Mamdani's pick for NYC sheriff has a history of calling NYPD ‘racist’, linking it to slave patrols

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: New York City’s new sheriff has a long record of criticizing the New York City Police Department (NYPD), including claims that modern policing can be traced back to slave patrols.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Friday, May 29, that retired NYPD Lt Edwin Raymond would become the city’s next sheriff, praising him as someone who “represents the kind of public servant New Yorkers deserve” and calling him “principled, courageous, and deeply committed to justice.”

But Raymond, who became known as a whistleblower during his time on the force, has drawn attention for a series of controversial statements about policing and race.

He has accused the NYPD of systemic racism, linked modern law enforcement to slavery-era institutions, and was previously disciplined by the department following an internal investigation, the New York Post reported.

Edwin Raymond believes modern police force is the kin of the 19th-century slave patrols

Raymond’s views on policing have been a matter of public record for years.

In an interview segment reposted on X on Friday by End Wokeness, Raymond argued that the roots of modern policing can be found in slave patrols.

“From slave patrols, some people feel this thing was never designed to work,” Raymond said.

“So, slave patrols were basically militias, if you will, during the time when slavery was legal, whose job was to catch runaway slaves. And after the Civil War, many of them literally just rolled over into police departments,” he added.

Raymond went on to claim that the NYPD and other police agencies are products of those state-sanctioned patrols from the 17th and 18th centuries.

He expanded on that argument in his 2023 book, 'An Inconvenient Cop', writing that “today’s police force is the kin of the slave patrols of the nineteenth century and the Black Codes of the Jim Crow South.”

“Anyone who knows their history understands that it’s no exaggeration to draw a straight line from there to here,” he wrote. “The NYPD model has been packaged and sold by politicians and top cops in New York who have made millions off it.”

Edwin Raymond's lawsuit against NYPD and department discipline

Raymond first shot to prominence in 2015 when he joined 11 other Black and Hispanic officers in filing a federal lawsuit against the NYPD.

The officers alleged that supervisors within the Transit Bureau imposed arrest quotas that disproportionately targeted people of color. The NYPD strongly denied those allegations. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, though the case remains under appeal.

Two years later, Raymond became the subject of an internal NYPD investigation involving his handling of a domestic violence case.

The department accused him of giving a domestic violence suspect preferential treatment because the suspect was Black. Following the probe, Raymond was found guilty of failing to make arrests, improper supervision, and failing to maintain activity logs, according to disciplinary records posted by 50-a.org.

As a result, he lost 20 vacation days.

Raymond has continued to speak publicly about race and policing since leaving the force. During a 2024 interview on YouTube’s 'Brooklyn Savvy Talk Show', he argued that the 2014 death of Eric Garner during an encounter with NYPD officers was rooted in both racial bias and quota-driven policing.

“What I saw was the embedded, lasting, you know, systemic racism in the form of pressure for arrest and summonses,” Raymond said. “When you’re a plainclothes officer, you not only have a quota, it has to be a felony.”

Edwin Raymond's new role at City Hall

Raymond will replace Anthony Miranda, who had remained in the position from former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration before being removed on Thursday.

As sheriff, Raymond will oversee roughly 150 deputies and staff members. The office serves as the city’s primary civil enforcement agency under the Department of Finance and is responsible for matters including cigarette tax enforcement, property fraud investigations, and oversight of illegal cannabis shops.

The appointment has already drawn criticism from some within law enforcement circles.

One retired NYPD officer blasted the decision, calling Mamdani an “idiot” for selecting Raymond.

“He sued the [NYPD] before,” the retired officer said. “He touts himself as an expert on police relations, but all he does is badmouth the Police Department. He had a bone to pick with white supervisors. How do you relate it to slavery?” they wondered.