[Hellgate] NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch Is Just Another Cop

Ever since Jessica Tisch became the head of the NYPD, she has been painted as a reformer, relatively immune to the stale cronyism that marked the careers of most other Eric Adams-appointed top cops. "I am not someone who accepts the status quo when the status quo doesn't serve New Yorkers," Tisch said upon taking the job. Part of her promise was to hold officers who commit misconduct accountable.

But on Friday, Tisch disappointed anyone who bought that, going against the recommendations of both the Civilian Complaint Review Board and an NYPD judge, and declining to fire Lieutenant Jonathan Rivera, who killed Allan Feliz during a traffic stop in 2019. 

On Tuesday evening, Feliz's family gathered outside One Police Plaza, as they have numerous times since Feliz was shot and killed by then-Sergeant Rivera in the Bronx. "Commissioner Tisch, despite her promises, has proven that police cannot hold themselves accountable," Feliz's mother Mery Verdeja said in Spanish through an interpreter. Her daughter, Allan's sister, Verdeja, added, "This preliminary decision of hers is a mockery of justice." 

In 2023, the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated departmental charges of assault and menacing against Rivera, recommending that he be fired. In November of 2024, the NYPD finally held a disciplinary trial against Rivera, and this past February, Rosemarie Maldonado, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of trials, found Rivera guilty of first-degree assault and also recommended he be fired. Last week, after allowing Rivera's case to languish on her desk for months, Commissioner Tisch abruptly decided that Rivera would face no consequences for killing Allan.

Using the state attorney general's decision not to charge Rivera criminally as an excuse, Tisch decided that, even in such an exceedingly rare case in which the NYPD decides to hold itself accountable, there should not even be administrative consequences for Rivera. "I agree with the attorney general’s analysis and find that respondent’s shooting of Mr. Feliz was justified," Tisch wrote. 

At Tuesday's rally, Allan's family said they were disappointed, but not surprised. "Hope is very slim for us," Sammy Feliz told reporters, wearing a pendant with his brother's picture on a gold chain. Allan's weeping mother added, "We fought and overcame obstacles at every turn to get that far, only for Commissioner Tisch to decide that she wants to toss it."

"Commissioner Tisch, you still have the opportunity to do the right thing," implored Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who called on Tisch to reverse her decision by Friday, when the CCRB will make its final recommendation in the case. "The Adams administration will go down as disgraceful. But there are people within that disgraceful administration who can at least show that they tried to do better." 

Williams added, "I came today because I actually did have some confidence in Jessica Tisch. Please do it for your own name's sake."

Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, who represents Washington Heights and Inwood, echoed the public advocate's call for Tisch to impose discipline on Rivera. Otherwise, she said, "I cannot wait for the day that the Adams administration is over, and with it, he takes Commissioner Tisch." She accused Adams of coming to her community "to say, 'I'm Dominican baby,'" but repeatedly showing that "our Dominican babies' lives don't matter." 

"Allan's legacy is going to live beyond the way he died: without dignity, with a lot of pain," De La Rosa said. "It's going to live in each one of us who are here committed to make sure that the NYPD doesn't continue to police itself, because it can't."

Tisch's decision rebuts her NYPD outsider image—even progressive one-time mayoral candidate Brad Lander said he would have kept her on in his administration. But in the end, a cop is a cop.

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