In Rare Move, DSA Rebukes Mamdani Over Police Plans

The Democratic Socialists of America, the influential far-left organization that backed Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on Friday criticized his handling of the New York City Police Department in a rare break with the mayor who has described the DSA as his political home.

In a statement posted on social media by the DSA’s New York chapter, the group rebuked Mamdani for his support of a plan that would increase the NYPD’s head count by 580 officers, a policy it said “runs counter to the values of the socialist and working-class movement that elected him.”

“Last year, Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist platform gave us hope for a transformative approach to public safety,” the statement read, adding, “We are calling on Mayor Mamdani to reverse this proposed expansion of the NYPD and invest the money in community safety programs instead.”

The post on Friday, which was signed by a litany of other left-leaning organizations, struck a fairly conciliatory tone, acknowledging the mayor’s incremental efforts at police reform. But it seemed to signal a mounting frustration within an organization that had taken pains to give Mamdani time to settle in to his new position.

The statement on Friday also called on Mamdani to make good on a slate of other police reforms that he had promised on the campaign trail. Among them are pledges to eliminate the Strategic Response Group, a contentious police unit that is sometimes called to protests, and do away with a database maintained by the NYPD that lists people suspected to be gang members.

“We are proud of the original vision for community safety proposed by Mayor Mamdani and eager to support its fulfillment,” the statement said.

The DSA, the heart of Mamdani’s base, had been publicly supportive of the mayor since he took office in January, even on matters of police reform. Over the months, its leaders have said they were pleased with his progress, including his creation of an Office of Community Safety to overhaul how the city responds to some 911 calls.

But behind closed doors, the conversations have been different.

Members of the DSA have been privately complaining for more than a week about Mamdani’s sign-off on expanding the police force and have discussed ways to put pressure on the mayor without undercutting him, according to several people familiar with the conversations. Members of the group have been brainstorming a statement opposing the measure since Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, mentioned it during a budget hearing on June 1, the members said.

Mamdani has opted for a relatively moderate approach to the NYPD since assuming his mayoralty. He has chosen to retain Tisch, a billionaire and a technocrat, and he has deferred largely to her on matters relating to the department. He has also tried to mend his relationship with a police force that has been wary of him, sometimes to the chagrin of his allies on the left.

But many of Mamdani’s signature public safety policies have either stalled or appear to have been abandoned altogether.

The Office of Community Safety, established in March, is a significantly pared-down version of the full-fledged agency Mamdani had planned, with a smaller budget than promised.

He has said in public statements that he still intended to disband the Strategic Response Group, but he has taken no visible steps toward that goal beyond dispatching several aids and police officials to observe the police department in Columbus, Ohio, in April. And, in recent months, the mayor has appeared to back off his calls to disband the NYPD’s gang database, citing recent reforms that were made to the list.

Mamdani has defended his positions as the first steps toward a more ambitious vision for public safety. In a recent appearance on “The Brian Lehrer Show,” he said the jump in head count was a response to policing needs in the Bronx and efforts to enhance officer training.

A spokesperson for City Hall declined to comment on Friday.

During a meeting Sunday for the DSA’s Racial Justice Working Group, several members said they were frustrated with the mayor over the increasing head count, according to Alex Vitale, a DSA member and a professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“There were a lot of strong negative feelings about the head count,” he said. “People wanted to make some sort of statement about it.”

Vitale said he remained optimistic that the administration was committed to creating a robust Department of Community Safety but “totally agreed” with the statement released Friday.

He said that Mamdani’s support for the plan “suggests that he’s listening more to the police commissioner than to the base of the people who put him in office.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Maia Coleman/Dave Sanders

c.2026 The New York Times Company

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