed out, “We’ve witnessed city employees make negative comments about our president, Republicans, or conservatives—sometimes even entire groups of New Yorkers—without facing any repercussions.”
“But since he spoke out against Dear Leader Mamdani, the manufactured outrage machine is kicking into gear, and the radicals are coming out of the woodwork to silence all public dissent. This is what they do, but more and more New Yorkers are starting to see through the censorship and realize what’s really going on.”
Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) agreed, saying, “We have heard city employees make disparaging remarks about our president, sometimes about Republicans or conservatives and even entire groups of New Yorkers, with absolutely no consequence.”
“Even if a policy prohibiting political speech by public employees is Constitutional, it sure as hell isn’t enforced fairly or consistently,” he said.
Wilson was captured on video blithely bashing Mamdani during a heated protest last week outside a Bushwick hospital.
He also faces potential discipline for flouting an NYPD policy prohibiting cops from expressing personal views about a political party while on duty.
“He’s expendable, he’s temporary,” Wilson said in the video, as protesters egged him on by pointing out Mamdani is his boss.
“Nah, he’s total nonsense. He’s an embarrassment and total nonsense,” Wilson scoffs, cracking a smile. “Not my mayor.”
A still-smiling Wilson later in the clip goes on to diss all Democrats as “waste of human race.”
The video emerged as one of several controversies swirling around the chaotic late May 2 demonstration outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where anti-ICE protesters got wind that immigration agents had taken an illegal Nigerian migrant for medical attention.
Wilson shouldn’t have his First Amendment rights snubbed just because he’s a police officer, a high-ranking NYPD source said.
“Mamdani’s track record shows that he doesn’t believe in police work,” said the source.
“Why is a cop different than anyone else? He has First Amendment rights.
“He was out there doing his job, and he was being recorded. That’s their First Amendment right, but what about his First Amendment rights?”
Lawyers representing firebrand Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) in her free-speech lawsuit have also contended Republicans and Dems get treated differently at City Hall.
Paladino faces potential censure over alleged Islamophobic remarks, but her lawyers say some of her Democratic colleagues have a history of raging without consequence against white people and painting their enemies — including President Trump, Republicans, and NYPD cops — as “white supremacists” and “racists.”
Mamdani on Wednesday told reporters he saw the video but didn’t “have any involvement” in Wilson’s “transfer — nor did my City Hall.”
“My understanding is a decision that was made in accordance with NYPD’s administrative guidelines,” he said.
The NYPD said Wilson’s disciplinary process is “ongoing.”
