Mamdani launches a deed theft prevention office
Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order creating New York City’s first Office of Deed Theft Prevention, fulfilling his campaign promise to protect locals from fraud, on Friday.
Mamdani appointed Peter White, a longtime homeowner assistance attorney, as the office’s first director — tasked with preventing scammers from stealing residents’ homes by forging documents. The new office was allotted $500,000 before receiving a $1 million budget for the next fiscal year, while Mamdani promised to set aside $10 million for the office during his term. The new program was announced in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood New Yorkers know as notorious for incidents of deed theft among its Black families.
“The theft of a home is the theft of a family’s future,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Deed theft preys on the New Yorkers who can least afford it. Today, we are bringing the full force of city government to bear to stop it — to protect homeowners, defend generational wealth and make clear that this city will not tolerate the exploitation of our communities.”
The new office came two days after Councilmember Chi Ossé was arrested for protesting the eviction of a Bed-Stuy resident, whom he alleged was a victim of deed theft. From 2013 to 2023, over 3,500 deed theft complaints were filed in New York City — jumping from 149 complaints in 2023, to 222 in 2024 and then 517 in 2023.
City Hall said the office will coordinate across agencies to flag suspicious property fillings alongside law enforcement while also connecting homeowners with legal help. Mamdani also announced a six-month pause on the city’s lien sale program.
Trump opens civil rights investigation into NYC public schools
The Trump administration began a civil rights investigation into New York City’s public schools, following allegations of antisemitism, on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights cited concerns regarding Title VI — which prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin — as the main reason for the evaluation. The Trump administration alleged that the city’s education department discriminated against Jewish students by permitting community members to create “NYC Educators for Palestine” — an advocacy group that, according to the federal government, taught young children “hostility and hatred towards Jewish students, potentially creating a hostile environment.”
The Trump administration detailed that the group educated children about “contemporary and historical Palestinian resistance” and characterized Zionists as “genocidal white supremacists.” A New York City district spokesperson refuted the claim, adding that NYC Educators for Palestine is “not connected” to the city’s public schools.
The investigation is the latest in a series of federal civil rights cases in the nation’s largest school districts, which have now prolonged across two presidential administrations.
Video of assault prompts NYPD to disband Brooklyn narcotics unit
Footage of two narcotics detectives assaulting a man inside a Brooklyn liquor store spurred outrage at the New York City Police Department on Tuesday.
The video showed both officers, not dressed in uniform, punching, kicking and stomping on a security guard named Timothy Brown — leaving a pool of blood smeared across the floor — while wrongfully arresting him in a drug bust. Brown was later determined to have no involvement in the drug sale that prompted the undercover operation.
As a result, the NYPD disbanded the Brooklyn North narcotics unit and launched a 90-day review of the narcotics enforcement policies, training and body camera technology.
“What we witnessed in that video is a blatant violation of human rights and a disgusting display of force,” Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, said. “We are calling for the immediate identification and firing of these detectives. We will not stand by while our community members are assaulted and bloodied in broad daylight.”
A witness in the liquor store said that the officers did not identify themselves or tell Brown that he was under arrest before assaulting him. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch ordered for the officers to be placed on modified duty, removing their guns and shields, and for all charges against Brown to be dropped.
Contact Natalie Deoragh at [email protected].