Eric Adams, an “American dream” for the mayor of New York

Democrat Eric Adams is officially invested mayor of New Yorksaturday 1^and January. At the age of 61, he thus becomes the second African American in history to hold this position. Son of Brooklyn, ex-cop, ex-senator, anti-racist trade unionist… His atypical profile had made him the big favorite on the ballot in this city historically classified on the left.

Presenting himself as a “moderate” Democrat, he managed to seduce both the working classes, cheerfully playing on his personal history, and more conservative circles. On November 3, he won hands down against his Republican rival, Curtis Sliwa, obtaining 67% of the votes cast.

A success story

Eric Adams symbolizes the perfect “American Dream”. He was born in 1960 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Big Apple. He spent his childhood and adolescence in South Jamaica, Queens, where he lived with his five brothers and his mother, a housekeeper, who raised them alone, we can read in his biographyposted on his campaign website.

As a teenager he fell into delinquency, embroiled in stories of rival gangs. At the age of 15 he was arrested and beaten by the police and then imprisoned for several weeks in a juvenile detention center. Paradoxically, it was this episode that sparked a vocation, he says regularly: it was during this time that he decided to become a police officer. His goal: “To change the system from within”.

A few years later, at age 22, Eric Adams joined the ranks of the New York Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the country. He made a career there for 22 years, eventually reaching the rank of captain.

In recent years he has stood out for his fight against discrimination and police violence. In 1995 you co-founded “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care”, an anti-racist union whose mission is to combat discrimination against the black community. At the same time, he became president of the Grand Council of Guardians, an association that brings together black police officers.

In 2006 he left the uniform to enter politics. First elected to the New York Senate between 2007 and 2013, he then assumed the Brooklyn borough presidency, a position often presented as a stepping stone to the position of mayor of New York. reports the New York Times.

“This man is one of us”

Throughout his campaign, Eric Adams has consistently made his success story one of his arguments, peppering each of his speeches with personal anecdotes. “I wanted to tell my story,” he explains to the New York Times. “I wanted people to say, ‘This man is one of us.'”

For example, in July he had thus brought a portrait of his mother died when it comes to voting in the Democratic primary for the nomination. “I shouldn’t be here (as a candidate, ed.). But since I’ve been here, New Yorkers will understand every day that they too deserve to be in this city,” he confided in tears.

“New York has chosen one of you, one of us. I am you. I am you”, he too launched after the announcement of his victory, on November 3, in front of a Brooklyn hotel. “Tonight I fulfilled my dream and I will wholeheartedly remove the barriers that prevent you from achieving yours,” he promised.

Yet, his description on his Twitter account stays along the same lines: he mostly comes across as a “proud son of Brownsville”. The status of “future mayor of New York” comes only later.

A black woman leads the NYPD

During his campaign, the ex-policeman has therefore logically made security a central issue. His main promise: to severely fight against the increase in crime since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, continuing to fight against discrimination against African Americans.

And this is also the theme of his first rush order from New York construction. Even before taking office, decided on the name Keechant Sewell, a black woman from Queens, NYPD chief. The latter was until today in charge of the police of the small county of Nassau, now she will have to manage the 35,000 police officers of New York.

The first woman to lead the NYPD, she will be the third black person in the position. You will then have the difficult task of maintaining security in New York by restoring the population’s trust in her police, accused of having violent, racist and corrupt agents among her ranks.

Et according to Le Monde, this choice was not insignificant. To decide between them, the candidates had to simulate a press conference that is supposed to take place after a white police officer kills an unarmed black person. Keechant Sewell would have prevailed having had words of sympathy for the victim.

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A “moderate” and “pragmatic” Democrat.

But if Eric Adams easily shows himself as a defender of the middle and working class, he also knows how to reassure the business circles. For good reason, if its predecessor Bill de Blasio presenting himself as a representative of the left wing of the Democratic Party, the new city councilor prefers to define himself as a “moderate democrat” and a “pragmatic”.

In recent months he has not hesitated to clearly oppose the former mayor but also other party figures, in particular Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, herself elected from New York to the House of Representatives and ranked far to the left.

And the issue of security is no exception. The former policeman categorically opposes the “Defund the Police” project, carried out by a part of the democratic clan, which wants to withdraw funds from the police to finance social projects.

But it is above all on the economic issue that Eric Adams is discredited by his clan. Among his electoral proposals, for example, he wants to reduce the number of municipal officials and reduce taxes implementing a “Tax Free Tuesday”one day a week with no mandatory deductions.

The new city councilman has also made it one of his priorities to revive the estimated 25,000-35,000 New Yorkers who left during the Covid-19 pandemic. “On January 2, 2022, I will fly to Florida and say to all these New Yorkers living in Florida, ‘Get your butt back to New York'” assured the Wall Street Journal. Adding, “I don’t blame them for leaving. New York has become too violent, too bureaucratic, too expensive to do business.”

And to do this, it wants to attract large companies to the megalopolis. A frank snub to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who fought in 2019 to prevent Amazon from establishing its headquarters in Queens.

More challenges await Eric Adams at the helm of New York. He will have to manage the return to normality in schools, offices and shops, fight against poor housing, poor infrastructure or even climatic risks, but also finally close Rikers Island, a terrible overcrowded, ultra-violent and unsanitary prison.