Mamdani Backs Tisch as DSA Allies Demand Her Ouster

Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch as socialist allies demanded her removal. Their calls sparked a dispute over the police department’s ties to federal immigration enforcement and Mamdani’s campaign pledge to disband a specialized police unit.

The dispute over policing

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a socialist House candidate whom Mamdani endorsed during the primaries, criticized Tisch and the NYPD after immigration officials shot a suspected gang member fleeing arrest in a car. Chevalier said the department had violated the spirit, if not the letter, of New York City’s sanctuary-city policies, which bar police from assisting ICE.

“Last night, the NYPD and Commissioner Tisch violated the spirit, if not the letter, of our sanctuary city policies and fueled the Trump Administration's attempt to demonize our communities,” Chevalier wrote in a nearly 400-word social media post last Friday. She called for the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group to be disbanded and for Tisch to step down.

According to the account, the NYPD didn’t assist ICE in the immigration arrest, and the SRG didn’t respond to the protest. Those details became central as Chevalier’s public allegations clashed with Mamdani’s decision to keep the commissioner he appointed.

A source with knowledge of the matter said administration figures were angry about Chevalier’s posts and public comments on the NYPD. “They were pissed about what she did on social media and her public rhetoric on NYPD,” the source said. Another source described the reaction as “a direct undermining of Mamdani.”

Campaign promises and party pressure

Mamdani pledged during his campaign to disband the SRG. After avoiding the city’s press corps for days, he faced demands from socialist allies and the national Democratic Socialists of America to remove Tisch and fulfill that pledge.

DSA member and state Senate candidate Illapa Sairitupac, whom Mamdani also endorsed, joined Chevalier’s call. “Abolish ICE, disband the SRG, fire Tisch,” Sairitupac wrote.

The NYC DSA chapter, whose leaders are close friends of the mayor, said Tisch should be fired if she couldn’t confront ICE. “Jessica Tisch must get ICE out of New York and end NYPD complicity with these terrorists,” the group wrote. “If the Commissioner can't put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired.” Brad Lander and Claire Valdez, the other two House candidates Mamdani endorsed, didn’t make similar calls.

Mamdani appointed Tisch despite his and his party’s outspoken criticism of Israel. The report describes Tisch as a Zionist Jew. It identifies no financial payments or profits connected to the dispute. Instead, the account centers on who directs the police department, whether it cooperates with federal immigration enforcement, and whether the mayor will carry out his stated plan for the SRG.

A congressional campaign pulls away

Chevalier had also urged anti-ICE protests. City Hall sources said officials worried that signs of disorder could give the Trump administration a reason to flood the streets. On Thursday night, Chevalier wrote that she was pushed during an aggressive protest in Marble Hill. Video showed her confronting a police supervisor and accusing him of escalating the situation.

“She is throwing her own fireball rhetoric to rally the folks,” one source said. “But instigating doesn't help.”

Insiders said Chevalier and her team were preparing a speech calling for Tisch to be fired, potentially for Election Night or earlier. Sources said she was distancing herself from Mamdani, though most credited his backing and campaigning with helping her win the New York 13th Congressional primary in June, defeating incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat.

The 13th CD is overwhelmingly blue, and the report said winning the Democratic line all but guarantees Chevalier’s victory in the general election next month. Campaign canvassers received strict instructions not to discuss Mamdani. Volunteers were told to say, “I can't speak about the mayor, but I can tell you what Darializa is prioritizing.”