Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the unusual relationship between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. We’ll also get details on a legal setback for two members of the House who want the Jeffrey Epstein files released.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch have little in common. He once called the New York police “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” and his political identity was shaped by his opposition to Israel. Tisch is Jewish and a supporter of Israel.
Her dream job was the one she already had — police commissioner. She was appointed by Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams.
I asked my colleague Katie Rosman about the unusual relationship between these two powerful officials.
Their futures depend on the safety of the city, don’t they?
I think so, yes.
Something I learned in my reporting was that cities were created centuries ago to provide policing to protect the wealthy and their property. Obviously, the role of city government has expanded, and policing has evolved, but fundamentally the most important job of a city government is still to keep residents safe.
Tisch is going to be judged on whether it feels safe to walk your kids to school, whether you’re comfortable on the subway and whether businesses want to open here.
The mayor wants to be judged on this sweeping affordability agenda. He’s only going to be able to focus on that if people feel safe.
What about the big picture: Can they work together in the long term? They may not be polar opposites, but her approach to policing is so different from the principles and policy goals that he built his career on.
His hard-core “defund the police” rhetoric preceded his mayoral campaign. He said during the campaign that his positions were evolving and that he was not running on a platform of “defund the police.”
He did have critical positions on some tools that the N.Y.P.D. uses. The two that come to mind are the so-called gang database and a specially trained force, the Strategic Response Group.
But so far, he is saying that he gave her the job because of the job she had done in the 13 months that she was commissioner under Adams. The statistics show she was successful. And my sense is that they are both surprised by how much they like each other.
If there’s tension between them, what happens?
We don’t know what is going to create tension between them. We don’t even know that there will be tension. But in fairness, there’s probably tension between every police commissioner and mayor.
Many of the people I spoke to wondered what would happen if there’s an Israel-Gaza protest that gets out of hand and the police get involved. Will he stick up for the protesters or will he stick up for the police?
We can’t look into a crystal ball and know what the inflection points will be. Right now what’s roiling cities elsewhere is ICE. The mayor and Tisch could be in lock step on that.
How did Tisch decide to work for Mamdani?
People who know her believe she was assured that he would let her do the job her way.
But he’s steadfast about the $1 billion Department of Community Safety that he wants to set up. How exactly that is going to affect or curtail the reach of the N.Y.P.D. has not been made clear.
Their first real interaction was after a gunman opened fire in an office building in Manhattan, killing four people, including a police officer. Mamdani visited the family and attended the officer’s funeral, but first he called Tisch. What did they discuss in the call?
He called her from Uganda, where he was celebrating his wedding, and asked what the protocol was when a police officer is killed in the line of duty — and he asked after the family of the fallen officer, Didarul Islam. She was very impressed, from what I was told, and appreciated what she felt was his genuine concern for the N.Y.P.D. as an institution and for Officer Islam.
Then, at the funeral, she took note of his demeanor, which was characterized to me as the opposite of grandstanding. He was mournful, he was respectful, he was genuine. The mayor, a candidate at the time, apparently was very touched by the way she spoke about the officer’s Muslim faith. The seeds of mutual respect were planted at that moment.
Weather
Expect a mostly sunny day with a high near 43. Temperatures will dip to 27 tonight.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s Birthday).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’d been swept under the rug for a long time.” — Daryl Powell, who settled a lawsuit against Riverside Church involving physical and sexual abuse by the former head coach of its basketball program. More than two dozen other men have sued the church. Their accounts of abuse span the years 1971 to 1995.
The latest Metro news
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A reality show under pressure: The city is suing to block “Behind the Badge,” a reality show with the celebrity TV host Dr. Phil, which had gotten the green light from former Mayor Eric Adams. The city’s Law Department, which now answers to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said footage could endanger crime victims, witnesses and undercover officers.
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Focusing on utility costs and children’s safety: Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey signed six executive orders after taking office on Tuesday. The orders dovetailed with priorities that she had set during her campaign.
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Cursive is back: Before leaving office, Sherrill’s predecessor as governor, Philip Murphy, signed a bill requiring third, fourth and fifth graders in New Jersey to learn cursive handwriting, which he said would help them read the United States Constitution — and improve cognition.
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Former police officer sues over firing: Federal prosecutors dropped their case accusing Baimadajie Angwang of spying for China. He claims that the Police Department opened an internal investigation based on the charges that had been dismissed.
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Bidets in Gracie Mansion: Almost every mayor has left a mark on the federal-style residence. Mamdani’s “aspirational hope” of installing bidets there mirrors the growing acceptance of a plumbing fixture that was once unusual in the United States.
A legal setback for two lawmakers who want Epstein files released
A federal judge denied a request for an independent monitor to ensure that the Justice Department follows a law requiring it to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein.
The judge, Paul Engelmayer of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said that he did not have the authority to oversee the Justice Department’s compliance with the law. For that reason, he turned down the request from the two members of Congress, Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of Maine.
The statue, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, called for the files to be released by Dec. 19. So far only a small fraction of the millions of documents under review have been made public.
The judge has overseen the criminal case of Epstein’s longtime co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, whose files were also to be released under the law. But he said that his role in that case did not give him jurisdiction over compliance with the Epstein law, a civil statute. Massie and Khanna can file a separate lawsuit to request the appointment of a monitor, he said, and could also use “the tools available to Congress” to seek oversight of the department’s compliance.
METROPOLITAN diary
Coney Island surprise
Dear Diary:
I was on the Q waiting to leave Coney Island after the Mermaid Parade when I felt something grip my arm and climb onto my shoulder.
Turning quickly, I came nose-to-beak with a brilliantly colored macaw. The bird’s owner, a middle-aged man who did not appear to speak English, tried unsuccessfully to urge the bird off me and back onto his wrist.
After several fruitless attempts, he lapsed into thought for a moment. Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a live iguana and handed it to me.
All I could do was laugh as my friends took a couple of pictures. Somehow, I managed to get the menagerie back to their owner, who got off two stops later.
— Dan Miller
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
Davaughnia Wilson, Tara Terranova and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
The post What Lies Ahead for Mamdani and Tisch? appeared first on New York Times.
