“Are you crazy?”
It’s a question a number of New Yorkers will be asking many, many times over the next four years. In this case, the words came from the wife of a cabbie who was mugged by one of Zohran Mamdani’s transition advisers — and, shockingly, that individual might not even be the least controversial of the problematic advisers he picked.
But, asked about the individuals on Tuesday, Mamdani defended the hires based on their “fluency.”
The move comes after the latest controversy to rock his transition team, that of Mysonne Linen. He served seven years in New York state prison for a series of armed robberies that dated back to the 1990s, after which he became a criminal justice advocate.
He’s now going to be on the mayor-elect’s “criminal legal system” committee. Real recognize real, I suppose.
Linen becomes the latest member of Mamdani’s transition force to undergo intense scrutiny. This includes Tamika Mallory, the former Women’s March organizer who was forced out after her ties to Nation of Islam leader and serial anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan became a bone of contention, and Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, who (among other faux pas) offered fulsome praise for convicted cop-killer and radical Assata Shakur.
“I believe she has so much to offer. With all of the reflection you must have done after all of the years as a Black Panther, what advice do you have for black women to move the movement while also caring for each other?” said Shaakir-Ansari, a far-left activist herself, according to the New York Post.
So, how to handle this if you’re mayor-elect Mamdani? One gives the man this much credit: At least he didn’t come out and say something like, “Wha? I dunno, haven’t heard about that stuff. Next?”
Instead, we got this:
🚨 JUST IN: In a stunning moment, Zohran Mamdani DOUBLES DOWN on appointing convicted armed robber as a public safety advisor to his mayoral transition
New York COOKED ITSELF. It’s official.
“We will take their experience and analysis into account!”
“These New Yorkers bring… pic.twitter.com/71WZ9Xg6Ct
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 9, 2025
“We put together a team of more than 400 New Yorkers who are on 17 different committees, and these are New Yorkers who bring with them both a fluency of the policies and politics of the city, the places that they’ve succeeded, the places that they’ve failed, and we will take all of their experiences and their analysis into account as we build a city for each and every person,” Mamdani said about the appointment of the convicted armed robber.
At least you know that Mamdani is going to govern how he won: which is to say, to the left of Assata Shakur, except without the criminal record. The only people missing from his rogues gallery of advisors are Joseph Stalin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Slobodan Milošević, Lex Luthor, and Darth Vader.
This isn’t necessarily encouraging for New Yorkers who might have thought that their new mayor would moderate himself. It’s especially true if you’re the widow of the Gotham cabbie who was robbed by Mysonne Linen, who provided that “are you crazy?” quote.
“It’s wrong,” said the widow, who asked the Post not to name her. “Somebody that committed that kind of crime and then you make him an advisor on criminality?
“Please … To me, he is no good. Why do you give him a position like that?”
Her late husband, Joseph Eziri, is one of the individuals who was robbed by the vicious robbery crew that eventually got Linen sentenced to prison in 1999.
“My husband went to work that evening,” she recalled. “Later in the night he called me, telling me that a guy that he picked up – I think it was on Ogden Avenue – took his money, and then he used a knife.”
“It’s very very clear – that’s not a job for him,” she added. “Let him advise people on how not to be criminals – not advise the mayor on criminality.”
Alas, this is the kind of craziness that New Yorkers voted for. Buckle up, Big Apple residents. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, and one with a madman at the controls.
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