=It is no secret that New York City Mayor Eric Adams has low approval ratings, exacerbated by the lack of consistency in positive ratings common among Black and people of color voters.
This is mainly due to his targeting the demographic with calls to ban drill music and billboards to end sagging pants, both of which are popular in Black culture. Additionally, significantly increasing the police budget puts New York City’s Black and people of color communities at higher risk for instances of police brutality and over-policing.
Although NYC is not building a ‘cop city’ like Atlanta, distributing funds to cops does not necessarily decrease crime, according to a former policing policy advisor at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Aside from the long-standing history of police beginning as ‘slave catchers,’ Black people continue to be killed by the police at a higher rate than any other population.
Instead of the Adams administration investing in professionals or community centers that can help with mental health crises and neurodivergent people, the New York Police Department’s projected budget for 2024 will be $5.31 billion.
Instead of standing behind his claims to protect our Black and people of color population from gentrification, Adams cut the budget for affordable housing and used it to support one of the largest perpetrators of racial violence.
While the police department budget is one of the largest in the United States, its oversized budget was previously allocated to homeless services and affordable housing.
Adams also brought back plainclothes, an anti-crime unit to the NYPD which accounted for 31% of fatal shootings in 2018 while only representing 6% of the police force. These unnecessary measures have only furthered the homelessness crisis in the city by taking its funding.
Adams’ controversial destruction of homeless encampments leaves unhoused people without personal belongings, inadequate housing or limited services.
The city’s unhoused population is only increasing as migrants come seeking a better life. As they traverse through a long journey, they are met with politicians who don’t want them here.
NYC is the city of immigrants and a symbol of the American dream for many generations.
However, Adams traveled to Columbia, Mexico and Ecuador to tell migrants not to come because the city is at capacity. His reasoning is lacking, considering gentrification of NYC has long been a problem.
As these families face food insecurity, poverty and violence and want to be able to feed their children, NYC’s representative travels to their country to tell them to stay there.
Aside from his lack of sensitivity in terms of the migrant crisis, Adams confronted a housing activist at a town hall meeting who asked about the “horrible” increases in rent.
“Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own,” Adams responded.
Adams has received over 1.3 million in funding from real estate developers. While Adams is consistent in his frequent appearances at NYC clubs and events, he is inconsistent in addressing the policies he promised to tackle in his campaign.
