Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pushed his public safety agenda into bolder territory this week by naming rapper-turned-activist Mysonne Linen to his transition team’s criminal legal system committee. The move places a onetime Bronx defendant who rebuilt his life through advocacy at the center of a sweeping effort to reshape how New York handles public safety.

Mamdani’s transition website listened the New York City-based MC among the members of the Committee on the Criminal Legal System. This is one of 17 advisory groups formed to offer policy and personnel recommendations ahead of Mamdani taking office next month.

Mysonne, along with comrade Tamika Mallory, publicly embraced the role on Instagram, writing: “GODS WORK!!”

Their organization, Until Freedom, issued a broader statement celebrating the appointment as both symbolic and earned.

“We are proud that Until Freedom leaders have been chosen to serve on Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team on committees for public safety and criminal justice respectively. 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. We are building something different.”

Mamdani has pushed forward a $1.1 billion proposal for a Department of Community Safety, which would route non-violent and mental-health-related 911 calls away from NYPD response and toward trained civilian teams. The plan maintains overall NYPD staffing.

Mamdani has also vowed to halt NYPD-led sweeps of homeless encampments, arguing the practice only displaces unhoused residents without addressing the need for stable shelter.

“It pushes New Yorkers who are living in the cold to another place where they will live in the cold,” he told CBS News.

On the jail front, Mamdani maintains that closing Rikers Island remains essential, though he has said the current administration has made the city’s original 2027 deadline “functionally impossible.”

The addition of Mysonne, Mallory and others with a unique grassroots New York City experience will help Mamdani steer the city’s next era of criminal justice policy.