NEW YORK, NY — The New York Police Department reassigned a Brooklyn precinct commander after a video circulated online showing him, while on duty, calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani “an embarrassment and total nonsense.”
Capt. James G. Wilson, 51, transferred Tuesday to the department’s communications division, according to an internal police document acquired by the New York Times.
Wilson previously served as executive officer of the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the precinct’s second-highest-ranking position.
The reassignment came one day after the Instagram account @untilfreedom posted a video recorded Saturday night near Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, where protesters gathered during an immigration enforcement operation.
The 40-second video shows Wilson standing among officers near the hospital as protesters accused police of assisting federal immigration authorities.
“He’s a temporary, he’s expendable, he’s temporary. Who’s Mamdani?” Wilson says in the video.
Someone off camera replies, “He’s your boss.”
“Nah. He’s total nonsense,” Wilson says. “He’s an embarrassment and total nonsense.”
A second person asks, “Yo! You think your mayor is an embarrassment?”
“Not my mayor,” Wilson replies.
Later in the video, Wilson says, “All Democrats, no, waste of human race.”
Police officials said Wilson’s remarks triggered a disciplinary process because department rules prohibit officers from publicly expressing political opinions while on duty.
“It was Captain Wilson’s comments about Democrats” that led to the disciplinary action, a police spokesman said.
The demonstration unfolded near a protest involving about 200 people outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the incident.
Protesters attempted to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from taking an immigrant patient into custody. Clashes between protesters and police led to eight arrests.
The NYPD said it did not coordinate with federal immigration authorities during the operation.
“We had no prior awareness or coordination regarding the ICE operation that took place,” the department said in a statement.
A spokesman for Mamdani declined to comment.
Mamdani, who previously criticized the NYPD before becoming mayor, has sought to stabilize relations with rank-and-file officers since taking office.
During the mayoral campaign, he apologized for calling the department “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety” in 2020 while running for the State Assembly.
He also retained Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who served under former Mayor Eric Adams, and stepped back from some proposals he once supported, including immediately disbanding the Strategic Response Group.
Wilson previously faced scrutiny in 2013 while serving in Brooklyn’s 76th Precinct.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated allegations that Wilson and other officers illegally entered an apartment while searching for his missing police shield after a street confrontation.
An internal police trial later cleared Wilson of wrongdoing after department officials concluded officers received consent to enter the apartment.
Wilson testified during the proceedings that he felt “ashamed” and “kind of like devastated by the whole incident.”
The department promoted him to captain in 2021, according to police records.
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