New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday rejected calls from his socialist allies that he force out NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a rare pro-Israel figure in his administration and an outspoken voice on Jewish issues.

Days after protesters clashed with cops following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s shooting of a man in Manhattan, multiple left-wing voices — including from the Democratic Socialists of America and two candidates the mayor himself endorsed for office — demanded the police chief’s ouster.

But Mamdani shot down their pleas following an unrelated event in Queens.

“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner, I have no plans to change that,” the mayor told a reporter, touting her record under both his leadership and his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams. “The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city.”

A short time later the mayor and Tisch jointly attended an event honoring fallen officers, at which he described the opportunity to appear alongside her “a privilege.”

Such rhetoric is far removed from the outrage Mamdani’s political allies directed at the commissioner in recent days. Far-left Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, who with the mayor’s backing defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in a primary in June, accused the commissioner on X of having “violated the spirit” of New York’s sanctuary city policies by containing the protests and demanded “Commissioner Tisch must step down.”

Another leftist candidate who romped this summer with Mamdani’s support, Democratic Assembly nominee Illapa Sairitupac, posted “fire Tisch” on his X account. Both are members of the DSA, the national organization of which tweeted on Saturday, “We demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.”

Even the DSA’s New York City chapter, of which Mamdani is a longtime member and which maintains close ties to his administration, wrote online that the commissioner “must be fired” unless she end what the organization deemed police “complicity” with federal immigration enforcement.

Mamdani, for his part, sought to placate criticism by announcing on Monday a review of the NYPD’s use-of-force policies. 

The mayor and commissioner have publicly differed on the department’s Strategic Response Group, which handles protests and which Mamdani has long vowed to disband. Tisch has maintained that the unit should remain in its current form. 

Mamdani has not moved to overrule her on this issue, although he has required the SRG to receive direct approval from City Hall before making arrests.

The past week has seen the most visible rift to date between the democratic socialist mayor and the protest movement that helped elevate him to power. Mamdani faced heckling and cries of “traitor” from far-left groups for his participation in a vigil last Wednesday memorializing victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

It is unclear, however, whether the so-far popular mayor has lost support from his base.