Exclusive | Zohran Mamdani sparks outrage by tapping radical who praised notorious cop-killer Assata Shakur for education transition team

Socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani tapped a radical who idolizes cop-killer Assata Shakur to advise his administration on public schools, The Post has learned.

Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari — the co-executive director for the Alliance for Quality Education, a far-left activist group once fronted by “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon — was selected last week for Mamdani’s transition committee for youth and education.

In an interview with the website Lingua Franca, Shaakir-Ansari was asked if she could spend an afternoon with any woman past or present, who would it be, and what question would she ask her.

The activist and mother of eight responded with the convicted cop killer.

“Assata Shakur — I believe she has so much to offer. With all of the reflection you must have done after all of the years as a Black Panther, what advice do you have for black women to move the movement while also caring for each other?” she said.

Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was convicted in the cowardly murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973.

She was riding with comrades Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli when they were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by state trooper James Harper for a busted taillight. Foerster, who was providing backup, was shot and killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Along with the Black Panthers, she was a member of the fringe radical leftist group the Black Liberation Army.

She was found guilty of murder and assault in 1977. Two years later, three BLA members disguised as visitors busted her out of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. They drew guns and took two correction officers hostage and hijacked a prison van.

The fugitive ultimately fled to communist Cuba in 1984, where she was granted asylum. Shakur, who described herself as a “20th century escaped slave,” was added to the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists in May 2013 — the first woman to ever.

New York’s Finest — and those who have lost cops in their family — were galled by Mamdani’s pick.

“Supporting a cop killer, you know, is not . . . a good thing,” Grace Machate, whose husband, NYPD Officer Robert Machate, was murdered in 1989 when she was six months pregnant, told The Post.

Machate, like Foerster, was shot and killed during a traffic stop while questioning “two suspicious males.”

“When someone kills an officer, whether he’s from New Jersey, New York or Alabama, I don’t care. It’s something that families are going to stick together on,” she said.

Former NYPD lieutenant and US Marine Eric Dym was stunned by the selection.

“That’s unbelievable. I don’t think it’s a small oversight. I think it’s a conscious decision,” said Dym.

“When someone with that history is given a seat at the table it sends the message that your sacrifice is negotiable . . . this just strips away at the morale of the NYPD.”

Added former NYPD lieutenant and co-host of the “New York’s Finest: Retired and Unfiltered Podcast,” John Macari: “Shaakir-Ansari has every right to her opinions, but she should have no business shaping education policy in a city where thousands of cops entrust their own kids to be educated and kept safe.”

Shaakir-Ansari, who also has three grandchildren, has been an education activist for two decades. She was named City and State New York Magazine’s 25 most influential people in Brooklyn in 2017.  

She launched her own fashion line in 2024, raising $15,000 on GoFundMe towards it.

Mamdani, during the mayoral campaign, refused to condemn a sick tribute to the cop-killer from the Democratic Socialists of America.

“We vow to honor her legacy by recognizing our duty to fight for our freedom, to win, to love and protect one another because we have nothing to lose but our chains,” the DSA said on X after Shakur died on Sept. 25.

Mamdani ducked questions about the tribute when grilled by The Post.

“I am running to be the mayor of New York City,” he said. “I am running to represent the people of New York City. My focus is on the issues of the city, and I’m accountable to those same New Yorkers.”

Retired NYPD sergeant and John Jay Professor Joe Giacolone said the Big Apple is in for a “rude awakening” given picks like Shaakir-Ansari.

“You pick someone who praises a cop killer, you don’t need a slide rule to figure out what’s going on here — there’s gonna be two types of cops left, those who want to get out and can, and those who want to get out and can’t.”

The Post reached out to Shaakir-Ansari.