On Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams received the endorsements of local law enforcement unions, as well as organizations representing sanitation workers and corrections officers. Standing on the steps of City Hall in the merciless midday heat, Adams, a former NYPD officer, was praised by four different leaders from the thirteen different organizations throwing their support behind him in the upcoming mayoral elections. Notably absent is the endorsement of the Police Benevolent Association, the NYPD’s largest union, whose endorsement process is still ongoing. The NYCPBA did back Adams in his 2021 campaign. In that year, Adams won the Democratic nomination, which he did not seek this season, running instead as an independent.
“My members know all too well what it’s like to have a mayor who purposely defunds, scapegoats them, and puts their lives in jeopardy,” said Benny Boscio Jr., President of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. “That was exactly what we endured under the years of the de Blasio administration,” he continued, and went on to draw a negative connection between the former mayor and Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani: “it’s quite evident that the Democratic nominee for mayor is seeking to bring back the same failed political ideology that created those reckless policies.”
Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, had a famously chilly relationship with the NYPD in New York, who literally turned their backs on him at public events over his response to officers murdered on the job at the end of 2014, blaming the mayor for allowing anti-police protests that, they said, fostered an atmosphere that led to violence against officers. Despite the public clash between City Hall and the NYPD, the overall trend of declining crime continued under de Blasio’s tenure, until a nationwide spike caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mamdani has called for maintaining the current level of police officers on the job, while establishing a “Department of Community Safety” to address issues beyond the seven major categories of crime, like mental health crises.
After leadership from unions representing sanitation enforcement, traffic enforcement, and NYPD lieutenants heaped more praise on Adams’ leadership, the mayor took the mic, calling out critics and jabbing at his Democratic opponent in the November election. “Don’t tell me about law enforcement overtime,” the mayor said, referring to its infamous $1 billion cost to the city this past year, “tell me about how we brought down crime in the city.” The mayor went after Zohran Mamdani’s platform on multiple fronts, saying his plans for city-run grocery stores would leave supermarkets “going out of business.” He also went after the democratic socialist’s plan to freeze the rent on rent-stabilized apartments through the Rent Guidelines Board, saying that landlords “deserve to have modest increases so they can ensure the sustainability of their buildings.”
Left unaddressed was the lawsuit filed by former Interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon on Wednesday, who alleges that Adams and a coterie of his in the Department are running a “coordinated criminal conspiracy,” and that the department should be put under federal control. Adams took no questions from the many reporters present on Thursday, saying only that Donlon’s claims are “frivolous.”
