The first female commissioner of the New York Police Department was officially named on Wednesday at a ceremony held in front of a mural depicting celebrated black revolutionaries

The first female commissioner of the New York Police Department was officially named on Wednesday at a ceremony held in front of a mural depicting celebrated black revolutionaries.

Keechant Sewell, 49, is only the third black NYPD commissioner in the force’s 176-year history, and ends a 30-year line of white men leading the force.

Sewell, currently chief of detectives in Nassau County, was formally declared the next commissioner – ahead of officially taking over on January 1 – at the Queens housing project where she grew up.

She stood in front of a mural depicting Malcolm X, Assata Shakur and Huey P.Newton.

‘I am mindful of the historic nature of this announcement,’ she said, noting she realized what it meant for people of color.

Eric Adams, who takes over as mayor on January 1, said on Wednesday that he was proud of her trail-blazing.

‘Chief Sewell’s appointment today is a powerful message to girls and young women across the city, there is no ceiling to your ambition,’ Adams said.

‘I am so proud today to tear down barriers.

‘This amazing law enforcement professional, she carried with her throughout her career a sledgehammer.And she crushed every glass ceiling that was put in her way and today she had crashed and destroyed the final one we need in New York City.’

Behind them looked down Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, who was jailed for the murder of a police officer in Oakland, California, in 1967 – although the conviction was later overturned.

Newton is known for writing the Black Panthers’ 10 Point Program, which states: ‘We Want An Immediate End To Police Brutality And Murder Of Black People.’

The document declares: ‘We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality.’

Newton was murdered by a member of a Marxist-Leninist drug dealing gang in 1989, aged 47.

Also depicted on the mural was Assata Shakur, who is still on the run following the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

The step-aunt and godmother of rapper Tupac Shakur, she was accused of committing a series of crimes in the New York area, frequently alongside other members of the Black Liberation Army.

She was accused of two bank robberies in New York; the kidnap and murder of a drug dealer; armed robbery, during which she was shot; and the attempted murder of policemen in an ambush.She was either acquitted or the cases dismissed.

In 2013, she became the first woman added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, under her birth name, Joanne Chesimard.

Shakur, now aged 74 and living in Havana, Cuba, has a $2 million reward for her capture.

Also on the mural was Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam leader assassinated in 1965.

He initially advocated advancing civil rights ‘by any means necessary’, but in his later years moderated his tone and began urging peaceful protest.

Another leading light of the civil rights movement, Angela Davis, now 77, was also depicted – the scholar, activist and icon of black liberation looking down on the scene below.

Davis, a vocal supporter of the Black Panthers, USSR and anti-war movements, still lectures at universities across the country and champions resistance movements.

Also featured was Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a rebellion of enslaved people in Virginia on August 21, 1831.

Turner hid nearby successfully for six weeks until his discovery, conviction, and hanging at Jerusalem, Virginia, along with 16 of his followers.

On social media, some questioned the choice of venue, and the association with controversial figures such as Newton and Shakur.

‘Divisive and wrong to have this mural on display!’ said one.

‘This is beyond any parody,’ said another.

‘Why did the new commissioner agree to that?Bad start,’ added another.

Newton’s depiction caused particular alarm.

‘This is so surreal wtf is this lmao, Huey Newton literally has ‘revolution’ in his quote on that wall, tf you people think he meant by ‘revolution’?’ said one.

Some took a different view, arguing that the decision by Sewell and Adams to stand in front of the mural was designed to appeal to the black community, but with little hope of improvement.

‘And?…….that’s just to fool black people into believing he is on our side when in fact he’s not,’ said another.

‘This is all for the optics.Truth is we are already on to the con.’

Others argued that it was insulting to the memories of the civil rights activists who were depicted on the mural, such as Malcolm X.

‘There’s something incredibly wrong with this picture and wholly insulting to the memories of the people depicted in the mural,’ said one.

‘With the exception of Nat Turner, every person memorialized in that mural has an NYPD intelligence file with surveillance notes to the FBI.’

Another added: ‘It’s insulting to everyone involved.’

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news" data-version="2" id="mol-ea50c7d0-5e2b-11ec-8e88-2def2f4090a0" website female NYPD chief makes debut by mural of black revolutionaries