A Democratic Socialist House candidate's crusade against New York's police commissioner has Mayor Zohran Mamdani's own staff in open revolt — exposing the institutional left's hostility toward the cops who keep Americans safe, even when it blows back on their own side.
The stakes for ordinary New Yorkers are clear: the people running city politics view law enforcement as the enemy, and the internal warfare over how loudly to say so is now spilling into public view.
The rift centers on Darializa Avila Chevalier, a DSA-backed House candidate whom Mamdani endorsed, and her public demands that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch resign. The trigger was an ICE shooting in the Bronx earlier this month, where federal agents shot Oscar Beldal, a 28-year-old Dominican Republic national, as he tried to flee arrest in a car carrying a five-year-old passenger.
Chevalier, appearing with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, attacked Tisch for publicly stating the suspect's criminal history during a press conference on the shooting. "You know, I was just so angry as I was listening to it," Chevalier said. "To me, it doesn't even matter, right? It doesn't even matter."
The NYPD pushed back. "The Police Commissioner was giving a factual update on the incident, and we always provide criminal history in incident updates, if we have it," the department told Fox News Digital. "It's also one of the first questions that every media outlet asks the NYPD."
Mamdani himself has refused to dump Tisch. "Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner. I have no plans to change that," he told reporters.
But his staff is reportedly furious at Chevalier for undermining the mayor. According to the New York Post, City Hall sources described her rhetoric as a "direct undermining" of the administration. "They were p----- about what she did on social media and her public rhetoric on NYPD," one source said. "City Hall was like, 'What the f--- are you doing!'" Another called her a "loose cannon," adding: "They are sick of her, and she's not even started in Congress."
Chevalier is not backing down. On WNYC Radio, she doubled down on her call for Tisch to resign while downplaying the rift. "I don't think much of what the New York Post says seriously," Chevalier said, claiming she and Mamdani have a "great relationship" and were "cracking jokes" about the Post's reporting.
Mamdani, pressed at a press conference, refused to confirm he had spoken with Chevalier about the matter.
The Post noted what Fox News did not: that Tisch is a Zionist Jew — a detail that adds context to DSA's targeting of her, given the socialist organization's well-documented history of antisemitic rhetoric. New York Republican Party communications director David Laska put it bluntly: "Zohran Mamdani helped create this monster with years of anti-American, antisemitic rhetoric, and now it's eating him alive."
Chevalier also pushed for Mamdani to disband the NYPD's Strategic Response Group — a campaign promise the mayor has yet to fulfill.
The left built this anti-police machine. Now it's turning on itself over how aggressively to wield it. The question for New Yorkers is who pays the price while they fight.
