As noisy elements of Mayor Mamdani’s socialist rabble accuse him of insufficiently hating the police and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and of being a “sell out” and “traitor” to Palestinians, the mayor suddenly finds himself in a very strange position.
He is by far the most radical anti-police, anti-Israel and tax-the-rich mayor in Gotham’s history.
That he is now a target of the movement he led into City Hall highlights the absurdity of the moment — and the movement.
Blinded by his rise, some activists in his camp appear to believe their sudden hold on power is absolute and there is no need to recognize or negotiate with those New Yorkers who hold opposing views.
Among Mamdani’s in-house tormentors, Darializa Avila Chevalier stands out.
She won her Democratic primary to unseat long-term congressional incumbent Adriano Espaillat last summer, but was little known in the upper Manhattan and Bronx district until Mamdani endorsed her.
Eating their own
Failing to recognize any limits on her power or his, she is turning her nasty attacks on him.
In her blinkered view, his main sin is not firing Tisch.
Her blow-up followed a recent incident in which ICE agents shot and wounded a wanted illegal immigrant with a criminal record who was trying to escape in his car, with a child in the back seat.
“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 rant on social media, where she demanded that Tisch get the boot.
City Hall was not amused, and regarded her attack as back-stabbing by a candidate who wanted and needed the mayor’s support to win.
As one aide described it to The Post, even before she wins the general election and takes office, Chevalier’s screed “is a direct undermining of Mamdani.”
The history of her ilk is that, after being relegated to the sidelines, they get a taste of the power they lusted for and immediately begin eating their own.
It’s not unique to Gotham’s brand of tribal politics, but with pro-Palestinians, antisemites and police haters calling Mamdani a sellout, he faces his first test of turmoil in his backyard since taking office.
He is obviously reviled by many New Yorkers, but with some of his comrades also hounding him, he is suddenly a member of a select group of elected officials.
Perhaps the most famous example in modern history is that of Lyndon Johnson, who nearly six decades ago was hounded by supposed allies as he struggled to save his sinking presidency.
After picking up the bloodied mantle of John F. Kennedy, Johnson was determined not to live any longer in the shadows of the slain president.
He embarked on a sweeping agenda, called the Great Society, which was an incredibly bold attempt to expand the federal government’s role and spread the bounty of freedom and opportunity to more Americans.
By working with Republicans and bullying reluctant congressional Democrats, Johnson guaranteed the protections of civil rights and voting rights to black citizens, created Medicare and Medicaid and built large public-housing developments while also launching public broadcasting.
Before he was finished, LBJ was counted as the most aggressive reformer since FDR had guided America out of the Great Depression.
Hero to pariah
But the war in Vietnam he had launched, after promising not to, was swallowing Johnson’s presidency.
So much so that he is largely remembered as a pariah among modern-day Democrats, when he is remembered at all.
A lesson for Mamdani and his type is that at the height of his accomplishments in the late 1960s, LBJ suddenly faced resistance and criticism from some of the very people who had supported his agenda and benefited from it.
A documented example illustrates the predicament New York’s mayor faces.
As recounted brilliantly by Joseph Califano, then LBJ’s chief domestic adviser, the president was meeting in the racially turbulent summer of 1967 with top civil-rights leaders.
He invited them to the White House to twist their arms and get their support for a move he hoped would calm the waters and lower the racial temperature.
In “The Tragedy and Triumph of Lyndon Johnson,” Califano writes that the president’s guests, NAACP leader Roy Wilkins and Urban League Executive Director Whitney Young, weren’t buying what Johnson was selling on how best to respond to recent riots in Detroit and Newark.
Although they were largely in accordance with Johnson’s agenda, Wilkins and Young were in despair over the violence, and said they couldn’t control the young rioters, Califano notes.
It was then that Johnson started graphically attacking opponents in his party’s left wing.
“A liberal is intolerant of other views. He wants to control your thoughts and actions,” Johnson declared.
Califano then describes the president moving forward in his chair to deliver the unforgettable punch line.
“You know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals eat only their enemies.”
The president found no real relief, and hounded relentlessly by critics, Johnson dropped a bombshell in March of 1968 by declaring that he would devote his remaining time in office to ending the war, and would not seek re-election.
It’s impossible to know if such an outcome awaits Mamdani, but he would be foolish to miss the signs of discontent from some of his comrades.
Which side?
As the ICE shooting reveals, their loyalty could collapse the minute he does not support any or all of their zany ideas.
They are not on board with the idea that he must take more actions to enhance public safety.
On the other hand, common-sense minded New Yorkers believe that keeping the popular and successful Tisch at the NYPD is his best decision by far.
He has embraced and boasted about the record-low crime rates during her tenure, showing that he wants to preserve and even expand public safety.
But make no mistake, more tests of their partnership are coming.
The very nature of police work inevitably means there will be incidents that inflame the cop-hating far left, and will force Mamdani to make a choice.
If he and Tisch take conflicting positions on a hot-button case, their carefully cultivated relationship could unravel in a heartbeat.
So far, neither one wants that, but it remains to be seen if Mamdani has truly changed from the zealous leftist who, for years before his election, denounced cops as bullies and racists.
Those cops are now all that stands between him and leftist-led mayhem, but I fear he would sell them out in a crisis.
If Mamdani is a true believer in anything, it is in the insane socialist doctrines that helped propel him to City Hall.
To fellow travelers in that benighted cult, police are not here to protect citizens from criminals, but only to protect the government from its citizens.