He was the only candidate for the Democratic primary to have been a police officer: after fighting racial discrimination from within the police, Eric Adams is now almost certain to become the 2nd black mayor in the history of New York, weakened by the pandemic and shootings on the rise.
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The results of the primary have yet to be definitively confirmed. But according to the latest figures released by the New York Election Bureau, Eric Adams, 60 and current Brooklyn District President, won the ballot by a hair (50.5% vs. 49.5%) ahead of Kathryn Garcia , experienced part of the town hall, but new to politics who admitted his defeat on Wednesday; and Maya Wiley, supported by Democratic left wing star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
By Tuesday night, Mr. Adams – who presented himself as the candidate of the workers and the underprivileged, plowing the working-class neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, at the expense of the richest and white Manhattan – had declared himself victorious .
“We must now focus on winning in November to keep this great city’s promise to those who suffer, who are in dire straits, and want a secure, equitable and affordable future for all New Yorkers.”
The American economic capital being a democratic stronghold, the winner of this primary is given the winner for the general election in November, where he will face the Republican Curtis Sliwa, radio host and founder in the 70s of the “Guardian Angels”, volunteer patrols who fought against an endemic crime.
Eric Adams should succeed the very unpopular Bill de Blasio, and become the second black mayor of this world-city of 8.5 million inhabitants, after David Dinkins, who died in November 2020 at the age of 93.
Of all the candidates for this hotly contested primary, Mr. Adams arguably had the most complete CV.
He grew up in a large family, in a working-class neighborhood in Queens – his mother was a housekeeper, his father a butcher. A good student, he says he decided to join the police after being beaten by police at the age of 15.
He entered it in the mid-1980s, when the American economic capital was plagued by crime, at the height of the crack “epidemic”. He spent 22 years with the NYPD, where he rose to the rank of captain.
In 1995, he co-founded the association “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement”, to fight against racism in the police, still active today.
He then entered politics and was elected in 2006 to the New York Senate, where he was reelected three times before being elected president of Brooklyn in 2013, which was his springboard for mayor.
As mayor, he vowed to fight against racial inequalities in general and in the police in particular, after the death of George Floyd sparked huge protests in New York as in most American cities.
But this moderate Democrat, who went vegan after a serious diabetes scare in 2016, has also focused much of his campaign on the fight against homicides and shootings: the latter are up 32% compared to the same period of 2020 , in a metropolis that prided itself, pre-pandemic, of being the safest in the United States.
No way for this man who was briefly registered with the Republican Party to use the slogan of the American radical left and #BlackLivesMatter to reduce the budgets allocated to the police – some 6 billion dollars a year for the New York police, the largest of the country with some 36,000 police officers.
Unlike many Democrats, he does not focus on the iconic assault rifles of mass shootings: the victims of simple pistols are much more numerous, even if the media are talking about them less, because they are mainly black or Latino people. , he said.
Crime, however, is far from being the only challenge in a city traumatized by the pandemic, which has claimed more than 33,000 lives there.
If life has resumed in recent weeks, with an energetic vaccination campaign and a positivity rate limited to 0.7%, there are many uncertainties about the recovery of the economy and tourism.
New York economic officials seem to trust him: “Eric is a person of strong character who will not be intimidated by special interests or ideologists,” the association of economic leaders, Partnership for New York City, said on Wednesday.
“If he is elected mayor in November, it will be a first step in ensuring that New York remains a city of opportunity and inclusive growth,” she added, promising to help revive the economy.
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