A New York Police Department captain caught on video disparaging Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a Brooklyn protest has been reassigned to a 911 call center, drawing fire from Republican officials who say City Hall enforces conduct rules selectively.
Capt. James G. Wilson is facing an internal disciplinary process for allegedly violating a departmental ban on political speech while on duty.
Wilson, 51, was second-in-command at the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint when he was recorded on May 2 during an anti-immigration enforcement protest outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick.
In the widely circulated video, Wilson called Mamdani "an embarrassment and total nonsense," labeled him expendable and temporary, and disparaged all Democrats as a waste of the human race.
He was transferred on Monday to the Communications Division at a 911 call center in the Bronx, where he will remain while the disciplinary review proceeds.
NYPD policy prohibits officers from publicly expressing personal views about political parties or candidates while on duty. A department spokesperson said Wilson's disciplinary review is ongoing and could take up to a year.
The reassignment has become a flashpoint for Republican council members, who argue the department applies its rules unevenly.
Council Minority Leader David Carr, R-Staten Island, told the New York Post that city employees have routinely criticized President Donald Trump and Republicans without consequence and said any policy restricting political speech "isn't enforced fairly or consistently."
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, R-Queens, told the same outlet that Wilson would be "declared a hero" if he had targeted Trump instead.
Mamdani has sought to distance himself from the move.
"I saw the video. I did not, however, have any involvement in that decision, nor did my City Hall," he said, adding that the action was taken under NYPD administrative guidelines. The mayor, who took office in January, has been careful in his handling of police matters.
The Wilson case lands amid a separate free-speech fight at the council, where Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino is suing to block disciplinary proceedings after the ethics committee charged her with disorderly conduct over social media posts decried as anti-Muslim.
Her attorneys contend Democratic colleagues have made comparable remarks without facing charges, an argument Carr and Ariola echoed in defending Wilson.
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