By Hank Russell
The New York State Democratic Party raised questions about the qualifications of some members of a militia created by Nassau County Executive and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, including a relative and a former NYPD detective who was embroiled in controversy during his career.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Blakeman announced a plan to deputize armed citizens to assist local law enforcement in certain situations. The plan was blasted by Democrats, community advocates and retired law enforcement personnel over the proposed initiative. LILP also reported that the NRGG called on New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the deputy plan, saying the program was implemented without legislative approval and some of those who became deputies may be some of the demonstrators who assaulted Capitol police officers during the January 6 riots in Washington, D.C. and have since been pardoned.
LILP also reported that Nassau County Democratic legislators and civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit against Blakeman last year, challenging what they said was the creation of an illegal taxpayer-funded civilian militia. The lawsuit also accused Blakeman of refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests from Debra Mulé (D-Freeport) and Scott Davis (D-Rockville Centre), both of whom are members of the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee. The plaintiffs alleged the county executive “stonewalled, and then effectively denied, the request, without justification,” and also “withheld all information about how the program is being paid …” and “sought to shroud their illegal program in secrecy.”
In a column for MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Ja’han Jones cited a Newsday article that listed Zachary Cohen, Blakeman’s nephew, as a deputy of the armed citizen patrol. Although Cohen — who operates his family’s real estate development firm in New Jersey — obtained a gun permit in 2024, he has no law enforcement experience, Newsday noted.
Another member who was deputized was Donald Alesi, who served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the NYPD’s narcotics division. According to Newsday, Alesi had a list of complaints filed against him during the 1980s and 1990s while he was on the force. In one incident, he and another officer were charged with assaulting a van driver; the injuries the driver sustained left him paralyzed from the neck down. Although both officers were acquitted, the city had to pay out $16.6 million in a civil settlement.
While there was those who did not have law enforcement experience — including dentists, truck drivers, and municipal employees, as well as a member of Blakeman’s transition team — others were experienced in law enforcement. These included retired military personnel, private security personnel who protected synagogues and volunteers with the Nassau County Auxiliary Police, which assists Nassau County police.
Jones said the militia has “has garnered comparisons to Nazi brownshirts” and “has also been likened to the Ku Klux Klan and slave patrols during the era of chattel slavery, both of which deployed militias filled with civilians to terrorize Black people.”
The list was recently made public in a decision by State Supreme Court Judge Gary Carlton as part of a lawsuit filed by Mulé and Davis which challenged the program’s legality. Blakeman spokesperson Chris Boyle told Newsday that Carlton “prejudged this case” and “should remove himself” from the case because of his work as a district leader with the Democratic Party.
“The only issue that should be before the Court is whether County Executive Blakeman has the power to create a list which under black letter law he clearly does,” Boyle said.
The militias have been referred to as Nazis and “brownshirts” — terms that Blakeman found offensive, according to The Long Island Press.
“Equating these men and women who would be willing to devote their time to protecting our county, calling them brownshirts?” Blakeman was quoted as saying by the Press. “This is not only a personal insult to me, as a Jew, but it is a personal insult on humanity. It’s an insult to those men and women, civic-minded individuals, who stepped up and said they would serve in an emergency.”
Jones also mentioned that Blakeman said these armed civilian groups would be used during emergency situations, such as natural disasters to protect hospitals while Nassau police respond to calls. When a WPIX reporter asked Blakeman if he would call out the militia to quell political protestors who do not agree with him, he replied, “So far our police have been able to handle any protest,” Blakeman said. “But if there was a riot I would consider it, especially at the level they were burning buildings.”
NYS Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick blasted Blakeman’s idea of a militia.
“Bruce Blakeman, who misled New Yorkers about hiring cops and withheld public safety grants from Democratic districts, spent his time as County Executive building an armed MAGA militia that answers to him personally,” Dick said. “He’d never keep New York safe as governor, and would only take orders from one higher-up: Donald Trump.”
Long Island Life & Politics made repeated attempts to reach out to the Blakeman campaign. But never heard back as of press time.