Mamdani Taps Anti-Police Professor Alex Vitale for NYC Transition Team

Just weeks after softening his anti-police rhetoric on the campaign trail, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has made it crystal clear where he really stands by appointing radical academic Alex Vitale to his transition team.

Vitale, a far-left sociology professor and author of The End of Policing, is now set to help shape Mamdani’s policies on “community safety.” But if Vitale’s record is any indication, what’s coming is not “safety” it’s chaos.

Vitale has made a career out of attacking the very idea of law enforcement. He’s publicly referred to police as “violence workers”, and openly argues that racism and violence are inherent to policing. His solution? Dismantle the system entirely.

“If you don’t want racism and violence,” Vitale once said, “don’t get the police involved.”

This is who Mamdani wants advising him on crime?

• Vitale’s book The End of Policing calls for decriminalizing prostitution, drug use, and other “quality of life” crimes the same crimes that are crippling American cities.

• He advocates replacing police with government-funded “community” programs and corporate housing subsidies for the homeless.

• He has also repeatedly attacked Israel, accusing it of “occupation” and opposing police training programs between the U.S. and Israeli law enforcement.

“I’m not happy with these exchanges of policing to Israel,” Vitale said. “Israel is engaged in an occupation.”

Mamdani, who tried to distance himself from his radical roots during his campaign, is now bringing that ideology directly into City Hall. And New Yorkers are rightfully alarmed.

On X (formerly Twitter), reactions poured in:

“The biggest risk of a Mamdani mayorship? Mass exodus from the NYPD,” one user wrote. “This occurred in SF under the radical left DA, Chesa Boudin.”

Another noted, “Huge step backwards for Mamdani. This guy wants to defund and abolish policing. You can find him wherever prep school lefties congregate zero working-class New Yorkers adhere to these ideas.”

This isn’t just a personnel choice. It’s a declaration of priorities. Instead of focusing on rising crime, public safety, or restoring order to a city still reeling from years of progressive mismanagement, Mamdani is empowering a man who doesn’t believe in policing at all.

Let’s not forget what happened the last time New York flirted with anti-cop ideology. Police morale plummeted. Retirements surged. Crime exploded. And working-class neighborhoods not the Brooklyn brownstones of Ivy League socialists paid the price.

Mamdani may have said the right things to get elected. But by hiring Vitale, he’s showing us exactly who he is: a radical left ideologue, more loyal to activist Twitter than the people of New York.

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