Zohran Mamdani appoints Alex Vitale, author of ‘The End of Policing,’ to NYC transition team

TLDR:

• NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani appoints author of “The End of Policing” to his transition team for community safety issues
• Mr. Mamdani called NYPD “racist” and urged defunding in 2020, but said “I am not defunding the police” during campaign
• Brooklyn College professor Alex Vitale argues in his book that “the problem is policing itself” and calls for abolishing most police activity
• Mr. Mamdani also retained current NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, sending mixed signals about his public safety approach

New York City’s incoming Democratic socialist mayor is sending conflicting signals about public safety by simultaneously keeping the current police commissioner while appointing an author who advocates abolishing most policing.

Zohran Mamdani announced that Alex Vitale, a Brooklyn College sociology professor who wrote “The End of Policing,” will join his transition team on community safety issues.

Mr. Vitale’s 2017 book argues that law enforcement worsens the problems it’s supposed to solve and calls for ending traditional policing for drug use, border control, prostitution and “misbehaving adolescents.”

“The problem is policing itself,” Mr. Vitale wrote, comparing police training to “teaching a soldier to be sensitive while sending him to occupy a foreign country.”

The appointment marks a sharp contrast with Mr. Mamdani’s campaign messaging. In 2020, he posted that “the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and urged defunding. But after a summer mass shooting, he told reporters, “I am not defunding the police.”

Two weeks ago, Mr. Mamdani announced that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted his offer to continue leading the nation’s largest police force.

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• New York mayor-elect appoints author of ’End of Policing’ to transition team