One of the enduring patterns in life is that we are condemned to watch liberals create problems, build "solutions" to them that always make them worse, and when conservatives try to clean them up the liberals complain any time something bad (or even just unpleasant to look at) happens.
Such has been the case with the shooting of Oscar Belgal, the violent illegal alien who tried to kill ICE agents on Thursday and found himself handcuffed and bloody from a grazing gunshot wound.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have spent the subsequent days expressing outrage that ICE officers shot Belgal, and the media have been fanning the flames by highlighting every uncomfortable fact that makes immigration enforcement look cruel.
.@KathyHochul and @ZohranKMamdani spent days defending Oscar Belgal, the criminal who pulled a machete on neighbors, robbed people at gunpoint, and was arrested selling fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. New York kept releasing him. When the feds moved to take him off the streets, these politicians treated the agents like the criminals. They called Belgal a “New Yorker” and a “good father”. They ignored the people he robbed, the neighbors he terrorized, and the drugs he was pushing. This is not compassion. It’s a political class that sides with a criminals over the citizens they’re supposed to protect and calls law enforcement the problem when they do their job. It’s also a disservice to the good, hard-working, law-abiding immigrants they claim to be protecting. They failed the basic duty. Protect the people who live here. Stop shielding the ones who prey on them. Remember this on November 3rd.
— Joseph Hernandez (@hernandezforny) October 11, 2026
.@KathyHochul and @ZohranKMamdani spent days defending Oscar Belgal, the criminal who pulled a machete on neighbors, robbed people at gunpoint, and was arrested selling fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin.
New York kept releasing him.
When the feds moved to take him off the streets, these politicians treated the agents like the criminals.
They called Belgal a “New Yorker” and a “good father”. They ignored the people he robbed, the neighbors he terrorized, and the drugs he was pushing.
This is not compassion. It’s a political class that sides with a criminals over the citizens they’re supposed to protect and calls law enforcement the problem when they do their job.
It’s also a disservice to the good, hard-working, law-abiding immigrants they claim to be protecting.
They failed the basic duty.
Protect the people who live here. Stop shielding the ones who prey on them.
Remember this on November 3rd.
Belgal tried to kill ICE officers with his car, which precipitated the shooting. Because Belgal did so while his own son was in the vehicle, there has been an uproar about how irresponsible it was for ICE to use deadly force.
Apparently, it is their responsibility to die.
Nobody complaining seems upset that Belgal endangered his son by trying to ram his car into law enforcement officers. From the perspective of the leftists, this is just a perfectly normal thing to do. That's because the left believes that criminality is simply a side effect of living in our proto-fascist society, and killing government officials, as long as they are Republicans or law enforcement officers, is merely an act of resistance.
🚨 DSA’s Darializa Avila Chevalier Says Convicted Felon’s Criminal History “Doesn't Even Matter,” Accuses Jessica Tisch of “Villainizing” Him, and Demands Her Resignation This is a fascinating glimpse into DSA-style co-governance in action, revealing both the growing tensions over the Mamdani administration and the movement's commitment to abolitionism. Speaking with Hasan Piker today about the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national with a prior felony conviction and pending charges for allegedly selling fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover detective, Darializa Avila Chevalier was unable to explain his criminal history when Hasan asked about it. Instead, she acknowledged reviewing NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s remarks against “our statement,” which her team had prepared, before declaring, “To me it doesn't even matter.” It was Hasan who later supplied the details, citing the New York Times on Belgal’s drug offenses and robbery. Avila Chevalier nevertheless accused Tisch of attempting to “villainize” Belgal, demanded her resignation, called for his release from federal custody, and advocated abolishing ICE and stripping its funding. Notably, Avila Chevalier had also taken to the streets to protest the shooting that same evening, confronting federal agents investigating the scene and later participating in demonstrations outside the hospital. She went so far as to portray Belgal’s flight from federal agents, with his five-year-old child in the back seat, as an entirely understandable act of parental protection, suggesting that any parent would have done the same. The interview concluded with her telling Hasan’s audience to “Fuck ICE and abolish it.”
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) October 10, 2026
🚨 DSA’s Darializa Avila Chevalier Says Convicted Felon’s Criminal History “Doesn't Even Matter,” Accuses Jessica Tisch of “Villainizing” Him, and Demands Her Resignation
This is a fascinating glimpse into DSA-style co-governance in action, revealing both the growing tensions over the Mamdani administration and the movement's commitment to abolitionism.
Speaking with Hasan Piker today about the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national with a prior felony conviction and pending charges for allegedly selling fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover detective, Darializa Avila Chevalier was unable to explain his criminal history when Hasan asked about it.
