New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani selects community safety adviser with critical background

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has selected a community safety adviser for his transition team who previously authored a book blaming crime on increased policing. Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College, was tapped Monday to help staff Mamdani’s committee focused on community safety during the transition. “I’m excited to announce that I have been asked to join the Mamdani Transition Team to work on community safety issues. A New Era for NYC,” Vitale posted on X on Monday. Vitale is best known for his book “The End of Policing,” which argued against proactive law enforcement strategies and claimed they have led the New York Police Department to disproportionately and unjustifiably target minority communities. “The problem is not police training, police diversity, or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last 40 years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society,” the book’s description read. “The problem is policing itself.” Following his election victory, Mamdani released a video telling supporters that his administration would “cast a wide net,” bringing in “veterans with proven track records, policy experts from around the country and the world, and working people who know better than anyone what their neighborhoods need.” Many users on X were less than enthusiastic about the hiring with one comment saying “this is a guaranteed disaster,” while another wrote “RIP NYC.”