New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tapped a new senior adviser. Her public positions include the "abolition of police" and the "undoing of capitalism." She also believes Mahatma Gandhi — the guy with the glasses and the hunger strikes and the whole nonviolent resistance movement — was a "racist anti-Black misogynist."
Her name is Lena Afridi. Before joining the mayor's office, she was an editor at Pinko — a magazine that describes itself as "a collective for thinking gay communism." She didn't get that label from Fox News. She published under it.
She deleted her social media accounts before the appointment.
Afridi's official portfolio is "responses to federal intervention" — City Hall language for fighting ICE and blocking federal enforcement of sanctuary city restrictions. That's what the $185,000 salary is for.
This is not Mamdani's first trip to the radical-hiring rodeo. His transition team included Tamika Mallory, the former Women's March co-founder who told interviewers she supports defunding the police and believes "one day we can abolish" them entirely. His housing adviser, Cea Weaver, is a Democratic Socialists of America member who tweeted "Elect more Communists" one year and "Seize private property" the next.
Afridi's position on police isn't "reform" or any of the usual euphemisms. It's abolition — the word they use when they mean exactly what it sounds like. She said so in June 2020 and, as far as anyone can tell, never walked it back.
On economics, "undoing capitalism" goes several exits past "income inequality is a problem." It's a destination. One Mamdani has already committed to — the mayor previously declared that "capitalism is theft" and has built his administration around that conviction.
And then there's Gandhi. The man who led India to independence through peaceful protest, who inspired Martin Luther King Jr.'s entire civil rights movement — called by Mamdani's new hire a "racist anti-Black misogynist." If you can't find common ground with Gandhi, the problem is probably not Gandhi.
Mamdani's office has a formula for these stories: point to the hire's "expertise" and "community connections." The community in question is one that considers police, capitalism, and Gandhi the enemy. That's not a policy framework. That's a college dorm room at 2 a.m.
The appointment isn't a surprise. Mamdani has already poured $260 million into his Office of Community Safety, which sends social workers instead of police officers. He scrapped his predecessor Eric Adams's plan to hire 5,000 new cops. Every hire like this confirms where this is going: the mayor of America's largest city isn't softening in office. He's building the team to match the ideology.
Abolish police. Undo capitalism. Gandhi was a bigot. These aren't hidden positions unearthed by opposition researchers. They're Afridi's public platform — stated proudly, now scrubbed from social media, and currently drawing a $185,000 city salary funded by 8 million New Yorkers who mostly just want the subway to run on time.