On October 8, Oscar Belgal was shot and wounded by an agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Manhattan. Agents had been attempting to apprehend Belgal, an illegal alien, and deport him back to his native Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
The shooting was immediately and predictably denounced by New York City\u2019s left-wing politicians, though none of the relevant facts had yet been established.<\/p>\n
Finally, a reason to check your email.<\/p>\n
Sign up for our free newsletter today.<\/p>\n
On X, congressional candidate Brad Lander accused<\/a> ICE of terrorism, even as he acknowledged that \u201cwe\u2019re still learning details.\u201d The city council\u2019s \u201cprogressive\u201d caucus released a statement<\/a> denouncing the shooting as \u201ca violent reminder\u201d of why \u201cwe must abolish ICE.\u201d Governor Kathy Hochul expressed<\/a> \u201coutrage\u201d after the shooting, while also acknowledging that \u201cthere is still much we don\u2019t know about what happened.\u201d Attorney General Letitia James released a statement referring<\/a> to Belgal as a \u201cvictim\u201d while noting that an investigation hadn\u2019t yet been completed. And, of course, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called<\/a> the shooting an example of how \u201cICE agents terrorize our communities.\u201d The shooting also sparked a night of unruly protests during which NYPD officers were attacked by angry crowds.<\/p>\n All we really know is that Belgal was wounded once in the neck after being fired upon by at least one ICE agent who, with others, had surrounded his vehicle, which also contained Belgal\u2019s five-year-old son. According to initial statements<\/a> by federal authorities, the agents were not aware of the child\u2019s presence in the vehicle, and they fired in response to Belgal allegedly attempting to \u201cweaponize\u201d his car against them, possibly to evade capture.<\/p>\n Some facts: ICE has jurisdiction to operate throughout the United States, including New York City; Belgal is not authorized to be in the United States; firing in response to the weaponization of a vehicle against agents falls within the agency\u2019s use-of-force guidelines; and Belgal has a violent criminal history. Given all this, the anger over the shooting before the conclusion of an investigation into its lawfulness is senseless.<\/p>\n The denunciations of ICE are especially odd in light of Belgal\u2019s stateside criminal history. That includes<\/a> a prior arrest for dealing hard drugs and a prior robbery arrest that ended in a plea. The New York Post also reported<\/a> that a resident of a building Belgal lived in said that the Dominican national terrorized his neighbors with a machete\u2014the weapon of choice for members of the Trinitarios street gang, to which federal authorities say<\/a> Belgal has ties.<\/p>\n Why have so many rallied around a figure as unsympathetic as Belgal?\u00a0 There are only two plausible answers, and neither reflects well on the city\u2019s progressives. Either they want a criminal like Belgal\u2014who not only broke our immigration laws but also then led a life of crime upon arriving in the United States\u2014to remain on the streets of their cities. Or they seized on the shooting because they thought it could help amplify their message in the lead-up to the midterm elections, while giving local radicals something else with which to try tarring NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.<\/p>\n Their rage is oddly one-sided. If they really cared about the wellbeing of actual New Yorkers, they\u2019d have been just as upset about the Dominican NYPD detective, Jose Mercedes, who was stabbed<\/a> seven times by two illegal immigrants just a few days before the Belgal shooting. If they were really concerned with the welfare of New Yorkers, they\u2019d be issuing fiery statements and taking to the streets over the fact that an innocent 12-year-old girl was shot<\/a> multiple times after being caught between two rival gangs on a Bronx street on Monday. If they were genuine advocates for community safety, we\u2019d have seen the same energetic calls for reform after a one-year-old baby was wounded<\/a> by a black-clad shooter who opened fire on a Bronx street in broad daylight the same day.<\/p>\n Instead of calling to abolish the gangs actually driving New York City\u2019s gun violence problem, the left is calling to abolish ICE. Instead of rethinking the sanctuary policies that keep thugs like Belgal on the streets, they are calling for an overhaul<\/a> of the NYPD\u2019s use-of-force policies and demanding<\/a> the resignation of Commissioner Tisch. This despite the department having nothing to do with Belgal\u2019s shooting. In fact, NYPD officers had fired their guns in just 23 incidents as of the end of June.<\/p>\n Instead of calling for calm and waiting for the facts, elected progressives are once again fanning the flames. They\u2019ve evidently already forgotten that their chants were echoed by a madman in the attempted firebombing<\/a> at 26 Federal Plaza just months ago.<\/p>\n If there is a lesson to be learned from the Belgal shooting, it\u2019s that the usual critics of law enforcement will never waste an opportunity to undercut the institutions charged with keeping us safe. As always, it\u2019s the most vulnerable who will pay the price.<\/p>\n