An unhinged Columbia University professor — who once claimed capitalism causes “mental illness” and downplayed 9/11 — made a sick joke about NYPD officers leaving their kids “fatherless” after a mob pelted them with snowballs at Washington Square Park.
“BREAKING: One of the NYPD officers hit with a snowball in the melee in NYC yesterday has succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 1 pm this afternoon,” lecturer Anthony Zenkus posted on X.
“The snowman that he built with his two children — now fatherless — still stands on the lawn of his Levittown, Long Island home,” he snarked in the post, which was accompanied by a photo of a snowman. “Please pray for his family.”
Unimpressed social media users ripped the tasteless joke.
“I think the NYPD and all the police should say screw New York. This is how they treat the police then bye-bye. Let New Yorkers fight each other,” one critic seethed.
“Making a joke referencing a cop getting killed is typical liberal humor. Not funny but perfectly reveals their morals,” another added.
Zenkus also joked in poor taste that “snowballs are Hamas” in response to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s statement condemning the snow assault, in which Cuomo decried Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s anti-police and anti-Israel rhetoric.
The professor said that those angry over the frozen fracas are “pearl-clutching conservatives” having a “meltdown.”
Mamdani, for his part, downplayed the incident as nothing more than a rowdy “snowball fight” that got out of hand and indicated he didn’t believe anyone involved should be charged.
The Post has reached out to the professor for comment.
Mayhem erupted when hundreds of unruly winter warriors descended on the popular Manhattan park for an organized snowball fight Monday afternoon — hours after a historic blizzard dumped nearly two feet of snow on the Big Apple.
Bystanders called 911 to report a disorderly group of teens hurling snow from the rooftop of a park building — but when two cops assigned to the park responded, they were met by a barrage of snowballs, video shows.
The cops called for backup, drawing multiple officers in vans, sources said. Those cops were then pelted with snowballs.
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Union, tore into Mamdani and called his response a “complete failure of leadership.”
“This was not just a ‘snowball fight.’ This was an assault — by adults throwing chunks of ice and rocks — that landed two police officers in the hospital with head and face injuries,” he said.
“By ignoring their injuries and dismissing the incident, the mayor has sent a disgraceful message to every police officer who serves this city, and a dangerous message to every person who might be looking to attack a police officer in the future.”
Police have since released photos of four people wanted for questioning in connection with the snow attack.
The department is investigating whether there are more suspects, law-enforcement sources said.
Zenkus, a senior adjunct lecturer at the Ivy League university’s School of Social Work, has sparked controversy in the past with his inflammatory social media posts.
On Sept. 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people — Zenkus posted that the US “acts like it’s the only country in the world where people died because of an attack.
“Meanwhile, in the last hundred years, we’ve killed millions,” he wrote.
He also posted that “Capitalism causes mental illness.”
“If you are feeling depressed, anxious or overusing alcohol or drugs right now, it’s not you. It’s the system,” he said.
Zenkus, a TedX speaker, caught heat again in 2024 for mocking the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was allegedly gunned down in Midtown by Luigi Mangione.