See more of our coverage in your search results.
The Democratic Socialists of America are demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire police Commissioner Jessica Tisch following a controversial shooting by ICE agents in the Bronx last week.
In a scathing online statement, the DSA called on its most high-profile member to get rid of the city’s top cop and disband two elite NYPD units.
“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,” it said. “
They demanded that the city abolish police strategic response and community response teams.
The lefty organization cried foul after federal immigration agents surrounded suspected gangbanger Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill on Thursday and fired multiple shots into his car, wounding him in the neck while his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat.
Tisch said at a press briefing hours later that the NYPD was not involved in the operation, but reported that Belgal, a reputed member of the Trinitarios street gang, had a troubling criminal history that included robbery and drug distribution raps.
DSA Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier called for Tisch to resign the day after the shooting, accusing her of protecting a “militia” of armed ICE thugs.
Chevalier also said during an interview with lefty streamer Hasan Piker that Belgal’s rap sheet “doesn’t even matter,” and accused the NYPD of villainizing the Dominican immigrant.
Mamdani, appearing Sunday on MS Now, was asked about Avila Chevalier’s comments but did not change course on his plans to keep her on the job despite pledging to investigate the police response to the shooting and ensuing protests.
“The NYPD was not at the scene when the incident took place when the incident took place, when ICE shot at Mr. Belgal and his 5-year-old son in the car.”
The NYPD received a 911, arrived at the scene and took Belgal to a local hospital, he said.
“What I will be doing with the police commissioner is a review of that entire 24 period,” Mamdani said.
He said the Strategic Response Group was not involved in the incident or response at all but still intends to disband it.
Mamdani had told the New York Times on Friday that “there are no plans” to change NYPD leadership.
“And I want to be very clear that our administration, alongside the commissioner, alongside the PD, will review all of the events of the last 24 hours, including ICE’s shooting, the Police Department’s response to that incident and the ensuing protest, the staging of ICE operations in privately owned parking lots, and every action the city can take to protect New Yorkers from ICE’s terror,” he told the Times.
This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.