On the morning of Jan. 26, Jabez Chakraborty was shot by the NYPD.

The 22-year-old from Queens was dealing with a mental health crisis. His family called 911. The police shot him. Chakraborty is currently fighting for his life in the hospital.

How did NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani speak about this tragedy? He stated in response to the “officer-involved shooting” that he was “grateful to the first responders who put [their lives] on the line...”

Very disturbing language from the self-described socialist mayor.

Numerous calls have been made for the Mayor to retract his statement.

Note: Following public pressure, on Monday, Feb. 2, Mamdani released a statement that he’d spoken with the Chakraborty family and visited Jabez in the hospital.

It seems the NYPD has become a point of friction between Zohran and his progressive base. This isn’t the only police controversy Mamdani has faced in recent months.

Post-election, Zohran’s first major scandal was the appointment of Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner. Tisch, a Zionist, was hand-picked by Eric Adams’ administration. Many immediately recognized this as “playing ball” with the old guard, a compromise with the existing power structure. The DSA right wing defended it as a “necessary” compromise. It's a compromise nonetheless.

Meanwhile, as ICE protests escalate across the city, the NYPD has intensified repression. Recently, the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group brutalized protestors. Left organizers quickly called on the Mayor to halt police violence and disband the SRG. Zohran responded briefly, stating that he is relying on conversations with Tisch to dismantle the unit in “ways [that] are operational.”

Certain DSA organizers, particularly from GroundWork and the Socialist Majority Caucus, whose cadres dominate Zohran’s inner circle, have rushed to excuse these developments. Regarding Tisch, familiar right-wing talking points surfaced: “he has to compromise to get his agenda done” and “he has to choose his battles.” Regarding police repression, the excuse is that “Zohran doesn’t actually want this, it’s the NYPD’s fault.”

Note: These caucuses are the primary architects of NYC-DSA’s electoral strategy. Nationally, GroundWork and SMC wield far less influence, making NYC-DSA stand out as arguably the most electoralist DSA chapter in the country.

Liberation Caucus rejects these excuses.

This criticism of the mayor is valid because the problem is not merely individual intentions but the office itself. State violence does not arise only from bad actors. It is structurally embedded in bourgeois governance. Regardless of Zohran’s sincerity, the mayoralty is designed to administer domination. The violence is systematized, baked into the bureaucracy.

I genuinely believe Zohran is doing his best. But his best may not be enough.

When socialist politics collide with bourgeois government

The 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign was a radicalizing moment for millions. DSA’s modern resurgence is inseparable from Bernie’s presidential challenge and its suppression by the Democratic establishment. Sanders’ social democratic reforms were framed as “too radical” by bourgeois party elites, who neutralized his campaign through institutional maneuvering. In 2020, the exact same process repeated. The bourgeois power brokers pulled levers to force Sanders out. The Democratic bourgeoisie could not tolerate even mild social democracy, let alone socialism. This bourgeois influence was not an anomaly. It was a preview.

Take DSA’s first major electoral victory, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example. AOC, representative of NY-14 since 2019, has recently fallen from grace, denounced by DSA, after she voted to fund Israel’s Iron Dome. Despite her progressive ideals, she has objectively become an instrument of US-Israeli imperialism. Not because she is personally corrupt, but because occupying a seat in Congress means administering an empire. That is the function of the office. She’s a representative of the bourgeois government; what do you expect?

Fast forward to 2026. DSA has won its largest electoral victory yet, the NYC mayor’s office. Only weeks into the term, we are already seeing the contradictions sharpen as Zohran’s popular socialist rhetoric collides with the bourgeois state apparatus. He appears prepared to compromise to advance his agenda. The real question is not whether compromise will happen, but how far the system will force it.

As this contradiction intensifies, DSA will once again confront the reality of a socialist elected official being bent into the shape of bourgeois governance, and the political consequences that follow. If history is any guide, we’ll go through the worn-out cycle of “demanding accountability” while we receive excuses, batons, and tear gas.

This is why we reject NYC-DSA’s fixation on electoralism. We do not believe the necessary changes can be made inside our current system of government. DSA must confront the structural limits of attempting to use the US Government as a vehicle for socialism.

Electoralists often ask:

• Don’t you want socialists in positions of power?

The sharper question is:

• What are we losing by pushing DSA further into the electoral apparatus?

This ultimately reduces to a deeper political problem:

• What is the endpoint of your organizing?

Question: What’s the endpoint of your organizing?

For the DSA right wing, their goal is to mobilize people to vote. To set up campaign infrastructure. Their end goal? Win elections. Winning office becomes both means and end.

The Liberation Caucus organizes for something else. We organize so that the masses can resist violence, exercise power, and struggle for total liberation. We do not fight to manage the system more humanely; we fight to abolish it.

The people deserve freedom, and the masses will be their own liberators. We are not waiting for elected “representatives” to negotiate with our oppressors. The masses will break their own chains.

We want a DSA whose politics are rooted in the masses. We need to focus on the masses first, not to extract their votes; but to empower their struggle. That struggle is already here. It’s in the streets. It’s NOW. The masses are done with being subjected to violence. Across the country the People’s Power is growing; in workplaces, in tenant struggles, and in rebellion against state violence. If we reduce politics to waiting for Tuesdays in November, we abandon the larger terrain of struggle.

To those who participate in DSA primarily for elections, ask yourselves:

Do you want DSA to be a lobbying group within the decaying Democratic Party? Or do you want the DSA to forge a new system entirely? A system that goes beyond bourgeois parties and the state machinery they administer. An entirely new social order built on the principles of socialism, democracy, and liberation; not of genocide, slavery, and apartheid.

We can accomplish so much more once we stop treating elections as our organizational endpoint. - Comrade Will