A former delinquent who became a policeman and then a politician, Eric Adams beat his Republican rival, Curtis Sliwa, on Tuesday, November 2. At 61, he became the second black mayor in New York history.
Former black policeman and anti-racist unionist from New York, Eric Adams, becomes the future mayor of the city, an extraordinary journey for this poor child of Brooklyn, young delinquent turned politician with the grip of the Democratic Party.
Second African-American mayor in New York history
He is only the second African-American mayor in New York history. The former police officer and anti-racist activist Eric Adams won the town hall of the American megalopolis with flying colors on Tuesday, an extraordinary journey for this child from a poor family who had flirted with crime.
The elected 61-year-old Democrat crushed his Republican rival Curtis Sliwa, 67, as planned, according to preliminary results from the city’s elections office. Eric Adams thus won 67% of the votes cast against around 27% for Curtis Sliwa, in a city classified on the left but where the economic and social inequalities between different communities are extremely marked.
“Tonight, I realized my dream and, with all my heart, I will remove the barriers that prevent you from achieving yours”, launched the new city councilor, all smiles, white shirt and thumbs up in front of his supporters gathered in a Brooklyn hotel.
“It was about time. The workers now have a voice,” said Jakwan Rivers, black American president of a neighborhood association and friend of the new mayor.
Former delinquent
This victory is in fact a consecration for Eric Adams, raised by disadvantaged parents from Brooklyn and Queens where he experienced delinquency and violent police arrests before becoming a police captain and creating a union to fight against racism. . He then entered politics, elected local Democrat of the State and the city of New York, stepping stone towards the town hall.
Close to popular and financial circles
In tears after voting Tuesday morning in his hometown, Eric Adams felt that this election represented social revenge for the “little guy” he was in his youth and therefore for working class New Yorkers.
“This is historic!” Exclaimed Anthony Williamson, a 58-year-old worker, after voting for Adams: “This is great. It shows that we all have a chance to make it happen in New York and America. , whatever his skin color “.
In the last days of the campaign focused on insecurity, the new mayor had caught up on television with Curtis Sliwa, a colorful character, still wearing a red beret and who in 1979 created a kind of militia, the “guardian angels”, voluntary patrols supposed to fight against attacks in the streets, alongside the police.
The former police officer Eric Adams was again very applauded Tuesday evening when he again pledged to be intractable against crimes and offenses whose indicators have turned red in 2020. “We are not just going to talk about security. , we are going to have security, ”he promised.
Until the last hours of the campaign, he displayed himself as a defender of the middle and popular classes, but also as a close friend of the business community of Manhattan, the world’s financial lung.
22 years as a police captain
The successor to the unpopular Bill de Blasio will manage the largest municipal budget in the United States: 98.7 billion dollars for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Eric Adams will also have control over the largest police force in the country (NYPD, 36,000 employees), whose reforms he will have to pursue, but without alienating his former powerful and unionized body of origin.
Become a police officer when New York was a cutthroat in the 1980s, he spent 22 years there until the rank of captain. In 1995, he founded a union there which still fights against racism.
Because in its history, the New York police force has often been accused of turning a blind eye to violent, racist and corrupt agents. And she was again the target of complaints in 2020 for the crackdown on anti-racist protests by the Black Lives Matter movement, after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
He is vegan
In a city that has paid a heavy price for the pandemic (34,000 dead), Eric Adams will have to manage the return to normal of schools, offices and businesses. Also fight against glaring social inequalities, poor housing, poor infrastructure, climate risks. Finally shut down Rikers Island, a terrible overcrowded, ultra-violent and unsanitary prison.
Finally, Eric Adams is very proud to have gone vegan in 2016 to cure his diabetes and has written a cookbook to convince African Americans to do the same.
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