Mamdani who called cops wickedwill be protected by more than 350 officers for inaugural bash

The inauguration bash for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — who once called cops “wicked” and was a strident police defunder — will require a phalanx of between 350 and 400 officers, sources told The Post. “It’s going to cost a lot of money in overtime,” said a cop with more than 25 years on the job.“He’s having this celebration with all these people who hate the police and we have to be there to protect them.” If each police officer makes about $100 an hour for overtime – with some detectives, lieutenants and chiefs making much more – the detail could cost upwards of a half million dollars, a source estimated.The “Inauguration for a New Era Block Party” will run seven blocks, from Liberty Street to Murray Street on Thursday — a stretch known as the Canyon of Heroes that is typically used for ticker-tape parades.

“It’s ironic that he wants to spend all this money using city services while saying he wants to cut the budget of the NYPD,” a second law enforcement source said.“I think it goes to show how naive he is.” Mamdani has been a harsh critic of New York’s Finest and called for defunding them during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests while describing officers as “racist” and “anti-queer.”He’s also called the NYPD “wicked and corrupt.”  The nepo-baby backed off on those claims during his run for mayor, but that didn’t stop him from tapping a lefty political strategist to oversee his transition team who is an impassioned supporter of the anti-cop movement.Elena Leopold, executive director of an all-female transition team, was among the more than 230 past and present staffers of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio who signed a June 2020 “open letter” to de Blasio demanding “radical change” on criminal justice policies — especially at the NYPD.Mamdani has also vowed not to hire any new police officers despite the Force being stretched thin.

The NYPD hovers around 33,000 to 34,000 police officers, far ...