Illapa Sairitupac, the Democratic Socialists of America member who won the June 23 Democratic primary for New York's 65th Assembly District, was arrested at least twice at protests, once at a summer 2021 climate demonstration and again in April at Gov. Kathy Hochul's office. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed him in May, calling him one of "the very best of public service."
The arrests, first detailed by the Washington Examiner, paint a picture of a candidate whose political identity is built around confrontation with law enforcement and the Democratic establishment alike, and who now stands poised to enter the New York State Legislature with the full backing of the city's socialist mayor.
Sairitupac's cases do not appear in New York's public court database, raising questions about whether charges were ever filed, quietly dropped, or resolved through some other channel. His campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.
The April arrest drew the most attention. DSA posted footage showing Sairitupac inside Hochul's office building holding a sign that read, "Governor Hochul: our lives or your donors?" A crowd chanted, "Billionaires, make them pay. We pay taxes. Why don't they?" DSA stated that 19 people in total were arrested for occupying the governor's office.
Video captured Sairitupac speaking to a camera while restrained by police outside the building:
"The time is now. The stakes are way too high to sit it out. We've got to be confronting this, fighting for immigrants, fighting for our queer members... Tax the rich!"
On Bluesky, Sairitupac framed the arrest as a badge of honor. He wrote that he had been "arrested while protesting Governor Hochul because she refuses to Tax the Rich and refuses to protect public services that working New Yorkers rely on, services that are being threatened by [President] Donald Trump's cuts. I won't stop fighting."
That language is worth pausing on. Sairitupac blamed both the Democratic governor and the Republican president in the same breath, positioning himself as the only authentic fighter in a system full of sell-outs. It is a familiar posture for DSA candidates. It is also a convenient one: it lets a socialist candidate avoid accountability for the failures of the Democratic governance he operates within.
The April arrest was not Sairitupac's first. He was also detained at a climate protest in the summer of 2021. The specific location and charges from that earlier incident are not detailed in available reporting. But taken together, the two arrests establish a pattern, a candidate who treats civil disobedience and confrontation with police as core political credentials.
This is the man Mamdani chose to endorse as representing "the very best of public service."
Sairitupac first ran for the 65th District seat, which covers Chinatown and Lower Manhattan, in 2022 and lost. He came back, won the Democratic primary on June 23, and now heads into the November general election as the party's nominee. In a district that deep blue, the primary is effectively the election.
Sairitupac is not an isolated case. Mayor Mamdani endorsed multiple socialist candidates in May, and several of his picks toppled Democratic incumbents across New York's primaries. The endorsements triggered a backlash from moderate Democrats, who signed an open letter denouncing socialism, though the specifics of that letter are not fully detailed in available reporting.
Mamdani, in endorsing the slate, posted on X that his candidates shared "a commitment to tackling challenges both large and small and a belief that government should work for everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected." The irony of a sitting mayor endorsing candidates who get arrested occupying the offices of their own party's governor apparently escaped him.
The mayor's own record provides context. Mamdani has refused to enforce a Supreme Court ruling on deportation protections, positioning himself as a defiant progressive willing to buck legal authority. His endorsement of candidates with arrest records fits the same mold, a political brand built on resistance to the systems he was elected to lead.
Sairitupac's political orbit extends beyond DSA rallies and governor's-office sit-ins. In 2023, he spoke at an event on socialism at the People's Forum building in New York City. The event was posted on the NYC DSA YouTube page.
The People's Forum has received funding from Neville Singham, described as a leftist donor with Chinese government links. Singham is under a Department of Justice investigation over possible financial crimes. The nature and scope of that investigation, and the extent of Singham's funding to the People's Forum, remain unclear.
None of this means Sairitupac is personally tied to Singham's legal troubles. But it does mean that a candidate now on track to enter the New York State Legislature moved through political spaces funded by a donor under active federal investigation. Voters in the 65th District deserve to know that.
Perhaps the most striking detail is the absence of Sairitupac's arrest cases from New York's public court database. Two arrests, zero visible records. Were charges never filed? Were they dismissed? Sealed? The Washington Examiner flagged the gap, and Sairitupac's campaign offered no explanation.
In a functioning system, voters would have access to the disposition of criminal cases involving candidates for public office. The blank space in the database is not proof of wrongdoing, but it is proof that basic transparency is missing. A candidate who boasts about his arrests on social media ought to be willing to explain what happened after the handcuffs came off.
Meanwhile, Mamdani's approach to policing in New York City raises its own questions. The mayor dropped a plan for 580 new NYPD officers even as police unions warned of burnout and a looming summer crisis. Endorsing candidates who treat arrest as a campaign credential while cutting police staffing sends a consistent message, just not one most New Yorkers would find reassuring.
Sairitupac's June 23 primary win is part of a broader pattern. Mamdani-backed candidates swept multiple New York Democratic primaries, drawing sharp criticism from figures like Attorney General Letitia James. The socialist wing of New York's Democratic Party is not a fringe anymore. It is winning nominations, building a legislative bench, and doing it with the explicit backing of the city's mayor.
That shift matters beyond New York. When candidates who occupy government offices and get arrested as a political strategy start winning primaries with mayoral endorsements, it signals something about the incentive structure inside the Democratic Party. Getting arrested is no longer a liability. It is a credential. The further left you go, the more it helps.
For the residents of Chinatown and Lower Manhattan, working families, small-business owners, immigrants who followed the rules, the question is simple: Is a state assemblyman who views confrontation with law enforcement as "the very best of public service" going to make their neighborhood safer, more affordable, or better governed?
The answer writes itself. But in a district this blue, nobody with the power to stop it seems interested in asking the question.
