The hounds are once again baying for New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. She still has the support of her boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani. But Mamdani is more than the leader of the adopted city that voted him into office last November; he’s the de facto leader of the Democratic Socialists of America. And the DSA seeks Tisch’s termination.
A Jewish, Zionist heir to family billions, the centrist, technocratic Tisch has always made an odd fit for the virulently anti-Israel Mamdani. Add in her status as a holdover from the previous Eric Adams administration, along with rumblings that she might run against Mamdani in a few years, and the mayor himself would appear to benefit most from her dismissal.
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Yet it’s DSA up-and-comers like Darializa Avila Chevalier—recently nominated to represent New York’s 13th congressional district—who are most loudly calling for Tisch’s ouster, even in open defiance of Mamdani himself. Last weekend Chevalier was joined by the DSA’s national wing, which issued a demand for Mamdani to fire Tisch and to “use every power available to him to drive ICE out of New York City.” The demand took its cue from the DSA’s New York City chapter, which also called for Tisch’s ouster if she does not halt ICE operations in the city and “end NYPD complicity with these terrorists.”
Tisch’s personal background and professional record make her an understandably tantalizing target for the DSA. Chevalier and her political allies despise few things more than Israel and law enforcement. That’s why some improbably related events earlier this month thrust Tisch so firmly into the DSA’s crosshairs.
First came the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre. This featured anti-Israel demonstrations citywide, including a protest in Union Square directly targeting Mamdani himself. It appears that the nation’s most public anti-Zionist is not anti-Zionist enough for more fervent anti-Zionists.
Barely a day later, ICE agents shot illegal immigrant Oscar Belgal in northern Manhattan after he resisted arrest and rammed his car into ICE vehicles. Despite the 28-year-old Dominican national’s lengthy rap sheet, protests erupted in Marble Hill demanding Belgal’s release and the removal of ICE agents from New York City streets.
Much like his promise to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mamdani had made ousting ICE a key campaign commitment. He also pledged to dismantle the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group and the department’s gang database. As with his threat to arrest Netanyahu, he hasn’t delivered on these commitments. But Mamdani can fire Tisch, which is why the calls for her replacement have grown so insistent within the DSA.
Mamdani has plenty to lose by firing Tisch. During her time as Eric Adams’s police commissioner, she helped usher in historically low violent-crime rates. These declines have held steady under Mamdani, thanks in part to his choice to retain Tisch. With crime still a top concern among New Yorkers, dumping her would send the wrong message.
Such concerns are particularly acute among New York Jews, especially following the doubling of anti-Semitic incidents between 2022 and 2025. For the city’s large Jewish community, Tisch remains a reassuring presence compared with the mayor.
Tisch’s departure could also turn the NYPD itself against Mamdani. Strained relations between the mayor and the police are not unprecedented: a decade ago, police turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio after two officers were shot and killed.
So far, Mamdani has retained the confidence of the force. But his decision to order a department-wide use-of-force review in the wake of the Belgal shooting could change that—especially if he’s capitulating to the far Left by performatively placing the NYPD on notice.
The use-of-force review is the first of its kind in a decade, and Mamdani has announced additional reform proposals aimed at disciplining officers accused of misconduct. Should the review “uncover” widespread departmental wrongdoings, Mamdani may decide that he needs to make heads roll. Tisch’s would be the most obvious and highest-profile one on offer.
But then what? Deeply connected and well respected among New York’s real centers of power, Tisch could rise to prominence as a national law-enforcement figure, helping thwart Mamdani’s local police-reform plans, whether she does it from Albany, Washington, or elsewhere.
Meantime, a Tisch-less force might well prove less effective in policing the city’s streets. For the moment, at least, Mamdani still needs Tisch more than she needs him. That’s why the DSA wants her out.