Mayor Zohran Mamdani says Jessica Tisch isn’t going anywhere following calls to remove her from the NYPD.
“There is no one in my administration that I am keeping in their position that has a time clock,” Mamdani said at a press conference Wednesday.
“When there is somebody in their position, I made clear there are no plans to change that. Whether that is in respect to the police commissioner or any other leaders in agencies or departments across our city,” he continued.
Tisch remained in her role after former Mayor Eric Adams left City Hall in January. Mamdani said he chose to keep her because of her “record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city.”
Calls for Tisch to be fired have grown since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot Oscar Belgal in Manhattan last weekprompting protests and criticism of the NYPD’s response. The NYPD was not involved in the shooting itself.
“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner. I have no plans to change that,” Mamdani said at a press conference Tuesday.
Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul urged the mayor to let Tisch stay on in her job after he took office.
“That is a smart decision and she has led this city with great strength.,” she said. “We just came off the safest summer in New York subway history and it’s just extraordinary.”
Among critics have been Mamdani’s political base, the national Democratic Socialists of America, congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and City Council Member Carmen de la Rosa.
De la Rosa, who represents the district where Bergal was shot, said she believes Mamdani should listen to community concerns.
“This is an issue that I feel that the mayor is wrong,” de la Rosa said. “I think that in this case he should be listening to what communities are saying because it is all of our jobs to make sure we are building trust with the NYPD and our communities.”
In the aftermath, Mamdani announced a review of the ICE incident will be conducted.
“It is a review that will be of the 24 hours around the incident,” he said.
Mamdani said the review will include the incident itself, the NYPD’s response, protests and ICE’s use of a private parking lot as a staging location.
“It is both the horrific ICE shooting of Oscar. It is also the police department’s response to the incident as well as the ensuing protest. It is also ICE’s use of a private parking lot as a staging location. As well as a broader exploration of any and all tools the city can use to defend immigrants that call this city home,” he continued.
Meanwhile, De la Rosa also questioned the department’s actions after the shooting.
“What I heard from the NYPD was that they were investigating the shooting that happened on a New York City street, but they know who the shooter is. So, was the NYPD there to arrest the shooter? To pursue the shooter? Or to secure the scene and make sure ICE was able to leave the scene?” de la Rosa said.
The councilwoman has separately called for the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a specialized unit that responds to counterterrorism threats and crowd control at protests, to be disbanded.
The NYPD said in a statement that the unit “did not respond to the ICE protests or interact with them.” A department public information officer said the NYPD did respond to the incident, including transporting Bergal to a hospital.
NY1 reached out to the Democratic Socialists of America and Chevalier for comment but had not heard back.
Source: ny1.com
