Can the mayor-elect save his city and his party from anti-police radicalism?
Can the mayor-elect and retired NYPD captain save his city and his party from anti-police radicalism?
I n the wake of the 2020 riots and amid an overall surge in violent crime, law and order could be making a comeback. An appreciation for security recently motivated voters in Minneapolis to reject a proposal to replace their police department with a “Department of Public Safety.” The same appreciation also helps explain the election of Eric Adams, a black retired NYPD captain, as mayor of New York City.
Adams’s inauguration is set for January 1, 2022. But for New York City, it can’t come too soon for him to deliver on his promises. The Big Apple is in desperate need of cleaning up. Last year, there was a 97 percent increase in shootings and a 45 percent increase in murders. The youngest victim, a one-year-old, was killed in his stroller by a stray bullet in Brooklyn. Cops have reported feeling “demoralized.” And it’s no wonder. Caving under political pressure from Democratic radicals, soon-to-be-former mayor Bill de Blasio cut the NYPD budget by $1 billion.
Even that wasn’t enough for some people. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman whose district includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, complained last year that “defund the police means defund the police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. . . . This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues.” But does it?
In 2020, in response to such pressure, Democratic mayors such as de Blasio promised to cut police funding. Some, such as Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, became victims of their own mismanagement. Looters ran amok, and menacing crowds gathered outside her own home.
Adams, however, has promised to correct chaos with order. He means to reverse de Blasio’s regressive crime policies that did away with key anti-crime units. Adams said there should be more, not fewer, NYPD officers on the streets — including a plainclothes unit. He also said that the state’s lenient bail reforms weren’t fit for purpose: “We cannot allow the slogans and bumper stickers to make their way into our courtrooms and impact the actions our judges are taking.” Adams is also in favor of a reformed version of “stop and frisk,” which he has called “stop, question, and frisk.”
Was this just campaign talk or does Adams mean business? We are about to find out. Some have already let it be known that they’re unhappy about Adams’s law-and-order agenda. New York City leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have threatened to meet a tightening-up of policing with “riots,” “fire,” and “bloodshed.” After a meeting-turned-shouting-match with Adams, Chivona Newsome, a BLM co-founder, vowed, “We will shut the city down. We will shut down City Hall, and we will give him hell and make it a nightmare.” There’s no reason to presume they are bluffing. BLM has come through on such threats before. And not just in New York.
Like all revolutionary movements, what BLM lacks in political power, it makes up for in brutal tactics. And for a while, activists were making headway. However, Democratic politicians have been learning the hard way that taking orders from such activists does not end well, and, more important to them, does not lead to reelection. As Bret Stephens puts it: “In Portland and Seattle, progressive mayors have ceded the public square to anarchists and rioters. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, to homeless encampments and addicts. In Chicago and Baltimore, to street gangs and gun violence.” A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that a “growing share of Americans say they want more spending on police in their area.” Significantly, the researchers note that Democrats are “now much less likely than in 2020 to prefer decreased spending on police in their area.”
Upon winning the mayoralty, Adams described himself as “the new face of the Democratic Party.” Addressing the press, he explained that, “if the Democratic Party fails to recognize what we did here in New York, then they’re going to have a problem in the midterm elections, and they’re going to have a problem in the presidential elections.” As a black man and former NYPD captain, Adams could be uniquely placed to represent the growing number of Democratic voters who want to see a more serious response to crime. Adams has chosen pragmatism over ideology. With BLM radicals continuing their pushback, his enormous task will be to bring his city back from the brink — and bring his party with him.