Mamdani's Own Socialists Want His Police Commissioner Gone

New York's new mayor is finding out how short the leash is. On Saturday, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — the organization Zohran Mamdani belongs to and has called his political home — posted a demand on X that he fire Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, drive ICE out of the city, and abolish two NYPD units.

The trigger was a shooting four days earlier. On Thursday afternoon in the Bronx, an ICE officer shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national, in the neck while Belgal sat in his car. His 5-year-old son was in the vehicle and was not hurt. Belgal was hospitalized at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and later taken into custody by unmarked ICE vehicles, according to a wire story from Sinclair's National News Desk.

Mamdani has said no to the firing, at least so far. He told The New York Times on Friday that there are no plans to change NYPD leadership, and he repeated on MS NOW Sunday that what he wants instead is an accounting of the day itself. That answer has not satisfied the people who helped put him in office.

What the DSA Actually Demanded

The Sinclair story quotes the NYC-DSA post this way: "We demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and use every power available to him to drive ICE out of New York City." The group also called for abolishing the department's Strategic Response Group and its Community Response Team.

A word of caution on sourcing, because readers deserve it: the original DSA post on X could not be independently retrieved for this story, and the exact wording as relayed by Sinclair differs slightly from the version carried by the Forward's Jewish Telegraphic Agency report. The substance of the demand is consistent across both accounts; the precise phrasing is not verified at the source.

Mamdani is not facing this only from anonymous activists. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a DSA member and the Democratic candidate in New York's 13th Congressional District, called Friday for Tisch to resign, according to the Sinclair wire story, which cited reporting by the New York Post. In a post on X quoted by JTA, Avila Chevalier wrote that the NYPD "spent more time protecting a militia that just shot someone than protecting New Yorkers." Illapa Sairitupac, the Democratic nominee for a Lower Manhattan Assembly seat, put it in three sentences: "Abolish ICE. Disband the SRG. Fire Tisch." According to JTA, Mamdani endorsed both candidates within the past year.

The Commissioner Says the NYPD Wasn't There

Tisch, at a press conference after the shooting, said flatly that "NYPD had no involvement in the federal operation prior to the shooting." Mamdani has backed that up, and he has also said the Strategic Response Group — the unit his allies want abolished immediately — was not involved in the incident or the response, even though he still intends to disband it.

What the mayor is promising is narrower than a firing. "What I will be doing with the police commissioner is a review of that entire 24[-hour] period," he said on MS NOW. That is a review conducted with Tisch, not of her.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the shooting happened during an attempted arrest and has claimed Belgal has ties to the Trinitarios gang. No charging document supporting that claim has been made public. The New York Post, citing the NYPD, reported that Belgal has a prior guilty plea and a pending charge; that account comes secondhand through the Sinclair wire and could not be verified at the source for this story. Belgal has not been charged in connection with Thursday's shooting, in which he was the person shot. Avila Chevalier told streamer Hasan Piker that Belgal's record "doesn't even matter."

Unreported so far: Belgal's current condition, his custody and immigration status, whether he faces any charges, and any use-of-force accounting from ICE explaining why the officer fired.

Why Tisch Is the Pressure Point

Tisch is a holdover from the Eric Adams administration, and JTA notes that keeping her was one of the moves that reassured mainstream Jewish organizations about a Mamdani mayoralty. By that same logic, she is the nearest target for a left flank that has been pressing the mayor on Israel as well as policing — a broader frame JTA emphasizes more than the Post's version of comrades turning on their man.

Fire her and Mamdani breaks a promise to the city's center. Keep her and he tells his own organization that its demands end at City Hall's door.

What happens next is the review. Mamdani and Tisch are supposed to produce findings on the 24 hours surrounding the shooting and the protests that followed. Also outstanding: whether the SRG disbandment actually arrives, whether DHS offers any public accounting of the shooting, and whether the City Council decides it wants hearings of its own.