Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has picked a controversial rapper who did seven years in state prison for armed robbery to advise him on the criminal justice system, The Post has learned.
Mysonne Linen, 49, a Bronx convict-turned-activist who was found guilty of two felony heists in the late 1990s, was appointed by the democratic socialist to sit on his mayoral transition’s “criminal legal system” committee — just one of many questionable picks.
“This is 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,” Linen boasted on Instagram last month after the position was announced. “We are building something different.”
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Linen was a promising young rapper when he was convicted in 1999 for being part of a crew that robbed two cab drivers in the Bronx, the New York Daily News reported at the time.
The conviction came just as Linen’s debut album was due for release by Def Jam Recordings.
Bronx prosecutors said his crew pulled off the June 8, 1997, robbery of taxi driver Joseph Eziri, and the March 31, 1998, gunpoint theft from cabbie Francisco Monsanto, according to the News.
According to officials at the state Department of Correction and Community Renewal, Linen was hit with a sentence of seven to 14 years and was sprung on parole on July 5, 2006.
Linen, who had faced up to 25 years behind bars, continued to deny he was involved and rebranded himself as a community activist following his release from state prison.
He spent years volunteering as a so-called violence interrupter and also founded Rising Kings, a non-profit group that teaches classes to inmates at Rikers Island.
Linen also partnered up with anti-Israel activist and adviser of Mamdani, Linda Sarsour, to found the group Until Freedom, a social justice activism organization.
Critics slammed his appointment to the 20-member “Committee on the Criminal Legal System,” which will advise Mamdani on criminal justice policies.
“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,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
“The men and women who risk their lives every day to enforce the law have been shut out from this process entirely.”
Recently retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said Linen’s appointment was par for the course for the democratic socialist, who has made a slew of contentious picks to his 17 transition committees.
“It’s just another appointed adviser that has a questionable past, which is in line with some of his other recent appointees who were anti-police and establishment,” Chell said.
“The optics and reality here point to a potential erosion of public safety in New York City.”
Former Maryland Department of Juvenile Services boss Vincent Schiraldi, who resigned under pressure amid claims of shoddy oversight and contract mismanagement at the agency, was named to the same committee as Linen last month.
Both Linen’s name and the one of another controversial appointee — Lumumba Bandele, on the “Committee on Community Organizing” — were misspelled in the official Nov. 24 announcement from Mamdani’s team.
Bandele, a black nationalist and the leader of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, has rallied behind cops killers in the past, including Assata Shakur and Herman Bell.
He was among the 400 staffers named to the various Mamdani transition committees — with other controversial appointments including:
- Brooklyn College sociology professor Alex Vitale, who authored a 2017 anti-cop book that decried NYPD “broken windows” policing and warned of ingrained racism in the NYPD ranks, named the 26-member “Committee on Community Safety.”
- Radical Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, co-director of the Alliance for Quality Education and a far-left activist who will serve on Mamdani’s “Committee on Youth & Education.” Shaakir-Ansari also praised Shakur, the convicted cop-killer who fled a life sentence and was granted asylum in Cuba, where she died in September.
- Ben Furnas, the car-hating head of Transportation Alternatives, whose agenda includes plans to all but shut traffic down with bizarre proposals that would freeze the city, named to the “Committee on Transportation, Climate, & Infrastructure.”
- Susan Herman, director of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s failed $1 billion ThriveNYC, which promised to help New York’s homeless mentally ill but allegedly did little more than rip off taxpayers, will also serve on the “Committee on Community Safety.”
Finally, Mamdani included his New York City Democratic Socialists of America pals, particularly co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser, who helped shape the far-left agenda.
Gordillo was named to the economic development and workforce development committee, while Mausser was tapped for the committee on small businesses and Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise.
But Linen’s appointment by Mamdani, whose anti-cop and anti-Israelrhetoric ruffled feathers during the mayoral campaign, has raised new concerns as the former state lawmaker from Queens prepares to take over as mayor next month.
