By: Jordan Baker

Socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has sparked outrage after selecting a controversial education activist who once openly idolized convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur to help guide his incoming administration, the NY Post first reported.

Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari — co-executive director of the far-left Alliance for Quality Education, a group previously championed by actress Cynthia Nixon — was appointed last week to Mamdani’s youth and education transition committee, according to the NY Post.

In a resurfaced interview with the outlet Lingua Franca, Shaakir-Ansari was asked which woman, living or dead, she would most want to spend an afternoon with. Her answer stunned critics: Assata Shakur.

“Assata Shakur — I believe she has so much to offer,” she said, adding that she’d ask the former Black Panther what advice she has for Black women balancing activism and community care. The NY Post first reported the comments, which have now reemerged as Mamdani assembles his leadership team.

Shakur — born Joanne Chesimard — was convicted in the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a violent confrontation on the New Jersey Turnpike. Authorities said Shakur and two fellow Black Liberation Army members opened fire after a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight escalated into a gunfight. Foerster was killed, and another officer wounded.

Shakur was convicted of murder and assault in 1977. Two years later, three BLA members staged a dramatic prison break, holding correction officers hostage and hijacking a van to free her from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women. She later fled to communist Cuba in 1984, where she received asylum. In 2013, she became the first woman placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.

News of Shaakir-Ansari’s appointment drew fierce criticism from law enforcement families. Grace Machate — whose husband, NYPD Officer Robert Machate, was shot dead during a 1989 traffic stop — told the NY Post she was horrified by Mamdani’s choice.

“Supporting a cop killer is not a good thing,” she said, stressing that families of fallen officers stand united regardless of geography. “When someone kills an officer … families are going to stick together.”

Former NYPD lieutenant and Marine Eric Dym said the pick was no mistake. “I don’t think it’s a small oversight. It’s a conscious decision,” he told the Post. Allowing someone with such views into the mayor-elect’s inner circle, he said, sends a message that “your sacrifice is negotiable.”

Another retired NYPD lieutenant, John Macari, said Shaakir-Ansari has a right to her opinions but “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, a mother of eight and grandmother of three, has been involved in education activism for two decades and was ranked among City & State’s 25 most influential people in Brooklyn in 2017. She also launched her own clothing line this year, raising $15,000 on GoFundMe.