A few days after serving his first semester as head of “the capital of the world”, the most populous city in the US, the mayor of New York admitted that the city is in “bad condition”, even worse than he imagined being a candidate.
The statements are surprising because just before winning the mayoralty, former policeman Eric Adams served as president of Brooklyn, the most populous county with the most armed violence in the entire the city.
During an exclusive interview with the New York Post while Adams was riding the subway overnight for more than three hours the Last week, the Democratic mayor said he was stunned by the failed “deployment of resources” amid an increase of nearly 28% in major crimes this year, a figure that could rise even more in the summer, traditionally the most violent time.
“Let me tell you something: when I started investing Looking at this, I was shocked at how bad it is,” he said of the city. Adams, who campaigned on the promise of restoring order to an increasingly lawless city, admitted he began reviewing the city’s internal operations after he was sworn in just after midnight on New Year’s.
“It was probably the third… or fourth week of January. I spent a lot of time in the office, ”he stated now. “And I started peeling back layers and what it started to reveal to me is how we had this good shell, but underneath, it’s bad.”
Using the NYPD “as an example,” he said, “We have not used this amazing agency and all of our skills.” Adams also criticized former mayors for focusing on just one “pet project” to try to build a “legacy.” “You know, they cling to this one thing,” he stated.
Adams acknowledged his frustration by implement its first major initiative: cracking down on rule breaking in subways and preventing homeless people from living in stations and on trains.
In reaction to Adams’ statements, his Republican rival in the elections, Curtis Sliwa, commented on Twitter: “I said how bad the city was during the campaign, but Eric (Adams) chose not listening and instead parties all night at Club Zero Bond trying to keep up with the Kardashians. After 6 months, he finally realized how bad things are: now get to work and FIX IT!”
In 2021, at the close of Bill de Blasio’s term in office, the city saw nearly every category of major crime rise to levels not seen in years, with felony assaults that exceeded 22,000 cases for the first time since 2001. The number of homicides also reached 486, the most since the 515 committed in 2011.
A strong 84% of New Yorkers believe that conditions have worsened in the city since March 2020, when the pandemic began, according to a recent survey. Most cited problems in the Metro as one of the main reasons for urban deterioration. In particular, last April was one of the most violent months in the history of the New York Subway since its founding in 1904 .
Slightly more than half of New Yorkers (52%) wants the NYPD budget increased amid growing security concerns over violent crime, according to a survey conducted a month ago.
Another recent survey found that 7 of every 10 New Yorkers fear becoming victims of violent crime, while statistics from NYPD show that shootings are still almost double pre-pandemic levels, although they are down in the face of very violent 2021.
The results of these polls contrast with the position of many Democratic politicians in the city who from 2020, led by then alc alde de Blasio, have voted to defund the police.
In recent years, the wave of armed violence in NYC has involved minor and adult gunmen, men and women, and victims of all ages. After the boom in 2020 and 2021 particularly among young gang members and/or victims, the 2021 continues with the same trend, posing a great challenge to the new mayor Adams, who since who took office in January has encountered obstacles within his own Democratic Party and Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders in dealing with the crisis.
2022
Last summer, during his mayoral campaign as president of Brooklyn, Adams declared his opposition to the so-called socialist “movement” of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), which promotes defunding the police and closing prisons. New York “It really has become a place where anarchy is the norm. And that’s just unacceptable,” Adams said then.