Democrats’ ‘Defund the Police’ Problem Is Back
16th October 2026
After “defund the police” sparked a political backlash in 2020, Democratic candidates largely stopped using the slogan, but the movement behind it has hardly gone away.
Before you can defund the police, you first have to convince the public that the police themselves are the problem.
In New York City, that is precisely what the Democratic Socialists of America are trying to do. They have turned a federal immigration shooting into a campaign against the Big Apple’s own police department.
On Oct. 8, ICE agents shot and wounded Oscar Belgal during an attempted arrest in the Marble Hill section of Manhattan. Belgal had a prior conviction for grand larceny and was facing a separate drug charge. His 5-year-old son was in the car.
The NYPD had no role in the operation. Its officers arrived afterward and rushed Belgal to the hospital.
But that did not prevent the socialists from seizing on the incident to bash New York’s finest. Their response? Demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.