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The divide among Mamdani allies over reforming the NYPD
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 22, 2026 at 11:01 a.m. ET
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Richard Drew-Pool/Getty Images
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 22, 2026 at 11:01 a.m. ET
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives.
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ICE’s shooting of a Dominican man in Marble Hill earlier this month has highlighted tensions among Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive allies in the criminal justice movement.
On one side are those aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, like Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, who demanded NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch step down for being “complicit” with ICE.
DSA supporters took issue with Tisch sharing the rap sheet of Oscar Belgal, the target of the ICE action, and the NYPD’s role in clearing protesters from the road so ICE could depart the hospital. They also reiterated a demand that Mamdani disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, which has a reputation for using aggressive tactics against protesters.
On the other side are groups like the Legal Aid Society and grassroots activists like VOCAL-NY that represent low-income and indigent New Yorkers. They are urging Mamdani to focus on long-standing issues with the NYPD, such as ending broken windows policing, which targets low-level offenses and disproportionately affects Black and brown New Yorkers.
The dispute isn’t just an abstract ideological debate. It raises questions about who will have Mamdani’s ear as he faces pressure to deliver on campaign promises to reform the world’s largest police force.
In a Substack newsletter that became the talk of the city’s political class last week, NYU Law School student Eli Miller argued that the DSA’s narrow demands fail to ensure protections for all victims of police abuse.
“To be sure, the protester chanting in Union Square and the Black teenager walking down the street in the Bronx are both equally entitled to constitutional rights, and equally undeserving of police abuse,” Miller wrote.
“But the protester, at least, chooses to protest. The Black teenager does not choose to be Black.”
Elizabeth Glazer, a criminal justice expert and founder of the policy magazine Vital City, said Mamdani appears to be focused on the “nuts and bolts” of governing rather than sweeping reform. But he will continue to face competing pressures on policing from the DSA and long-standing criminal justice advocates.
“It sets up this three-way tension,” Glazer said.
City Councilmember Carmen de la Rosa is a progressive Democrat whose politics were shaped by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. As the first non-DSA elected official to call for Mamdani to fire Tisch, she has agreed with democratic socialists on the issues around ICE and the SRG.
But she is still feeling out the DSA when it comes to racial justice. The group has been accused of framing problems in terms of class, rather than race.
“I'm not sure 100% of where their positions lie on every issue,” de la Rosa said of the DSA. “l would imagine that they take issue with the way that policing has been happening in communities.”
Mamdani has stood by his police commissioner.
But he also ordered the NYPD to review its use of force policies and said he would make good on a campaign pledge to disband the SRG. “I have made that promise, I will fulfill that promise,” Mamdani said last month. “The only question is the timeline of it.”
Miller, the Substack writer, said Mamdani is making a strategic choice to avoid explosive policy fights.
“Basically he's hoping that he can just do policing and education kind of on autopilot,” he said. “I don't see how that works over the course of four years.”
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This week in New York politics
- The city announced plans to expand its free 2-K program to these neighborhoods next fall.
- Mayor Mamdani and more than 100 elected officials across New York state are calling on private parking lot owners and operators in the five boroughs to ban ICE officers from using their property.
- If you’re a National Grid customer, your natural gas bills are likely to increase this winter.
- After two deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreaks this summer, New York City lawmakers are considering a new requirement that would alert health officials to potentially dangerous bacteria in cooling towers much earlier.
- A federal judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit challenging New York City's sanctuary laws.
- After a Brooklyn public school dean said he was brutally assaulted by MTA fare inspectors over a bus fare he said he paid, MTA Chair Janno Lieber reiterated his opposition to Mamdani's push for free buses.
- Roxbury Township has been a reliably Republican part of New Jersey, but the Trump administration’s plan to convert a warehouse into an ICE detention center has upended local politics in the area ahead of the midterm elections.
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Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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