4-25-24 Article reprinted from 1010WINS.com
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams joined 1010 WINS on Thursday after unveiling his revised budget plan, which reverses a number of planned cuts, including to the NYPD and school programs, as negotiations on potential library cuts continue.
Here’s a transcript of his interview with 1010 WINS anchor Susan Richard.
Susan Richard: Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, who heads the City Council finance committee, [told] the New York Times that the cuts weren’t necessary in the first place. And that, “the chaos and stress those proposed cuts caused were very real.” What say you?
Mayor Adams: They have a role over in the City Council, and we look forward to sitting at the table and speaking with Speaker [Adrienne] Adams as we move forward. We made the right and smart decisions. That’s what independent financial experts have been saying over and over again. That’s why they raised our bond ratings. And you have witnessed the recovery of our economy in this city. More jobs than in the city history. You’re seeing our city streets are safer. We’re doing what’s right to make sure we had the recovery after COVID, and this is good news that we’re able to do so.
Susan Richard: One of the announcements yesterday was that both the July and October NYPD classes will be fully funded. Adding another 2,400 New York City police officers. Now Public Advocate Jumaane Williams put out a statement saying that that putting the available money first into hiring more cops puts headcount over accountability. His words. He said the money should have gone toward non-police response personnel, for example mental health workers. What do you say about that?
Mayor Adams: You mentioned twice that people put out statements. My job is not putting out statements. My job is protecting this city. The prerequisite to our prosperity is public safety and justice. And we saw that clearly in January, when we witnessed an uptick in crimes on the subway system. Once we infused 1,000 officers there, we saw a double-digit decrease in February, double-digit decrease in March. And in the first quarter, we saw a decrease in crime. Our city enjoys seeing their uniformed personnel on our subways and in our streets. And when you invest in more police officers, your investments made is important. And we have put unprecedented investment in our violence interruptions, more than ever before. So we hear what he’s saying, but we’re showing how we’re getting it right.
Susan Richard: So let me ask you, with the additional cops that are going to be trained, will this allow you to keep those additional 800 to 1,000 police officers in the subways? What’s the plan for that?
Mayor Adams: Well, you know what we are experiencing in this city and across the country is a hemorrhaging of law enforcement personnel in all of the agencies. We’re at a code red in the Department of Correction. You’re seeing real low numbers in the Department of Probation. We have to continue to recruit, that’s why we settled these contracts because we have to be competitive with other cities and other professions. Our goal is to maintain the order in our subway system, and if it means having 1,000 new cops there, we’re going to do that, but we’re focused on keeping the city safe. That’s my number one responsibility.
Susan Richard: But is there any decision about keeping those additional officers in the subway at this point? How long are they going to be there? What is going on?
Mayor Adams: It’s a combination. [Transit] Chief [Michael] Kemper [had] given the directions in January. He reached out through the commissioner and stated that he needed that uptick. And so he’s looking at how to adjust. You’ve seen an infusion of new cameras because of what the governor is doing on our system. You’re seeing officers learning different deploy skills. And so as we see the need. If we need those 1,000 officers there, we’re going to keep them there, because it’s about making sure the system remains safe. As I say over and over again, with 4.1 million riders, we have an average of about six felony crimes a day. We want to get rid of all those six felony crimes, whatever it takes, we’re going to make sure that happens.
Susan Richard: The one area that did not get their funding reversed was the public libraries, which are down to six days a week and may need to go to five. What do you say to all the criticism over that?
Mayor Adams: Well, first, we want to be clear that all of our agencies and entities were told that we had to find savings. We were able to find over $7 billion in savings. Each entity and agency made the determination how they were going to find those savings. At no time did City Hall tell library personnel that they had to cut hours, and we want to be clear on that. We’re now in the negotiation process, where we sit down with the City Council and all of these items are up for negotiation on how we move forward. And I think the speaker and I are going to do what we have done two times already. We’re going to find a successful budget, shake hands and keep moving the city forward. And I really commend the fact she has been a great partner. You know, we may disagree on one or two things, but we agree on hundreds of things that allowed us to recover this economy and keep the city safe.
Susan Richard: All right, let’s talk about the college campus protesting over the Israel Hamas war. Yesterday House Speaker Mike Johnson was up at Columbia. He called for that university’s president to resign. Do you agree or is he just adding fuel to the fire?
Mayor Adams: It’s not my determination who colleges pick to run their institution. I have a very clear role to make sure that the police department allows children to go to school without any threats, harm or danger, and to go to these private college campuses when the institutions determine they need our help to maintain. We will always respond when there’s imminent threat to life. But just as Columbia called us a few weeks ago to come in and dismantle tents because rules and laws were being broken, we’ll do it again if we’re asked to come in. We did it at NYU. I don’t believe all protesters are violent, but far too many people have infiltrated these protesters for their own agenda, and we’re going to make sure our city is safe and our students are safe and we will continue to carry that action out.
Susan Richard: Yeah, there was some video down at NYU showing NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and several of his officers being chased into a campus building while they were trying to arrest somebody. What is your message to protesters?
Mayor Adams: Well, I’m not sure if that was NYU or Columbia, but our officers will never run away from danger. They would run towards danger, and the videos probably didn’t capture the whole scene. We will look into it, what happened, to make sure we have adequate personnel. But we’re clear with the protesting. I protested as a child to dismantle apartheid in South Africa. So I know how important it is to the American spirit and the foundation to the right to protest. Your right to protest should not be calling for hatred. It should not be calling for harm to other communities. And I think it’s despicable and deplorable that people are stating that they are Hamas and that Hamas should continue their actions. Hamas is a dangerous terrorist, violent organization that should be destroyed, and we should return the hostages, and we should do anything that’s possible to bring the end of violence that we’re seeing play out on the stage of the Middle East.
Susan Richard: All right, one more question. Shifting gears, the city Health Department, as we’ve been reporting this morning, is looking to move ahead with something that was actually approved last fall. Those sugar warnings on some fast food menus around town. So is this just the food police, or what do you think about it?
Mayor Adams: You know, as I say over and over again in my personal journey of health, food is medicine and we have an obligation and responsibility as a city, not only to react to the health care crises, but to be proactive to prevent some of the health care issues. And sugar is one of the leading causes of health-related items and issues and diseases. Hats off to Dr. [Ashwin] Vasan, the commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. We want to continue to have New Yorkers make their choices, but we’re going to give them the information to make the right choices.