Mamdani Keeps Tisch, and the Left Keeps Pushing

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stood shoulder to shoulder in Battery Park City on Tuesday as 42 names were unveiled on the department's memorial wall. Forty-one of the 42 served in the rescue and recovery at the World Trade Center, and many died of illnesses linked to September 11.

The ceremony, held each autumn since 1997, landed in the 25th anniversary year of September 11. It also landed in the middle of a political fight that has nothing to do with stone and chisels: a push from the mayor's own left flank to force Tisch out.

The same day, speaking to reporters before a stop at a Queens senior center, Mamdani shut the door — at least for now. "Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner, I have no plans to change that," he said, according to CNN, which reported that he walked away from the microphones when pressed on whether he still has confidence in her. CNN published its report Tuesday morning; it is not clear whether the gaggle came before or after the memorial.

Forty-Two Names, and One From Last Year

The City of New York's published transcript of the remarks lays out an event that was, by design, not about City Hall politics. Chief of Department Michael LiPetri, First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, Battery Park City Authority President and CEO Raju Mann, NYPD chaplain Father Joseph Franco, and Capt. Jack Conway of the Ceremonial Unit filled out the dais. Mann passed along greetings on behalf of Gov. Kathy Hochul. Union leaders including DEA President Scott Munro, SBA Vice President Edmund Small, LBA President Lou Turco and CEA Vice President Robert Hachemeister were on hand.

The honorees included Sgt. Albert Morabito, 40 years on the job between the 19th Precinct and Highway Patrol, whose children Paul and Amanda now wear the same shield. Det. Richard Teemsma, a former Marine, served in Midtown South, the Emergency Service Unit and the Bomb Squad; his son is an NYPD sergeant. Former Chief of Department Joe Esposito — "Chief Espo" to generations of cops — was also honored.

The one name not tied to 9/11 was Det. First Grade Didarul Islam, killed last year in what Mamdani described as the worst mass shooting the city has seen in 25 years. The mayor said he had visited the Islam family's home. Speaking of the fallen, he said the city "will refuse to let their memory fade." Tisch put it this way: "The passage of time does not diminish what they gave."

The Fight the Transcript Leaves Out

Nothing in the city's transcript touches the question of Tisch's job. That storyline came from the gaggle, and from CNN's reporting, which is the only source here for most of it.

Per CNN, pressure to remove Tisch built after federal immigration officers shot and wounded a man in the Bronx last week during a targeted operation. The NYPD was not part of that operation but policed the protests that followed, and those confrontations turned violent. Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier — an ally of the mayor — was pushed to the ground by police and has joined the calls for Tisch to go. So has the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Mamdani's defense was built on results. "The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city," he told reporters, citing ten months of work and crime numbers he has repeatedly called among the lowest in city history. That framing is the mayor's; Patriot Daily Wire has not independently verified it.

It is worth being plain about what "no plans" is and is not. It is not a guarantee of tenure, and the mayor declined to say outright that he retains faith in his commissioner. CNN also reported that Mamdani reaffirmed Tuesday he remains committed to disbanding the NYPD's Strategic Response Group, the counterterrorism and mobilization unit that has been criticized for its handling of protests. On that front, the left is getting something.

What Happens Next

Tisch has not publicly responded to the removal demands as of publication. Watch for the NYPD's release of the full list of 42 names, any department review of the protest response, a timetable for the Strategic Response Group's disbandment and the reaction from the police unions when one arrives, and the next quarterly crime briefing — the number Mamdani keeps leaning on to justify keeping a commissioner his own coalition wants gone.