Maya Wiley, the progressive left's new poster child, is a mass of contradictions. Republicans call it hypocrisy.
The 57-year-old lives in a $2.75million, 4,000-sq-ft house in Brooklyn. Her husband Harlan Mandel, 58, is CEO of a multimillion investment fund.
She wants to defund the police but she and her neighbors pay for private security for their wealthy area.
The mother-of-two calls school programs for talented kids 'racially discriminatory,' but she sent one daughter, to an academy for the gifted, and the other to a $51,000-a-year private school.
She worked as chief legal adviser to the Big Apple's current mayor Bill de Blasio, but now attacks him at every opportunity.
And she says her administration would be fully transparent, but while working for de Blasio came up with a now-discredited way to keep secret communications between his office and outside advisers.
'She talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk,' one political observer told DailyMail.com.
New York City mayoral candidate Maya Wiley was spotted leaving her $2.75million home in Brooklyn yesterday to attend a campaign event in the city
The 57-year-old civil rights activist and lawyer has become the new poster child for the progressive left after promising to defund the police and abolish gifted and talented school programs if elected mayor
DailyMail.com spotted Wiley outside of her 4,000-sq-ft house she shares with her husband in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn - one of the leafiest - and safest - neighborhoods in the city
Wiley has vowed to defund New York City's police department despite coughing up $550 a month for a private security car to monitor her neighborhood. Her mother's trust paid for the home in 2000 for $700,000 and its value has quadrupled in the intervening 21 years
Wiley, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's choice to be the next mayor of New York City, is one of eight major contenders for the Democratic nomination. Primaries will be held on June 22.
In deep blue New York, the winner of the Democratic race will be clear favorite to win the November election.
The latest poll, conducted before AOC's endorsement, had Wiley in fifth place with nine per cent of likely voters backing her as their first choice.
But with one major progressive rival, Scott Stringer, under pressure to quit following sexual harassment allegations, and staffers for a second, Dianne Morales, in open revolt after four firings, she is hoping to pick up more of the leftist vote to put her close to top tier candidates Eric Adams, Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia in the wide-open race.
Her campaign did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Wiley was born in Syracuse, New York, and lived in New York City briefly as a child before her parents moved to Washington, D.C.
Her father was one of six children of a postal clerk who managed to attend the University of Rhode Island as an honor student and then took a doctorate in organic chemistry at Ivy League university Cornell, before becoming a professor at Berkeley where he advised students how to organize sit-ins.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) threw her support behind civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley (right) for New York mayor over the weekend
Critics believe Wiley is a mass of contradictions due to her well-heeled background and lifestyle
George Wiley became head of the National Welfare Rights Organization, but he left a few months before his death because he felt it wasn't attracting enough white members and he formed the Movement for Economic Justice.
Like his daughter, George married a white person, Wretha Wittle from Abilene, Texas, who supported her husband's beliefs.
Maya was only nine when she watched her father get swept out to sea after a huge wave crashed into his boat as they sailed in Chesapeake Bay.
Young Maya, and her 10-year-old brother Daniel desperately tried to throw their father a line but the seas were too rough and he was pulled further and further from the boat.
Somehow, Maya and Daniel managed to get the boat close enough to shore that they could swim to dry land.
But then, she claims, they went door-to-door in the white neighborhood asking for help but were rebuffed. That experience, she says, made her realize that racism is a 'deep illness.'
The mother-of-two has discussed taking a more progressive approach when it comes to restoring safety and security on New York City streets, however, critics believe her plan is naïve
Wiley has also drawn criticism for not living by the standards she would force on the city's residents
The wannabe politician, who was born in Syracuse, New York, received a private education as a child before going on to attend two Ivy League universities, Dartmouth and Columbia
She is now one of eight major contenders for the Democratic nomination and will be up against them in the primaries later this month
The latest poll, conducted before AOC's endorsement, had Wiley in fifth place with nine per cent of likely voters backing her as their first choice
The body of 42-year-old welfare rights activist George Wiley wasn't found for three days, long after authorities had given up hope of finding him alive.
Wiley rarely speaks of that terrible day in August 1973 but she does say it was a formative experience.
'My brother and I - two little kids, nine, and 10 years old - alone on a boat after watching the waves wash away our father, we had to find a way to live,' she told the New York Times.
Maya went to private school in Washington, then on to two Ivy League universities, Dartmouth and Columbia.
She worked for the Manhattan US Attorney's office before going on to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and was at one stage mentioned as a possible future head of that organization.
Instead she went to the ACLU, then founded the Center for Social Inclusion before joining de Blasio's administration where she stayed for two and a half years, and then for a year she chaired the civilian board that oversees complaints against the police.
She is perhaps best-known nationally as a legal analyst on MSNBC where she frequently appeared with hosts such as Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow.
She quit when she announced in October last year that she would run for mayor but has still appeared regularly as a guest.
Wiley is married to Harlan Mandel, 58, (left) the CEO of a multimillion investment fund
Wiley and her husband, Harlan. The two share two daughters, Naja and Kai
Wiley (pictured with her daughters) has been an outspoken opponent of selective education. But her daughter Naja, now 20, got her middle school education at the Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented and her younger daughter Kai, 17, spent years at private Brooklyn Friends School
On Monday she was on the network again, touting her police reform package which would slash the budget by $1 billion, have a civilian as police commissioner and freeze cadet classes for two years, while removing the NYPD from mental health management, traffic, and immigration enforcement, and school safety, among other issues.
She claims her plans would reduce gun violence by up to 40 per cent.
