Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters] Eric Adams was elected mayor of New York City. His campaign ads featured old photos of him wearing his uniform as a police officer and a pledge to protect the city from gun violence, which has risen alongside COVID-19.

Adams, who was a police officer captain in the past, had to face the most difficult challenge of his attempts to calm fears among New Yorkers on his 102nd birthday. On Tuesday, an attacker opened fire in a subway car, killing 10 people.

The pandemic has seen violent crime rise across America, with New York City being no exception. Adams, a Democrat has been given the challenge to balance New Yorkers’ concerns about crime and the suspicion some harbor towards a $10B police department which still faces a long history of racism and brutality.

Although the city continues to be one of the most safe in America and is far safer than when Adams was rising up through the New York City Police Department ranks in 1990s, Adams’ era as a New York City Police Department officer was over, Adams has been reintroduced by the mayor.

These include cracking down on low-level offenses of “quality of living” such as public drink and the revival an plain-clothes officer unit that was disbanded by police in 2020 because of complaints of unaccountability and deadly violence.

Adams, a Black Brooklyn native, has spoken out to alarm civil rights groups that the police could target again poor, Black, and Latino New Yorkers. He cited his personal experiences of police brutality as he grew up in Brooklyn’s most poorest areas.

Adams (61), stated in a campaign advertisement that Adams became a policeman to “bridge the gap between us” and fight systemic racism. New Yorkers must feel secure and safe so that their children can safely play in the city.

As of the end of the week, 363 people were shot in New York City since Jan. 1st. This is an increase of about 9% over the previous year. The number of rapes has increased by 17% and the rate of assaults almost doubled to 22%, respectively. Robberies have increased by 48%. Since early 2021 murder rates have dropped 11% to 103.

Certain crimes are front page news. In February, a woman was pushed onto the subway tracks in Times Square by a man. A second victim at the Museum of Modern Art was stabbed to death. Adams stood alongside a mother, whose son of 12 years was shot to death by the same stray shots he warned about in his ads.

Adams had been defending officers who had shot an 18 year-old male in the head after he attempted to flee from a traffic stop.

Adams is a frequent visitor to high-profile crime scenes and often rides the subways where he started his career in policing. On Tuesday, Adams was locked in the Mayor’s Residence after testing positive for COVID-19. A recorded video of him saying that New Yorkers will not be terrorized was made.

Haitham, 20-year-old Haitham Taher was in line to meet his brother at the school next to the station that Tuesday’s shooting took place. Haitham said he thought the police were, at most, ineffective.

He said that he felt unsafe and was being surrounded by hundreds of officers. They will arrest you immediately if there is a violation of a parking ticket, but they won’t take long to catch someone with a gun.

On Tuesday night, 11 hours after the shooting in the subway, the gunman suspected was still at large. However, police identified a “person of interest” and named him. https://twitter.com/NYPDnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Adams stated that officers have received additional training to restore the anti-gun unit and are now wearing modified uniforms and body-worn cameras.

They have made 26 arrests for illegal gun possession, but have more often made arrests for lower-level offenses, including possession of a fake ID, according to data obtained by the City & State news outlet.

Adams continues the tradition of his predecessors by praising his efforts to clear hundreds of homeless encampments. He said he hopes “rebuild trust” in homeless people and encourage them to use the well-loved shelter system.

Adams ran also on an affordable housing platform and said he was doing so out of empathy for the people who live in “inhumane.” conditions. The advocates of homeless people claim the aim is to conceal visible signs and poverty. Adams and others who are supportive say the sweeps can be cruel and ineffective, moving around those who believe shelters are more safe than the streets.

Legal experts believe the sweeps are illegal because New Yorkers have their belongings thrown away by police officers and sanitation workers without due process.

Beth Haroules (staff attorney at New York Civil Liberties Union) said that it was very straightforward for someone who grew up in NYPD during the Giuliani years, to return to the same playbook. She spoke after she watched officials toss homeless New Yorkers’ tents out of a trash truck.