Mamdani’s NYC socialist faction takes aim at mayor’s NYPD chief Tisch

NEW YORK — The New York City branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, the political home base of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, took aim on Friday at NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a Jewish moderate.

The statement came as far-left activists organized protests against Mamdani this week for the first time, and reflected the mayor’s challenge of balancing his far-left base with more centrist policies.

The New York City-Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) released the statement targeting Tisch after federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a central target for the left, shot a man in the city on Thursday.

The NYC-DSA said Tisch “must get ICE out of New York and end NYPD complicity with these terrorists.”

“If the Commissioner can’t put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired,” the statement said.

Tisch does not have the authority to eject ICE from the city.

The statement marked the first time the NYC-DSA issued an ultimatum to Tisch.

Other socialist figures and activist groups in the city demanded Tisch’s removal.

The DSA’s Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Mamdani ally who won a Congressional primary in the city earlier this year, said in a Friday statement, “Tisch must step down.”

The demands put Mamdani in a bind as fault lines widen in the city’s socialist left.

Tisch is a Jewish centrist from a prominent philanthropic family who Mamdani has kept on as police commissioner, assuaging moderates and Jewish groups concerned about his police policies, due to his past antagonism toward law enforcement.

Mamdani’s centrist tack toward policing and his relationship with Tisch have drawn fire from the far left. Leftist protesters trained their fire on Mamdani this week over the NYPD and other issues.

On Wednesday, the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, hundreds of anti-Zionist protesters raged at Mamdani as he attended a vigil mourning Israelis and Palestinians killed in the conflict.

The demonstration was organized by some of the leading anti-Zionist activist groups in the city and appeared to be the first leftist rally aimed against Mamdani.

Removing Tisch from office was one of the protesters’ demands.

“Traitor, traitor, come on out, you sold all your people out,” the protesters chanted at Mamdani.

The city’s branch of the Young Democratic Socialists of America had advertised the anti-Mamdani rally, then took down the advertisement. A group of protesters at the event marched with a Young Democratic Socialists of America banner.

On Thursday, five campus DSA chapters in the city released a statement saying that the city’s DSA leadership had told the youth group to take down the protest post.

The NYC-DSA told the youth group that the post included “pro-Hamas dogwhistles” and threatened funding for the protest’s DSA sponsors, the campus groups said.

The campus chapters said that they had refused city DSA leaders’ demand that they take down advertisements for the rally.

“Our commitment is to Palestine, not to any elected official,” the campus groups said. “We have seen the mayor continue to capitulate to the same capitalist and Zionist forces that continue to undermine his administration’s promises.”

“He has kept Zionist billionaire Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, despite her vocal defense of the genocide,” the groups said.

On Thursday night, near the scene of the ICE shooting, protesters chanted, “Mamdani is complicit,” as the mayor and Tisch gave a briefing.

Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, appointed Tisch in 2024 for a five-year term. The mayor has the power to unilaterally remove the police commissioner, according to the city’s charter.

Some more hardline activist groups in the city, such as Within Our Lifetime and at least one minor caucus in the DSA, had previously demanded that Mamdani fire Tisch.

During Wednesday’s protests, anti-Zionist activists also assailed Mamdani for not disbanding the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a unit that has responded to protests in the city, for not preventing Israel-related real estate events in the city, and for the New York City public university system’s investments in defense companies.

Also Thursday, activist Norm Finkelstein and commentator Briahna Joy Gray, prominent voices on the far left, censured Mamdani on Gray’s podcast.

The pair derided Mamdani for keeping Tisch in office, for his handling of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New York last month, and for his plan to combat antisemitism.

“Mamdani is carrying on in a totally unaccountable way. You got into office, first and foremost, because 90,000 people knocked on doors for you,” Finkelstein said, “many of whom knocked on those doors because of Gaza.”

“I think his primary responsibility is to the constituency that got him elected. He made promises to them,” he said. “That wasn’t a trivial part of your platform, Gaza. That probably put you over the top.”

“He seems to be a completely different person, frankly, than he was campaigning during the primary,” Gray said.