'It's not that we don't want police. We want police focused on the job of policing,' she told Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski.
Violent crime in New York has shot up over the past two years. Murders are up 48 per cent since 2019, and shooting incidents are more than double. Hate crimes are up by 38 per cent. Critics say her plan is naïve.
Curtis Sliwa, the likely Republican candidate in the mayoral race told DailyMail.com: 'Hypocrisy drips from the lips of Maya Wiley. With her, it's all do as I say, not as I do.'
'She is someone who worships at the altar of AOC - All-Out Crazy,' he added.
Sliwa, 64, who is famed in New York for founding the Guardian Angels, a group that fought violence in the city's Subway system in the 1970s, said that Wiley's plans to take $1 billion from the police budget comes on top of previous cuts that already total $1 billion. 'And they only had a budget of $6 billion.
'Yet if she wins the primary she will get armed security from the NYPD 24-hours a day at the taxpayers' expense. I hope she refuses that, but with her record I don't think she will.
'Why should you have to have an armed guard to protect you from the people who voted for you,' he added.
'The day I have to have an armed guard to travel the streets and subways - and I am the only candidate who uses the subways - is the day I either get a job hanging wallpaper.
'Or maybe I retire to the Sixth Borough of New York City - Boca Raton,' he added.
Sliwa said Wiley's plans to stop screening for gifted students is another case of her hypocrisy.
'Instead of complaining about the lack of places for children of color she should be increasing the total number of places,' he said.
'Maya Wiley is like so many Democrats who call for these things, they have lived privileged lives but are really fugazies,' he added, using a slang word for a fake or a fraud.
Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Wiley on Saturday.
Wiley and her brother Daniel (pictured) were just young children when they watched their father drown during a sailing trip
Maya is the daughter of welfare rights activist and college professor George Wiley. She was just 10 years old when she watched the 42-year-old get swept out to sea while they sailed in Chesapeake Bay. His body was found August 12, 1973
'If we don't come together as a movement, we will get a New York City built by and for billionaires, and we need a city by and for working people,' the firebrand congresswoman said.
Jamaal Bowman, another member of the so-called 'Squad', has also backed Wiley as has Hakeem Jeffries, the fifth-highest member of House Democratic leadership.
She has also received celebrity endorsements from Gabrielle Union, Alyssa Milano, Patton Oswalt, Cedric the Entertainer and Debra Messing, among others.
But Wiley's critics say she does not live by the standards she would force on the city's residents.
While she wants to cut the city police budget, she and her husband pay $550 a month for a private security firm to patrol her area.
The service will even take residents from the local subway station to their home if they feel unsafe.
She claims she doesn't want the private company, the Prospect Park South Charitable Trust.
'It's neither effective nor does it create the sense of community that I support. And I don't think it reflects the actual reality of our community in terms of whether it's even needed,' she said last year.
But she added the issue is complicated by the fact that Mandel nearly 20 years ago was beaten so badly, that he was hospitalized.
'To this day, if it's dark out, he walks down the middle of the street, he doesn't walk on the [poorly lit] sidewalk,' she explained.
Maya Wiley's (pictured) vocal criticism of selective education did not stop her sending her eldest daughter to Mark Twain, a middle school in Brooklyn that cherry picks high-performing students
'And he said, one night he was coming home from work and he saw the car at the end of the block and it just made him feel better.
'And so he started paying again and then I had a very hard time saying, 'don't do it.'
'It's not necessarily rational but it is his trauma response so it's a complicated one for our family.'
She wants to create a 'just and livable' city with affordable housing, but her Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn is one of the leafiest — and safest — in the city.
Her mother's trust bought the home in 2000 for $700,000 and its value has quadrupled in the intervening 21 years.
And there is her opposition to screening of students. 'As mayor, I'll end the discriminatory status quo, where there are four times as many kids in gifted programs in District 2 in Manhattan as in District 12 in the Bronx,' she said juxtaposing one of the city's richest and whitest areas against one of the poorest and with the most minority students.
But daughter Naja, now 20, got her middle school education at the Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented and then went to the Humanities Preparatory Academy that screens incoming students for good grades in core subjects.
Younger daughter Kai, 17, spent years at private Brooklyn Friends School.
The mayoral candidate's youngest daughter went to the expensive Brooklyn Friends school
Maya Wiley sent her eldest daughter to Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented (pictured)
When de Blasio appointed her, Wiley said: 'It would have been impossible to say 'No' to a mayor who has such a big vision for both the city and the country.' Now she slams him for indecision, political ambition and transactional deal-making.
'I don't have experience accepting bad deals,' she said as she kicked off her campaign last October.
'I don't have experience campaigning across all boroughs of this city but only showing up when it's convenient. I don't have experience being so afraid to make a wrong decision that I make no decision at all.'
Her most notorious action while in the administration was to define outside contractors as 'agents of the city' so their communications with City Hall could be shielded from the public.
Now though, she says she the public deserves transparency and accountability. 'That shouldn't be up for discussion,' she tweeted in February.
And she claims despite de Blasio's unpopularity, his progressive policies are still the way to go.
'Progressivism didn't fail. De Blasio failed,' she says.
After her father's death, Maya's mother, who herself died in 2013, insisted that she and her brother should talk openly about the tragedy with her adult friends.
She even took them to the Coast Guard to get their own copy of the investigative report, which showed they were not at fault.
If their father had tried to clamber back on board the 23-ft. boat, he would almost certainly have capsized it and all three would have perished.
That decision, Wiley says, has helped her talk about hard things - even if she doesn't always practice what she preaches.
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