The New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is pressuring Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire his police commissioner after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and arrested a 28-year-old man in Marble Hill Thursday evening.
The DSA, which the mayor called his “political home,” accused the NYPD of collaborating with immigration officials and mistreating protesters who came to the scene after the shooting. The organization called on the mayor to hold Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accountable.
“ICE is a terrorist agency that must be removed from New York and abolished,” the DSA said in a press release Friday. “Jessica Tisch must remove ICE from New York and end the NYPD’s complicity with these terrorists. If the commissioner cannot end these injustices, she must be fired.”
It’s unclear how Tisch could force ICE out of town. But the DSA ultimatum represents the biggest clash yet between the mayor and the group that powered his election victory last year.
Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, issued a statement saying there were no plans to remove Tisch.
“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner and there are no plans to change that,” she said in a statement. Pekec said the mayor and NYPD planned to “review all events of the past 24 hours.”
Thursday’s shooting marks the most serious escalation of ICE violence in New York since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown began. An ICE agent fatally shot Oscar Belgal while he was in a car with his 5-year-old son, according to city officials and eyewitnesses. He was in custody Friday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, federal officials said.
Grace Mausser, local DSA co-chair, accused NYPD officers of aiding ICE. She cited a chaotic scene captured on social media where police officers shoved passersby as an unmarked car sped away.
Mamdani spokesman Sam Raskin defended the NYPD response to Thursday’s protest, saying in a statement that “the ICE convoy left the hospital at a dangerously high speed, creating a serious risk of injury to anyone in its path.”
Mausser also criticized Tisch for detailing Belgal’s criminal history during a news conference with Mamdani Thursday evening.
The DSA has for months criticized Tisch’s management of the New York Police Department, including his policy of cracking down on minor crimes, the use of a gang database and the deployment of the Strategic Response Group, a unit that responds to protests and has been sued for its aggressive tactics that Mamdani promised to dismantle during his mayoral campaign.
NYPD spokesman Brad Weekes said the SRG unit did not respond to Thursday night’s protests in Marble Hill.
Richard Esposito, a police analyst and former NYPD deputy commissioner, said it was standard procedure for police to clear roads so federal agents could move away from a scene.
“They would do this for anyone. It’s part of their job,” said Esposito, who added that it was safer to let them go than to keep them in this situation. “This is the case for many incidents.”
Mausser said the DSA gave the mayor “a lot of grace for the struggles over what it means to govern the city.”
“She had 10 months,” Mausser said of Tisch. “We have tried to give space, but we would like to see results at this stage.”
Former Mayor Eric Adams appointed Tisch to head the NYPD in 2024, after several of his NYPD commissioners resigned due to corruption allegations.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic congressional candidate and Mamdani ally, directly called for Tisch’s resignation. Avila Chevalier, who was at the scene of the shooting Thursday, was seen on video being pushed to the ground by police.
“The NYPD Strategic Response Group must be disbanded as quickly as possible and Commissioner Tisch must resign,” Avila Chevalier said in a statement.
Mamdani has not spoken to reporters since Thursday evening, when he said he tried unsuccessfully to secure Belgal’s release during a two-hour phone call with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and President Donald Trump.
On Friday, Mullin said Trump offered to release Belgal into NYPD custody, but Mamdani refused.
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