Instead, she acknowledged reviewing NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s remarks against “our statement,” which her team had prepared, before declaring, “To me it doesn't even matter.”
It was Hasan who later supplied the details, citing the New York Times on Belgal’s drug offenses and robbery.
Avila Chevalier nevertheless accused Tisch of attempting to “villainize” Belgal, demanded her resignation, called for his release from federal custody, and advocated abolishing ICE and stripping its funding.
Notably, Avila Chevalier had also taken to the streets to protest the shooting that same evening, confronting federal agents investigating the scene and later participating in demonstrations outside the hospital.
She went so far as to portray Belgal’s flight from federal agents, with his five-year-old child in the back seat, as an entirely understandable act of parental protection, suggesting that any parent would have done the same.
The interview concluded with her telling Hasan’s audience to “Fuck ICE and abolish it.”
Belgal is a victim, not despite being a violent criminal, but perhaps even because of it. After all, unless you are a Nazi-fascist-MAGA-KKK bigot, the blame for any violence one commits is the oppressive nature of the system itself.
Right?
The obvious retort to complaints that ICE endangered people by trying to arrest Belgal is that none of this need have happened if the New York officials had done the right thing and kept this violent criminal off the streets when they had the chance.
But Belgal is of a class that the left considers "victims," while anybody defending himself against Belgal and his fellow violent criminals is a perpetrator. That was the logic used to prosecute Daniel Penny, and it's the same logic here. In both cases, a threat to the community was coddled by the leftists, and when something bad happened to him, it is everybody else's fault.
Feds believe ICE shooting gangbanger Oscar Belgal belonged to blood-thirsty Trinitarios gang https://t.co/2ySn7VVdaW https://t.co/5qqt6hzSAu
— New York Post (@nypost) October 9, 2026
Belgal should never have been on the streets. He shouldn't have been in the country in the first place, but leftists wanted him here. He should have been removed from the streets after his serial criminality, but leftists protected him and subjected their own citizens to his predation. And when Belgal tried once again to harm innocents and was stopped using force, it is the federal government's fault that he got hurt and others were endangered.
Liberal politicians and the media portray Belgal as a wonderful father and neighbor, whose only crime was being the target of evil Republicans. Here's The New York Times' lede from Saturday:
Oscar Belgal often repaired friends’ cars as he listened to reggaeton and hip-hop on Marble Hill Avenue, a bustling street on the border of Manhattan and the Bronx.
He was there early Sunday morning when Carlos Veloz, a taxi driver who lives in the neighborhood, saw him as Mr. Veloz returned home from work.
Mr. Belgal was leaning over the engine of an S.U.V. with its hood open as dawn broke on a cloudy day, and nodded hello at Mr. Veloz.
“He was fine,” Mr. Veloz said, adding that Mr. Belgal never caused problems.
On Thursday afternoon, four days later, Mr. Belgal was on Marble Hill Avenue again, sitting in the middle of the street, his hands handcuffed behind his back and his neck bleeding from a gunshot wound, surrounded by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The frame is "nice guy shot by bad men," not a machete-wielding serial criminal who tried to run down law enforcement officers. It's disgusting, manipulative, and the typical Narrative™ building you should expect from people whose only concern is trashing the Trump administration.
We enforce these laws with no help from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul. Since January 20, 2025, to October 8, 2026, New York has failed to honor 16,070 ICE detainers. There are 52,503 total criminal charges and convictions associated with the detainers that were not honored. The Trump Administration is committed to protecting the American people in every city and every state, and we won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) October 12, 2026
We enforce these laws with no help from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul.
Since January 20, 2025, to October 8, 2026, New York has failed to honor 16,070 ICE detainers. There are 52,503 total criminal charges and convictions associated with the detainers that were not honored.
The Trump Administration is committed to protecting the American people in every city and every state, and we won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way.
If the politicians in New York really cared about their citizens, every single ICE encounter on the streets where a criminal has to be scooped up by ICE or CBP would have been avoided. Every single one, because they would have handed the criminal over for deportation.
No shootings. No danger to anyone. Safer streets.
But these politicians WANT the criminals on the streets. As Darializa herself said, it doesn't matter that Belgal was an evil man; what matters is that he is an illegal immigrant, and hence the good guy.
Obviously, not every illegal alien will get arrested and released by leftists, but any sane person should be able to admit that the ones who have been arrested should have been deported without putting everybody in danger by putting the malefactors back out onto the streets.
Belgal was shot, yes. And shot by ICE, yes. And, unfortunately, Belgal put his son in danger.
None of that would have happened if the authorities in New York had simply turned this gang-banger over when they had the chance. Instead, they are still trying to put him back out onto the streets.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
Help us continue to shine a light on the socialist takeover by joining HotAir VIP. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member