Mamdani's Pick for Justice Transition Team Sparks Major Controversy

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is drawing criticism after appointing rapper-turned-activist Mysonne Linen, who served seven years in state prison for armed robbery, to his transition team’s criminal justice advisory panel. Linen, 49, was selected for the 20-member “Committee on the Criminal Legal System,” one of several transition groups shaping Mamdani’s public safety and criminal justice priorities ahead of his January 1 inauguration.

Linen was convicted in 1999 for participating in two armed robberies of taxi drivers in the Bronx, according to contemporary reports. Prosecutors said he was part of a group that robbed cab driver Joseph Eziri in June 1997 and later held up driver Francisco Monsanto at gunpoint in March 1998. He faced up to 25 years in prison and ultimately served a seven-to-14-year sentence, spending seven years behind bars before his 2006 parole release. Linen maintained at the time that he had been falsely accused.

Following his release, Linen rebranded himself as a community activist. He worked as a violence interrupter, founded the nonprofit Rising Kings to teach classes inside Rikers Island, and became a leader in the social justice group Until Freedom, which he co-founded with Linda Sarsour and others. Announcing his transition role last month, Linen wrote that the appointment reflected “decades of work advocating on behalf of Black and Brown communities” and called it part of an effort to “build something different.”

Critics sharply rejected the pick. Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, called the appointment “disheartening and deeply disturbing,” arguing that individuals with felony convictions should not shape the city’s criminal justice policy. Recently retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said the selection was consistent with what he described as a pattern of “anti-police and establishment” appointees to Mamdani’s transition committees. Advocacy group Jews Fight Back called the move “insane.”

Linen’s is not the only contentious appointment. The transition announcement also misspelled his name and that of Lumumba Bandele, a black nationalist activist tapped for a community organizing committee. Other disputed picks include former Maryland juvenile services head Vincent Schiraldi, Brooklyn College professor Alex Vitale, activist Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Transportation Alternatives director Ben Furnas, and former ThriveNYC director Susan Herman.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist and frequent critic of NYPD policy, has defended his progressive agenda throughout the campaign. The mayor-elect takes office next month amid heightened debate over crime, policing, and the direction of public safety in New York City.