Jessica Tisch's outsized reputation is utterly baffling to me. The idea that NYC's declining crime rate -- which mirrors the national trend and started before Tisch even worked at the NYPD -- is due to a Commissioner with <8 months on the job is ridiculous. Nevertheless, that reputation seems like something Zohran has to contend with. If he fires her, than any increase in the crime rate, or scandal at the department, will be blamed on firing such a "respected" leader. And, if BdB's term is any guide, he still won't get any credit if crime stays low. Plus, keeping her provides some insulation if there IS some major NYPD scandal down the line... he can always fire her later and say he was deferring to her experience.
Totally agree with everything you said here; Mamdani is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, but if doesn't keep her, all the journalists who still think we defunded the police five years ago (and that it led to an increase in crime) will be out for blood.
I also don't see what all the hype with her is about, but then again, I'm not really someone who could get hyped about any police commissioner lol
For whatever it's worth, I think that it would be a profound mistake to keep Tisch on. This article's very well written, there are enormous potential risks in both options, but I think the risk of a long-term fraying of the relationship between Tisch and Mamdani after he commits to keeping her (and thus can't really criticize her), which is almost inevitable given their irreconcilable differences, presents a grave threat to his administration. Yes, it's a longer-term risk than the one that he has to spend his first few weeks in office heading off public safety concerns instead of on affordability, but it's nearly guranteed, as opposed to the short-term risk being pretty much a coinflip.
The two institutions that a successful mayor needs to take on are the landlords and the police. The landlords just got a rent hike and, despite whining, will not perish when Mamdani pushes a rent freeze and they cannot simply take their holdings and abscond to Ohio. They rent here and they are stuck here.
The police are a different matter. The successful framing of police as necessary to prevent crime or the feeling of being unsafe has had a ratchet effect of department bloat, impunity for individual criminal police, allegations of widespread corruption, and no meaningful reform in decades. Mamdani needs to A) Hold the line at not increasing police numbers, B) identify and manage out repeat offenders (the police union can howl all they want, but cops with numerous serious allegations should be stuck on distant crosswalk duty until they retire; there will be a department wide effect), and C) treat the police like the hierarchical paramilitary organization they are: badge number covering is an immediate automatic suspension, turning your back on the mayor at an event is an immediate automatic suspension, running your mouth on Fox News and threatening to sabotage city safety is an automatic suspension (this should impact police's ability to be promoted, their salaries, etc). There is a long history of rich plutocrats who realize that there can be issues with out of control police departments; we have one and it should be treated like the issue it is. Tisch should be approached with this kind of technocratic solution (not at all ideological) and if she chooses to side with police impunity, corruption, and bloat, let that be her scar to bear in future elections and elsewhere.
I'd love to see just one major media org break away from the press corps' obsequious flattery of Tisch. The unanimity of praise truly makes me wonder whether the concentrated forces of money are working behind the scenes for the media to anoint her.
To take one example, consider that the Times has published three major profiles of Tisch in the past few years. Obviously, no other senior city official other than the mayor has received such attention. Not one of those profiles mentioned that Tisch was once fined by the COIB. Not one mentioned her role in the NYPD smartphone debacle.
After the second profile, I emailed the Times reporter to ask her why she didn't include the info. She replied, "This is really interesting information. We’ll be doing follow ups down the line and the two facts you mentioned are important context to include." A few months later, the Times published the third profile, and I guess the reporter changed her mind because the "important context" wasn't included. I emailed her again to ask why not and got no response.
Look, I'm not saying these two items are the final word on Tisch. I'm not even rendering a judgment on Tisch. I'm just saying it's really, really weird how the press is celebrating her.
Incidentally, the Times' first profile of Tisch, is the biggest puff piece I've seen in 30 years of reading this once-great newspaper. Truly an embarrassing work of "journalism."
Great piece. I think he should move on from her. Already seems like if she does a “good” job, she’s going to use her already amazing press to run in 2029 anyways. Don’t let her ride your coattails Zohran. The media battle will be tough, no doubt, but I feel like with the way he’s described his solutions to the pending rent freeze and buses, it don’t seem like they’re going to take THAT much of his bandwidth within the first 100 days. I think he’ll have enough in the tank to search and find his own commissioner who can (by maintaining the drop in violent crime) show that it is more of a national trend than one driven by Tisch. I also just don’t trust billionaire darlings that are loved by both sides of the aisle but I’ll acknowledge my own bias.
