Shootings Grab Eric Adams' Attention
Five New York City police officers have been shot since Mayor Eric Adams was sworn in at the start of the year, part of a “sea of violence” engulfing the five boroughs that has rocketed to the top of the Democratic mayor’s priority list.
The high-profile incidents — which also include a toddler struck by a stray bullet and the death of a 40-year-old woman who was pushed in front of a subway in Times Square — are part of a larger trend. Violent crime is up in cities around the country, and it began rising in the Big Apple with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
But as I wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal, the current situation is particularly important for a new mayor who campaigned on his ability to increase public safety and is trying to encourage white-collar office workers to return to Manhattan.
“For people who have now lived in the safest city in America for the last 18 years, they are going to get shaken by any uptick in crime,“ said Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission, a nonprofit organization that advocates for better criminal justice policies. “It’s a very important moment substantively, and it’s clearly the test of him politically.”
Adams’ most immediate proposal is the revival of plainclothes units that he said will be focused on removing illegal guns from the streets. A less-tangible part of the response, as Erin Durkin described for Politico, is the omnipresent approach that Adams takes as a former police captain. “Doesn’t matter to me if it’s a police officer shot, or if it’s a baby shot. I’m going to stay in these streets until this city is safe,” the mayor said two days before officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were fatally shot in Harlem.
In the longer-term, Adams is proposing interagency working groups to get social services to at-risk people. He’s pushing for stricter federal gun laws, following in the unsuccessful footsteps of his predecessors. President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to New York this week and meet with Adams, so expect to hear more about this in the coming days.
The mayor is also asking state lawmakers to change a 2019 law which prohibits money bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony offenses. The Albany Times Union analyzed state data and found, “2 percent of the nearly 100,000 cases related to the state’s changed bail laws, between July 2020 and June 2021, led to a rearrest on a violent felony while another case was pending.” It’s mathematically correct to read that to mean that 98% of people do not commit violent felonies while their case is pending. It’s also mathematically correct to read that to mean around 2,000 people were arrested for violent felonies while another charge was pending against them.
Adams said judges should be allowed to consider whether a defendant is dangerous during a pre-trail hearing, to try and drive that second number lower. Supporters of the law say that could hurt poor people of color who were jailed at disproportionate rates. Republicans have been campaigning based on the bail lawsince it passed, but their efforts didn’t bear much fruit in 2020.
Democrats who dominate the state Assembly and Senate reiterated last week that they didn’t see a need for change. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was willing to have a conversation about the law, but otherwise didn’t tip her hand. She and Adams have gotten along so far, but I’ll be watching to see how the coming debate on criminal justice issues affects their relationship.
COMING UP: As I wrote two weeks ago, the Legislature is set to take control of drawing new district lines for the U.S. House, state Assembly and Senate. Maps should be unveiled, and voted on, this week.
THE QUESTION: The HBO series “The Gilded Age,” filmed in Troy, debuted last week. What was the last HBO series to broadcast scenes filmed in Albany?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Thanks for all of your suggestions! Just the thought of dreaming about where we could go warmed me up a bit last week.