Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch received a standing ovation at the Alfred E. Smith dinner on Thursday night. She joked about calls for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire her. "You know things have gotten a little hot for me this week," she said. She also highlighted the city's falling crime rate.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch received a standing ovation at the Alfred E. Smith dinner and joked about calls for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire her.
Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch is used to delivering somber briefings at murder scenes or stiffly reciting statistics about falling crime rates.
Cracking jokes? Not so much.
But there she was on Thursday night, in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, gamely winning laughs from a high-powered crowd gathered at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner that also included her boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Dressed in white tie, as expected for guests on the dais, the mayor grinned as Ms. Tisch, who wore a simple navy blue dress, opened with a joke about calls from the Democratic Socialists of America for Mr. Mamdani to fire her.
"You know things have gotten a little hot for me this week," Ms. Tisch said. "Just in case -- anyone hiring?"
She took the opportunity to highlight the city's falling crime rate and the "nobility of policing" in a speech that was at times earnest and self-deprecating. A billionaire heiress whose family owns the Loews Corporation, she poked fun at her wealth and hinted humorously at the discomfort that came with the hostility from Mr. Mamdani's allies on the left.
"There is a lot of talk these days that the mayor's friends don't like me," Ms. Tisch said. "That is simply not true. President Trump and I get along great."
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