Mayor Adams' tough talk on crime has not translated to reality: 'City has gotten worse'
'The city has gotten worse now,' one New Yorker said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York City's Eric Adams vowed to crack down on crime if elected mayor, but after just three weeks in the position, he’s facing major setbacks as crimes continue sweeping the city.
"It's terrible - the city has gotten worse now," Vincente Malava told WABC of the increase in crimes.
Over the course of the last three weeks, the five boroughs have been rocked by a 16% increase in shootings compared to last year, a 65% increase in transit crimes, and a 25% increase in robberies. Meanwhile, the NYPD is reeling from the five officers who have been shot since Jan. 1, including a rookie cop who was shot dead.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NYC MAN PUSHED ONTO SUBWAY TRACKS NEAR WALL STREET AS NEW MAYOR STRUGGLES TO CONTROL SURGING CRIME
"A guy got stabbed and another guy got shot right outside my son’s window," Manhattan resident Jessica Seymour, who said she no longer leaves the house after dark, told the New York Post last week. "We have two schools here, and this happens right here. My block has police on it all the time. There are shootings. There are drug dealers on our corner right now!"
FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. More than 800,000 noncitizens and so-called Dreamers in New York City will have access to the ballot box, and could vote in municipal elections as early as 2023, after Adams allowed legislation approved by the City Council a month earlier to automatically become law on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Adams campaigned on a platform that would crack down on crime after the city saw skyrocketing violence under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which came as the U.S. overall saw an increase in homicides and spikes in shootings.
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Adams is a former transit officer who then rose the ranks of the NYPD to captain before being elected Brooklyn Borough president and then mayor of the city. He vowed on the campaign trail to crack down on crime, saying in July that New York had "thrown up our hands" and "surrendered our city" to the violence.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It’s time for us to ensure our city is for the working-class, everyday people," he said at the time.
But those everyday people have also been targeted in various attacks, including a woman last weekend who was pushed to her death in front of a subway car in Times Square.
In this livestream frame grab from video provided by NYPD News, Mayor Eric Adams, foreground, with city law officials, speaks at a news conference inside a subway station after a woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at the Times Square station, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in New York. (NYPD News via AP) (NYPD News via AP)
Adams, who recently admitted he doesn't feel safe taking the subway, condemned the tragic death, but quelled fears by vowing to "drive down crime," adding that "we’re going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New Yorkers want more done.
"The fear is real. Crimes are up," Monica Pollack, 31 of the Upper West Side, told the New York Post last week.
"Eric Adams can say what he wants to promote ridership, but the fear is justified. He needs to do his job, not gaslight New Yorkers," she added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 23: New York City police officers and firemen stand at attention as they await the remains of Police Officer Jason Rivera to be brought to the funeral home on January 23, 2022 in New York City. Rivera and fellow Officer Wilbert Mora were shot Friday night while responding to a domestic violence call between a woman and her adult son. Mora remains hospitalized. ((Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images))
Among the mayor’s campaign platforms to end the skyrocketing crimes was to bring back the plainclothes anti-crime unit after it was dismantled under de Blasio’s administration amid the defund the police movement and complaints of it using excessive force and racial profiling.
The mayor has stuck to his promise, saying that the unit will be revamped and brought back fight gun crimes.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The plainclothes anti-gun unit is going to zero in on guns and gangs. We're going to use precision policing to identify the gang members, the crews," he said, NPR reported Saturday. "We're going to target them."
The mayor and other Democratic leaders in the city say the issue of gun crimes comes down to lack of gun control.
Brooklyn Borough President and a Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams greets NYPD officers as participants gather for a march through the financial district during a parade honoring essential workers for their efforts in getting New York City through the COVID-19 pandemic, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in New York. The parade kicked off at Battery Park and travel up Broadway in lower Manhattan, the iconic stretch known as the Canyon of Heroes, which has hosted parades honoring world leaders, celebrities and winning sports teams. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
"We are in the middle of a crisis with guns," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the weekend.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You carry a gun in our city, there is no apology to you," Adams added.
New York state and city have some of the most strict gun laws in the country, prohibiting most people in the state to openly carry, but Democratic leaders point to guns coming in from other states as a culprit behind the skyrocketing shootings.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adams is slated to deliver a highly-anticipated speech Monday afternoon where he will lay out a "real plan" on how NYC leaders will combat gun crimes and "go after the underlying reasons you’re seeing crime in our city." The plan will include the revamped plainclothes unit, as well as an increase in police presence on public transportation, the New York Post reported.