Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s controversial safety team appointment is drawing sharp backlash after he selected formerly incarcerated rapper and activist Mysonne Linen to serve on his City Hall transition team for public safety and criminal justice. The choice, announced in a Nov. 26 Instagram post from the social-justice group Until Freedom, placed the 49-year-old on committees that will help shape New York City’s crime-policy direction beginning Jan. 1.
Until Freedom wrote, “We are proud that Until Freedom leaders have been chosen to serve on Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team on committees for public safety and criminal justice respectively,” calling the move “a testament to our decades of work advocating on behalf of Black and Brown communities and our expertise in gun violence prevention, legislative advocacy, and criminal justice reform. We are building something different.”
Linen, once signed to Def Jam, previously built a public profile around anti-violence activism. But his felony record is resurfacing as a political flashpoint. A Bronx jury convicted him in 1999 for two armed robberies of cab drivers. Prosecutors said he participated in a 1997 attack on Joseph Exiri, striking him with a beer bottle, and a 1998 robbery of Francisco Monsanto at gunpoint. Both victims testified and identified him as one of the assailants.
Critics argue the appointment reflects misplaced priorities amid citywide concerns over crime. The group Jews Fight Back posted on X, “Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani just appointed a convicted armed robber to help shape NYC’s crime and policing policy,” calling the decision “insane.”
Linen, reaffirming messaging he has used in recent speeches, posted again this week, “We are building something different.”
