Not Your Ideal Candidate? Why Mysonne’s Appointment Is Exactly What Justice Looks Like By Larnez Kinsey
Let’s talk facts and feelings.
People love to stay loud when a Black man rises, but dead silent when the system that tried to bury him stays unchecked.
So here’s the rundown: A formerly incarcerated Bronx-born man, Mysonne Linen, yes, that Mysonne, gets tapped by New York City’s new mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to serve on the Public Safety Transition Committee. And what do we get?
Twitter tantrums.
Tabloid trauma.
Police unions playing the victim.
You’re acting like he got appointed Police Commissioner with a machete in his pocket.
Let me tell you what you’re really mad about:
That he didn’t stay broken.
That he didn’t stay in the box you put him in.
That a man who went to prison came back with clarity, credibility, and the kind of conviction most of these career politicians will never know.
From Conviction to Contribution
Mysonne did seven years. SEVEN.
Not seven months in some soft-core Wall Street white-collar holding tank, seven years in a New York prison.
And he came home and didn’t become a statistic.
He became a soldier for justice.
- Co-founder of Until Freedom.
- Led protests for Breonna Taylor.
- Marched through Louisville, Ferguson, Harlem, and the Bronx.
- Got cuffed for standing with mothers, not chasing cameras.
- Held street vigils.
- Organized back-to-school drives.
- Educated incarcerated youth about the system they were born into.
You want reform? You want lived experience?
He IS the blueprint.
But you don’t want lived experience, you want lived submission.
You want redemption that whispers.
Mysonne came back and spoke with his chest.
And that scares you.
The Backlash
The same city that locks up Black boys at 16 without a blink got shook when one of them grew up and came back ready to lead.
Let’s talk stats:
- Over 76% of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed a year after release.
- Black people are 13% of the U.S. population, but nearly 40% of the prison population.
- NYPD officers have over 15,000 misconduct complaints in the last decade and yet many get promoted.
But Mysonne gets one seat on one advisory committee, and the whole city starts screaming?
Because it’s not about his past. It’s about his power.
You’ll trust a cop who choked someone on camera before you’ll trust a Black man who changed.
Make that make sense.
The Pain Beneath the Politics
Yes, a widow is grieving.
And that’s real.
But so is this: Pain and progress can coexist.
Nobody’s asking for the past to be erased.
But can we allow the future to breathe?
Mysonne didn’t ask for a pardon.
He’s not on a redemption tour.
He’s been on the ground:
- In the streets
- In the classrooms
- In the boardrooms
- In the budget meetings
- In the legislation strategy sessions
While you were tweeting, he was teaching.
While you were critiquing, he was building.
He has earned this moment.
Period.
The 4 I’s of Oppression, Yes, We Gotta Go There
Let’s call it what it is.
The reason this hit a nerve is because the system is doing what it was designed to do, and you don’t even see it.
- Ideological: You were taught that a convicted Black man can’t lead. That once you’re caged, your credibility expires. That’s the lie.
- Institutional: The media calls him an “ex-con” in every headline. But where were the headlines when he helped pass policy? When he fed 500 families during COVID? When he mentored boys who were on the edge of that same system?
- Interpersonal: The beefs? The side-eyes? That’s us hurting each other because the system taught us to compete instead of heal.
- Internalized: Some of you really believe he shouldn’t be there. Because you’ve been conditioned to see transformation as impossible.
Don’t fall for it.
Don’t become a mouthpiece for your own oppression.
The “Beef” Isn’t the Whole Story
Let’s not act like public tension is new.
We’ve watched entire political campaigns run on shade.
But when it’s two Black men with trauma and platforms, suddenly it’s “unfit to serve”?
No
It’s pain without therapy.
It’s ego without rest.
It’s survival mode spilling into public discourse.
Yes, Mysonne responded.
Yes, he got triggered.
Yes, he clapped back, but he didn’t spiral.
He stood ten toes down.
He said what needed to be said and kept building.
A decade of transformation shouldn’t be erased because of a 90-second YouTube clip.
Let’s not confuse viral for valid.
Mysonne’s not perfect. He’s honest.
He’s not clean-cut. He’s cut from real cloth.
He didn’t go to Yale. He went to Rikers, survived New York State Correctional Facilities, and came back whole.
Eric Adams ran with the Seven Crowns, a crew once feared in these same streets. Now he wears the NYPD’s blessing and the mayoral crown. So let’s not pretend like Mysonne’s path is unprecedented. The difference? Mysonne didn’t trade his past in for power; he brought his pain, his truth, and his people with him.
That’s the kind of leadership our communities actually need.
Because nobody knows how to fix a broken system better than someone who survived it and came back with tools.
And if your version of justice can’t include that? You’re not serious about change.
The system didn’t expect him to come back.
It definitely didn’t expect him to come back ready to lead.
And now that he’s here? They want to discredit, dismiss, and distract.
But here’s the truth:
- Mysonne’s not the threat. He’s the answer.
- His story is not an outlier. It’s a mirror.
- His presence isn’t a mistake. It’s a message.
You don’t have to like him.
But you will respect the work.
Because redemption with receipts?
That’s not radical.
That’s revolutionary.
This was spoken and broken down in the most prolific and profound way, expressing the way lived experience needs to be acknowledged and respected, was overstood! I appreciated this message!!