NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Mayor Eric Adams’ 100th day in office is this Sunday. Ahead of the milestone, the mayor spoke with WCBS 880 on Friday about issues facing the city as it recovers from the pandemic, including crime and homelessness.
Below are excerpts from the mayor’s interview with Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane. You can listen to the full interview here:
ON HOW HE’D RATE HIMSELF:
I’m a tough grader. I have always been tough on myself and will continue to be. I think that we need an “I” — in progress. We’re dealing with some historical and institutional and generational problems that we’re going to turn around as well as COVID. COVID has devastated our economy. Our mental health. It has devastated our health care system. But we’re up for the challenge and no one is going to work harder for this city than Eric Adams.
ON CRIME & NEW NYPD ANTI-CRIME UNIT:
We have removed, the NYPD in total have removed, over 1,000 guns off the street. Think about that for a moment. That’s almost 10 guns a day. Over 10 guns a day they’ve removed off the streets of New York. And we have a constant flow. That’s why I state there are many rivers that feed the sea of violence. And the federal government must dam one of those rivers by really stopping the flow of guns in the cities across America.
We’re seeing this violence all over America. But here in New York, my anti-gun unit, they removed over 30 guns off the street, over 100-something arrests—just in a few weeks that were put in place. Because of the modified police uniform, they are in unmarked cars, and we’re zeroing in on those who are trigger-pullers. It’s really commendable what our detectives are doing in closing these cases. A 61-year-old woman was shot a few days ago. I just received the announcement that we made an apprehension on that. We are taking bad guys off the street, but we can’t have a revolving door that places them back on the street.
ON CONCERNS ABOUT ANTI-CRIME UNIT:
The goal is to not make the mistakes of the past. Those mistakes that I advocated against in the past and to do it right. And what does that look like? Instead of profiling, it’s precision policing and precision resources. Those neighborhoods that we have mentioned over and over again, if you were to overlay the other problems in those neighborhoods, you’d see education problems, lack of resources, lack of employment, mental health issues. There’s a constant issue in these neighborhoods, that if we don’t have a holistic approach, we’re just really putting our finger in the crack in the dam that’s eventually going to overflow, and that is why we’re doing a universal, well-rounded approach to these problems to stop the feeders of crimes and to go after those immediate people who are committing the crime in the first place.
ON CRITICISM OF HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT SWEEPS:
What I find fascinating is that people normalize individuals living on our streets in tents and cardboard boxes. Some of these locations that we’ve cleaned up had human waste inside, drug paraphernalia, no access to showers, a change of clothing. It’s just inhumane. So I want to partner with my homeless advocates.
I’m in the streets at 3, 4 a.m. in the morning talking to homeless residents, learning what they need, letting them know there’s a turnaround in the shelters that we have. This is a right-to-shelter city. There are no individuals who are looking for shelters or a place to sleep in a dignified way who will be turned away. So I’m not going to act like it’s not wrong to have people living in these conditions. And I’m asking all New Yorkers to join me, including those homeless advocates. Walk the streets with me. Let’s get people the help they need so they’re not harmful to themselves and others.
ON ALBANY’S CHANGES TO BAIL REFORM:
I commend the lawmakers on looking at this issue, something that many people thought was not possible when I went up to Albany and continue to push forward. But let’s be clear. We have more to do. This budget, what’s emerging, if it’s true, this is a real win for my “peoples plan,” getting tax rebates to New Yorkers, million of dollars, childcare funding, all of these important issues.
But specifically with the issues around crime, there’s more we must do. I’m going to continue to partner with the governor and the lawmakers up there that support this important initiative. We must go after these important issues as we deal with public safety in our city, because you hear me say it over and over again, public safety is a prerequisite for prosperity. If we’re not safe, we’re not going to prosper as a city. But there’s much more that I need from Albany, including mayoral control. The session ends in June. We need to give certainty to over 1 million children and their families that we have the right accountability that we’re looking for.
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