Great piece, but I think you're partially wrong about socialists rolling back on abolition. The choice to use or not use certain words - 'defund', 'abolition' - is not the same as rolling back on political substance. Sure he's softened on headcount - thats a fact - but abolition doesnt begin and end there. Anyone trained in abolitionist theory - perhaps those in the ideological base you speak of - can spot how his policies are very far away from bog standard reforms, and in fact represent quite radical shifts in the common sense on police and prisons. He's winning people to the idea there are policy alternatives to policing, thats huge. I think whats actually happened is socialists have got much better at communicating their ideas, and making them relevant to people's lives, without having to use culture-war buzz words - rather than a straight forward roll back. I wrote about this here:
Your essay is essentially correct and I am going to encourage more people to read it. We need better alternatives than the panic of the terminally online left (Official motto: "every action a betrayal!") and the complete idiocy of the corporate press (No memory, no analysis, just fainting spells if there is any meaningful criticism of a major part of the state that controls so much of the budget, power, and lived experiences of most people).
Right, exactly! Socialists have good ideas. Nearly every election of any kind people want solutions on crime, because the status quo on policing and prisons simply doesn't work. There are fact-based alternatives. For example in the UK, Glasgow trialled a non-carceral, public health approach to youth violence that held police at "arms length" and guess what? It lead to a statistically significant drop in youth murders over time. Contrast to the common sense carceral approach - which hasnt worked in London - of harassing communities with stop and search, or over policing in working class neighbourhoods. Abolitionists have Interesting ideas about practical alternatives to carceral systems that dont actually protect people - we should talk to voters about these ideas. The idea that police were invented to protect the ruling class, not the working class, was first a socialist idea! We dont need to be attached to any particular word. But we shouldn't shy away from bold ideas.
BdB hired Bratton, a respected Commissioner from the Giuliani Era, yet the press didn’t care at all. Mamdani will always be targeted by the press, and his decision to not raise his hand on whether to keep Tisch on did not noticeably affect his reputation with voters.
The NYT, Daily News, and Post will make a big deal out of it, but Mamdani needs to go with a Commissioner who will align with his changes in approach. Tisch insists on fare beaters and bike riders being a bigger problem than they actually are in the city, and I just think keeping her on will create more headaches than stability.
No mention of Merryl Tisch? A close friend of Al Shanker, mentored by Shelly Silver, President of the NYS Board of Regents, until Shelly fell, now President of the SUNY Board of Trustees, with tentacles from the elite Board Rooms to the municipal unions, brilliant and the behind-the-scenes policy guru, and, incidentally, Jessica's Mom ... my advice to Zohran, Jessica is an asset you can't afford to lose.
Jessica Tisch's outsized reputation is utterly baffling to me. The idea that NYC's declining crime rate -- which mirrors the national trend and started before Tisch even worked at the NYPD -- is due to a Commissioner with <8 months on the job is ridiculous. Nevertheless, that reputation seems like something Zohran has to contend with. If he fires her, than any increase in the crime rate, or scandal at the department, will be blamed on firing such a "respected" leader. And, if BdB's term is any guide, he still won't get any credit if crime stays low. Plus, keeping her provides some insulation if there IS some major NYPD scandal down the line... he can always fire her later and say he was deferring to her experience.
Totally agree with everything you said here; Mamdani is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, but if doesn't keep her, all the journalists who still think we defunded the police five years ago (and that it led to an increase in crime) will be out for blood.
I also don't see what all the hype with her is about, but then again, I'm not really someone who could get hyped about any police commissioner lol
For whatever it's worth, I think that it would be a profound mistake to keep Tisch on. This article's very well written, there are enormous potential risks in both options, but I think the risk of a long-term fraying of the relationship between Tisch and Mamdani after he commits to keeping her (and thus can't really criticize her), which is almost inevitable given their irreconcilable differences, presents a grave threat to his administration. Yes, it's a longer-term risk than the one that he has to spend his first few weeks in office heading off public safety concerns instead of on affordability, but it's nearly guranteed, as opposed to the short-term risk being pretty much a coinflip.
The two institutions that a successful mayor needs to take on are the landlords and the police. The landlords just got a rent hike and, despite whining, will not perish when Mamdani pushes a rent freeze and they cannot simply take their holdings and abscond to Ohio. They rent here and they are stuck here.
The police are a different matter. The successful framing of police as necessary to prevent crime or the feeling of being unsafe has had a ratchet effect of department bloat, impunity for individual criminal police, allegations of widespread corruption, and no meaningful reform in decades. Mamdani needs to A) Hold the line at not increasing police numbers, B) identify and manage out repeat offenders (the police union can howl all they want, but cops with numerous serious allegations should be stuck on distant crosswalk duty until they retire; there will be a department wide effect), and C) treat the police like the hierarchical paramilitary organization they are: badge number covering is an immediate automatic suspension, turning your back on the mayor at an event is an immediate automatic suspension, running your mouth on Fox News and threatening to sabotage city safety is an automatic suspension (this should impact police's ability to be promoted, their salaries, etc). There is a long history of rich plutocrats who realize that there can be issues with out of control police departments; we have one and it should be treated like the issue it is. Tisch should be approached with this kind of technocratic solution (not at all ideological) and if she chooses to side with police impunity, corruption, and bloat, let that be her scar to bear in future elections and elsewhere.
