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Mamdani-appointed NYC professor who wrote book on ending policing now tasked with shaping community safety

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Mamdani-appointed NYC professor who wrote book on ending policing now tasked with shaping community safety

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A sociology professor at Brooklyn College appointed to New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team wrote a book about ending policing.

“I’m excited to announce that I have been asked to join the Mamdani Transition Team to work on community safety issues. A New Era for NYC,” Alex Vitale said on X.

Vitale is the author of “The End of Policing,” published in 2017. The book, which opens by explaining that police don’t exist to help citizens, argues for an end to traditional policing for certain criminal activity, including narcotics use, prostitution, patrolling borders and “misbehaving adolescents.” The book also argues that police shouldn’t combat street gangs.

Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” speaks during a discussion on school policing at the University of Southern Maine on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Other speakers were, left to right, Portland Police Chief Frank Clark, South Portland School Resource Officer Al Giusto, Portland School Board Chair Roberto Rodriguez and Al Cleveland of Maine Youth Justice. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

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On ending gang units, Vitale argues that they are racist.

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“In most cities, gang units function as a mechanism for racialized social control,” the book says in chapter five. “Black and Latino youth are labeled as gang members for hanging out together, while white youth groups are dismissed as harmless.”

Policing borders is also racist, according to the author. 

“The expansion of Border Patrol powers has been justified through fear and racism. It legitimizes xenophobic narratives that define immigrants as threats rather than as fellow workers or neighbors,” the book says in chapter six.

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Vitale also describes border policing as “inhumane.” 

Chapter nine of the book argues against training police officers on implicit bias, claiming that police officers’ views on race do not matter because the whole system of policing is racist. 

Zohran Mamdani delivers a victory speech at a mayoral election night watch party, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

“Racism in policing is structural, not simply a product of bad attitudes,” the book says. “Training officers to recognize implicit bias without changing what they are tasked with enforcing is like teaching a soldier to be sensitive while sending him to occupy a foreign country.”

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The professor’s faculty profile on Brooklyn College’s website says Vitale has spent 30 years writing about policing and that he consults with law enforcement entities and international human rights organizations.

He teaches courses about African Americans in the criminal justice system, according to his university profile.

Vitale has often called to abolish police on his X account, including bicycle police, police helicopters and police in schools. He has also called to abolish joint terrorism task forces, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol and even the presidency of the United States.

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NYPD officers respond to a shooting. (John Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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He has also called for the NYPD to abolish its gang database.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who is also the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state, called on incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul to denounce Mamdani for the appointment. 

“Kathy Hochul must condemn Zohran Mamdani’s appointment of Alex Vitale to his transition advisory committee,” she told Fox News Digital. “Vitale is a radical police abolitionist who will destroy New York if he gets his way,” 

Neither Vitale nor Brooklyn College returned requests for comment.

Mamdani has hired others who harbor anti-police sentiments.

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Earlier this month, he announced that campaign advisor Elle Bisgaard-Church would join his staff. She has been dubbed the “chief architect” of Mamdani’s campaign proposal to have social workers respond to certain non-violent 911 calls and is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Mamdani officials did not return a request for comment.

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report. 

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Northeast

Murder suspect in Baltimore robbery spree was on probation, records show

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Murder suspect in Baltimore robbery spree was on probation, records show

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A Baltimore man faces first-degree murder and multiple armed robbery charges after authorities say he carried out a nine-day crime spree that left a convenience store clerk dead.

Baltimore police said 52-year-old Brian Burrows was arrested in connection with a commercial armed robbery and the fatal shooting of Khaled Saleh Mohamed Alshariki on Feb. 13.

Court records show Burrows has been charged in three separate cases stemming from incidents on Feb. 6, Feb. 13 and Feb. 15. In total, he faces 21 charges, including one count of first-degree murder, three counts each of armed robbery, first-degree assault, use of a firearm in a violent crime and handgun on person.

He also faces two counts each of robbery and second-degree assault, along with charges including reckless endangerment, theft and discharging a firearm.

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Brian Burrows faces first-degree murder charges, among numerous others, after police say a nine-day robbery spree left a convenience store clerk dead. (Baltimore City Police)

According to police, officers responded to reports of a shooting around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 13 and found a 36-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. The victim, later identified as Alshariki, was transported to a nearby hospital where he died.

FOX45 News in Baltimore reported it obtained charging documents in the cases, which state surveillance footage captured a suspect approaching Alshariki as he worked behind the counter, pulling out a gun, demanding money and firing a fatal shot.

Court records show investigators used facial recognition technology to identify Burrows as a possible match.

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A Baltimore man faces first-degree murder and 20 other charges. (Getty Images)

Two days later, another armed robbery was reported at Family Grocery and Tobacco, about a half mile north of the Broadway store.

Police said witness statements and surveillance footage helped identify Burrows, and investigators allege the video evidence also linked him to the fatal shooting.

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Burrows was arrested Feb. 19 after detectives executed a warrant. (iStock)

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Burrows was arrested Feb. 19 after detectives executed a warrant at a home in Linden Heights. He was taken to an intake facility and charged.

Court records also show Burrows had an outstanding probation violation warrant issued in September 2025 in a prior armed robbery case. In that case, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 13 years suspended, and placed on supervised probation before his release.

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Burrows remains held without bond as prosecutors pursue the murder and robbery charges, while the probation violation from his prior armed robbery case remains pending.

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Boston, MA

Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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Pittsburg, PA

Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County

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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County



In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.

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The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction. 

Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021. 

The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that. 

People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away. 

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