In what may be the most jaw-dropping indication yet of where New York City is headed under its incoming far-left mayor, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has tapped a convicted armed robber — yes, a man who once terrorized cab drivers at gunpoint — to help craft the city’s criminal justice policy. For ordinary New Yorkers who already feel the city slipping back into the lawlessness of the 1970s, the appointment is an unmistakable warning: under Mamdani, criminals aren’t just walking free — they’re being invited inside City Hall to help shape the future of policing.
The appointee, 49-year-old Bronx rapper-turned-activist Mysonne Linen, served seven years in state prison for two violent felonies. In the late 1990s, Linen was convicted for taking part in a pair of armed heists against taxi drivers — hardworking New Yorkers just trying to make a living. Prosecutors detailed the crimes at the time: in June 1997, his crew robbed cab driver Joseph Eziri at gunpoint, and in March 1998, cabbie Francisco Monsanto was also held up in a similar attack. Linen faced up to 25 years behind bars, ultimately receiving a seven-to-fourteen-year sentence before being paroled in 2006.
Yet to the shock of many, Mamdani has chosen Linen to serve on his 20-member “Committee on the Criminal Legal System,” an influential advisory group that will help shape his administration’s policies on crime, policing, and public safety. Linen, who denies guilt despite the conviction, celebrated the appointment online, proclaiming it a validation of his “expertise” in criminal justice reform. To many New Yorkers, though, the message felt chillingly clear: the new mayor would rather elevate felons than law enforcement.
Even more concerning, Linen isn’t an isolated case — he fits right in with the rest of Mamdani’s extremist slate.
Mamdani — a self-described democratic socialist whose anti-police, pro-Palestinian, and anti-Israel rhetoric was a hallmark of his campaign — has filled his transition committees with individuals who have long histories of hostility toward law enforcement, sympathy for radicals, or outright incompetence. Critics fear this is not a bug, but a feature: Mamdani appears intent on remaking New York City’s criminal justice system in the image of the far-left fringe.
Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio minced no words: “It is both disheartening and deeply disturbing that individuals who are convicted felons and have a history of breaking the law are being given the opportunity to help shape the future of New York’s criminal justice system. The men and women who risk their lives every day to enforce the law have been shut out entirely.”
Recently retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell echoed the alarm, calling Linen’s selection “par for the course” from Mamdani. “It’s just another adviser with a questionable past,” he said, warning of an “erosion of public safety in New York City.”
As if Linen’s appointment wasn’t concerning enough, Mamdani added a slew of other radicals to key posts:
• **Lumumba Bandele**, a black nationalist and leader within the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, who has previously championed notorious cop-killers like Assata Shakur and Herman Bell.
• **Alex Vitale**, a Brooklyn College professor and author of a far-left anti-police manifesto calling for an end to “broken windows” policing — one of the most successful crime-reduction strategies in city history.
• **Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari**, a radical activist who praised Assata Shakur, the convicted murderer who fled to Cuba, and who will advise Mamdani on youth and education policy.
• **Ben Furnas**, a car-hating ideologue from Transportation Alternatives whose policies would grind vehicle traffic — and the city’s economy — to a halt.
• **Susan Herman**, former head of Bill de Blasio’s disastrous $1 billion ThriveNYC mental-health boondoggle that failed to help the homeless while burning through taxpayer cash.
Additionally, Mamdani has packed his transition teams with Democratic Socialists of America operatives, effectively outsourcing government to the city’s most extreme ideological faction.
Even Vincent Schiraldi — a scandal-plagued former Maryland juvenile justice chief who resigned under pressure for mismanagement — has been welcomed onto Mamdani’s criminal justice committee.
And all of this comes from a mayor-elect who has cheered anti-police protests, attacked Israel, and embraced fringe ideologies that even many Democrats find alarming.
After news broke of Linen’s appointment, the group *Jews Fight Back* posted bluntly: “New York City is being handed over to radicals, extremists, and outright terrorists. Watch this space. This is going to get even uglier.”
It’s not hard to see why average New Yorkers are nervous. Crime is already rising. Retail theft is rampant. Violent repeat offenders roam freely thanks to reckless bail reform. And now, the incoming mayor is elevating individuals who have either broken the law, defended cop-killers, or advocated for dismantling the very institutions meant to keep the public safe.
Instead of strengthening the justice system, Mamdani appears determined to undermine it — by empowering the same activists who blame police, not criminals, for rising violence.
Supporters insist the appointments reflect a commitment to “reform.” But to working-class New Yorkers, the message is unmistakable: the next administration is sympathetic not to victims, but to perpetrators. Not to law enforcement, but to those who have openly sought to delegitimize it.
As Mamdani prepares to take office next month, city residents must brace for a radical experiment in governance — one where the voices shaping criminal justice policy are not police, prosecutors, or public-safety experts, but activists, ideologues, and even convicted felons.
If New Yorkers thought the de Blasio years were bad, they may soon look back on them as the calm before the storm. New York City is about to find out what happens when you invite the foxes not just into the henhouse, but into the mayor’s office — and let them write the rules.
