Widow Of Cabbie Mugged By Mamdani's Appointee To Criminal Justice Panel Speaks Up-What She Said

(MENAFN- Live Mint) A day after it came to light that New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani had appointed ex-convict rapper-turned-activist Mysonne Linen as a criminal justice advisor on his transition team, the widow of a cabbie mugged by the Mamdani appointee's former crew has spoken up.

"Are you crazy?," shocked woman from the Bronx told New York Post when she learnt that Linen, who served seven years in prison, had been named to advise Mamdani on the criminal justice system.

The woman went on to call the appoint plain "wrong"-"Somebody that committed that kind of crime and then you make him an advisor on criminality?," she told NYP.

49-year-old Linen was appointed last month in the 20-member criminal justice panel on Mamdani's transition team, a move that the rapper-turned-community activist hailed as 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".

But, the widow of cabbie Joseph Eziri, who was mugged in the 1990s by a crew that Linen was part of, was having none of it.

“Please... To me, he is no good. Why do you give him a position like that?,” he was quoted as saying by NYP.

Recalling the harrowing night for Eziri, the woman further said, "My husband went to work that evening. 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...”

Eziri died of a heart attack last year, but the woman said that had he been around, he would have protested:“He would protest against it, that's for sure. I know my husband.”

Linen was among 400 New Yorkers who were appointed to various panels by Zohran Mamdani last month.

“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 fluency of the policies and politics of the city, the places that they've succeeded the places that they' failed,” Mamdani had said following the appointments.

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A promising rapper in the 1990s, Linen was convicted in 1999 for being part of a crew that pulled off heists on two New York cabbies, including Eziri, whose widow spoke with NYP.

Prosecutors at the time said that Linen and his crew were behind the 8 June 1997 mugging of Joseph Eziri, as well as the 31 March 1998 gunpoint theft from cabbie Francisco Monsanto.

Linen was slapped with a sentence of seven to 14 years, and was released on parole in 2006.

Following his release, the rapper turned to community service, volunteering as a violence interrupter and later founding Rising Kings, a non-profit group that holds classes for Rikers Island inmates.

Also Read | Mamdani tells immigrant New Yorkers about their right not to comply with ICE

Linen also reportedly joined hands with anti-Israel activist and Mamdani advisor Linda Sarsour to found social justice non-profit Until Freedom.

Despite Linen's recent record of community service and activism, many criticised Mamdani for the appointment, including Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and John Chell, a recently retired NYPD Chief of Department.

In response, Linen's organization Until Freedom said that the rapper-turned-activist was focusing where it mattered.

“They tried it with the headline. We outside doing real work. Mysonne is the BOSS at Until Freedom,” the organization said in a post on Instagram.

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