Alex S. Vitale on Mamdani, ICE Raids, and Abolishing the NYPD Gang Database

Alex S. Vitale is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College, where he coordinates the Policing and Social Justice Project. He’s the best-selling author of the 2017 book The End of Policing, and a contributor to Current Affairs. As of last week’s inauguration in New York City, he’s also part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inner circle, appointed as a member of the transition team for the new Committee on Community Safety. (Fox News and the New York Post were not very happy about his appointment, which is how you know it was a good choice.) Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic sat down with Vitale to discuss the tensions between Mamdani and the NYPD, the force’s infamous “gang database,” and where the fight for police reform and abolition goes from here.