I'd love to see just one major media org break away from the press corps' obsequious flattery of Tisch. The unanimity of praise truly makes me wonder whether the concentrated forces of money are working behind the scenes for the media to anoint her.
To take one example, consider that the Times has published three major profiles of Tisch in the past few years. Obviously, no other senior city official other than the mayor has received such attention. Not one of those profiles mentioned that Tisch was once fined by the COIB. Not one mentioned her role in the NYPD smartphone debacle.
After the second profile, I emailed the Times reporter to ask her why she didn't include the info. She replied, "This is really interesting information. We’ll be doing follow ups down the line and the two facts you mentioned are important context to include." A few months later, the Times published the third profile, and I guess the reporter changed her mind because the "important context" wasn't included. I emailed her again to ask why not and got no response.
Look, I'm not saying these two items are the final word on Tisch. I'm not even rendering a judgment on Tisch. I'm just saying it's really, really weird how the press is celebrating her.
https://nypost.com/2017/08/28/nypd-needs-to-replace-36k-useless-smartphones/
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2022/02/jessica-tisch-fined-conflicts-interest-board/361524/
Incidentally, the Times' first profile of Tisch, is the biggest puff piece I've seen in 30 years of reading this once-great newspaper. Truly an embarrassing work of "journalism."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/nyregion/jessica-tish-new-york-sanitation-rats.html
The Times profile has strong Sulzberger-family-friend vibes. Surely the only puff piece about an *incoming* sanitation commissioner ever published.
Great piece. I think he should move on from her. Already seems like if she does a “good” job, she’s going to use her already amazing press to run in 2029 anyways. Don’t let her ride your coattails Zohran. The media battle will be tough, no doubt, but I feel like with the way he’s described his solutions to the pending rent freeze and buses, it don’t seem like they’re going to take THAT much of his bandwidth within the first 100 days. I think he’ll have enough in the tank to search and find his own commissioner who can (by maintaining the drop in violent crime) show that it is more of a national trend than one driven by Tisch. I also just don’t trust billionaire darlings that are loved by both sides of the aisle but I’ll acknowledge my own bias.
Great piece, but I think you're partially wrong about socialists rolling back on abolition. The choice to use or not use certain words - 'defund', 'abolition' - is not the same as rolling back on political substance. Sure he's softened on headcount - thats a fact - but abolition doesnt begin and end there. Anyone trained in abolitionist theory - perhaps those in the ideological base you speak of - can spot how his policies are very far away from bog standard reforms, and in fact represent quite radical shifts in the common sense on police and prisons. He's winning people to the idea there are policy alternatives to policing, thats huge. I think whats actually happened is socialists have got much better at communicating their ideas, and making them relevant to people's lives, without having to use culture-war buzz words - rather than a straight forward roll back. I wrote about this here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/onrevolution/p/is-zohran-mamdani-a-police-and-prison?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=48m9iz
Your essay is essentially correct and I am going to encourage more people to read it. We need better alternatives than the panic of the terminally online left (Official motto: "every action a betrayal!") and the complete idiocy of the corporate press (No memory, no analysis, just fainting spells if there is any meaningful criticism of a major part of the state that controls so much of the budget, power, and lived experiences of most people).
Right, exactly! Socialists have good ideas. Nearly every election of any kind people want solutions on crime, because the status quo on policing and prisons simply doesn't work. There are fact-based alternatives. For example in the UK, Glasgow trialled a non-carceral, public health approach to youth violence that held police at "arms length" and guess what? It lead to a statistically significant drop in youth murders over time. Contrast to the common sense carceral approach - which hasnt worked in London - of harassing communities with stop and search, or over policing in working class neighbourhoods. Abolitionists have Interesting ideas about practical alternatives to carceral systems that dont actually protect people - we should talk to voters about these ideas. The idea that police were invented to protect the ruling class, not the working class, was first a socialist idea! We dont need to be attached to any particular word. But we shouldn't shy away from bold ideas.
BdB hired Bratton, a respected Commissioner from the Giuliani Era, yet the press didn’t care at all. Mamdani will always be targeted by the press, and his decision to not raise his hand on whether to keep Tisch on did not noticeably affect his reputation with voters.
The NYT, Daily News, and Post will make a big deal out of it, but Mamdani needs to go with a Commissioner who will align with his changes in approach. Tisch insists on fare beaters and bike riders being a bigger problem than they actually are in the city, and I just think keeping her on will create more headaches than stability.
No mention of Merryl Tisch? A close friend of Al Shanker, mentored by Shelly Silver, President of the NYS Board of Regents, until Shelly fell, now President of the SUNY Board of Trustees, with tentacles from the elite Board Rooms to the municipal unions, brilliant and the behind-the-scenes policy guru, and, incidentally, Jessica's Mom ... my advice to Zohran, Jessica is an asset you can't afford to lose.
Why do you say this is his next big decision? He should wait until he is elected.