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Avila Chevalier insists her beef is with NYPD Commissioner Tisch, not Mamdani
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Jimmy Vielkind
Published Oct 15, 2026
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By
Jimmy Vielkind
Published Oct 15, 2026
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Far-left congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier on Thursday repeated her call for NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to step down in the wake of last week’s shooting by ICE agents in Marble Hill. But she insists it hasn’t caused a rift with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Avila Chevalier won the Democratic nomination with Mamdani’s endorsement and is favored to win a U.S. House seat covering parts of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx — including Marble Hill. She quickly went to the neighborhood last week after ICE agents shot Dominican immigrant Oscar Belgal as he picked up his son from school.
Avila Chevalier said she was trying to calm the situation when an NYPD officer shoved her to the ground.
She recalled the experience in an interview with WNYC senior reporter Brigid Bergin on the pop-up politics show “Who’s Running This Place?”
“They were escalating against protesters,” Avila Chevalier said of responding NYPD officers.
She then faulted Tisch, who said Belgal had previously been arrested in New York.
“The fact that she, rather than condemn the actions of ICE or acknowledge that there needs to be a serious investigation into NYPD's behavior, she then proceeded to vilify the victim of the shooting,” Avila Chevalier said. “She is the one who did not meet the moment. I think that it is important that we have meaningful accountability.”
An NYPD spokesperson noted Tisch condemned ICE's conduct after the shooting.
Mamdani is facing rising criticism over his continued support for Tisch from the Democratic Socialists of America, which he has described as his “political home.” She was first named commissioner by Mamdani's predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams.
Mamdani said Monday that he’s sticking by the commissioner.
“The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city,” the mayor told reporters.
The front page of the New York Post on Thursday featured Avila Chevalier holding a bullhorn and shouting at a picture of the mayor. Avila Chevalier said she laughed about the cover with the mayor, and said there is no rift between them.
“The mayor and I see eye to eye on most of this, right? He is already putting funds towards accountability,” she said. “The mayor and I have a strong relationship.”
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new york city
Jimmy Vielkind
Jimmy Vielkind covers how state government and politics affect people throughout New York. He has covered Albany since 2008, most recently as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Jimmy led a team of reporters that won a New York Press Club award for coverage of Andrew Cuomo’s downfall and was on a team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for coverage of Amazon’s HQ2 process. A native of the Capitol Region, Jimmy has two degrees in urban planning. His position is funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Reach Jimmy at [email protected].
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