Source: Power 105 / The Breakfast Club
New York City Mayor Eric Adams he was upset when confronted on a radio show about the revival of harmful racial profiling policies from NYPD.
On Thursday (March 28), New York City Mayor Eric Adams made an appearance Breakfast Club for a chat with hosts Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy. It soon became tense with lawyer and political commentator Olayemi Olurin challenging Adams on his administration's positions on the NYPD and public safety, leaving him visibly upset at times.
As Adams finished a point about the public's perception of crime and safety in the city's metro, Olurin asked him about his press conference rhetoric. “You have continued to fear about crime on the subways, you have added 2,000 police officers to the subways despite the fact that you have acknowledged that the subways are not that dangerous,” he said. Adams replied, “I'm lost. Can you give me the quotes where I did this?'
The exchange soon turned tentative as Olurin cited statistics from a federal monitor about the resurgence of policies that use racial profiling of Black and Brown citizens, as Adams appeared to mock with a laugh. “They said you brought back units that stop and go crazy worse than what we've seen in the Bloomberg era.” Adams responded by asking her to show data, to which Olurin replied: “I know it was available to you because your representative commented on it.” He then went on to recount how in their analysis, they found that 97% of all stops and searches in ten neighborhoods were of Black and Latino New Yorkers.
Adams was clearly frustrated, and at times steered his conversation towards Charlemagne and DJ Envy instead of Olurin halfway through the interview, saying she was providing “misinformation”. A key moment came as Adams tried to deflect by bringing up NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller who was shot and killed in Far Rockaway earlier this week, claiming Olurin was “sucking” for his life. “Mayor Adams, that won't work for me,” he replied. He then challenged her on whether she has ever visited the family of a slain officer, to which she replied, “And the family of 19 years old who was killed by the cops he called for help yesterday in Queens, have you visited them?' He gave no answer.
The entire interview between Mayor Eric Adams and Olayemi Olurin is available to watch above.
