Eric Adams vows to get tough on crime in joint appearance with Gov. Cuomo
Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams appeared in public with Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday and addressed everything from the city’s surging shootings to the governor’s sexual harassment scandal.
Ahead of a meeting with community leaders in Brooklyn to discuss the Big Apple’s epidemic of gun violence, Adams — who last week narrowly won the Democratic primary — decried the city’s increasing lawlessness and said officials needed to address recent soft-on-crime initiatives
Adams, a former NYPD captain, also warned that the Big Apple was turning into a free-for-all and said the decline needed to be nipped in the bud.
“We have thrown up our hands and we have surrendered our city,” he said during the joint news conference with Cuomo.
“It’s time for us to ensure our city is for the working-class, everyday people.”
At one point, Adams was asked about the sexual harassment and groping allegations made against Cuomo by a series of current and former female aides, which the governor has denied.
“I think an investigation is taking place. Let the investigation go to its outcome — that’s the system of justice I protected in this city,” Adams said.
For his part, Cuomo repeatedly heaped praise on Adams, in marked contrast to his increasingly harsh comments about outgoing Mayor de Blasio, who Cuomo last month blasted as a weak leader and incompetent manager.
Cuomo also treated the Nov. 2 general election race between Adams and Republican rival Curtis Sliwa as a foregone conclusion.
“It’s my pleasure to be with Eric Adams, who is going to be the next mayor of the city of New York and I’m very, very excited about that,” he said.
“I worked with Eric when he was in the [state] Senate and he is going to be extraordinary. I believe that. We did a lot of good things together.”
Cuomo added: “He showed real leadership. He showed the ability to get things done. He took on difficult issues and we developed a true mutual respect and friendship.”
But Adams, the outgoing Brooklyn borough president, didn’t return the favor when asked about not raising his hand during a Democratic debate when the candidates were asked who wanted Cuomo’s endorsement.
“I didn’t get an endorsement today,” Adams said.
“The governor said he would work with me and I’m sure he would have worked with any mayor.”
When asked by The Post to comment on an NYPD cop who said that armed teens “are more afraid of getting shot than getting arrested,” Adams said he largely agreed.
“There’s a lack of fear of being caught with a gun, which is very dangerous,” Adams said.
“We need to look at all of these new laws that are taking place.”
Adams said it was critical that measures such as “Raise the Age” — which ended the automatic prosecution of 16- and 17-year-old as adults — “don’t have unintended consequences based on how you enact them.”
Adams said judges “are not giving bail on cases where they’re allowed to give bail” and are “refusing to apply ‘Kendra’s Law,’” which allows mentally ill people to be ordered into “assisted outpatient treatment” to ensure they’re supervised by authorities.
“We must really look at our judges,” he said.
Adams also discussed sitting on a bench in Manhattan’s famed Washington Square Park and watching someone inject heroin next to him as a cop nearby did nothing.
“There’s just a sense we have a city where anything and everything goes,” he said.
Both Adams and Cuomo said they wanted to reclaim the mantle of being “progressive Democrats” from insurgent members of their political party.
“I have made it clear over and over again: I am the original progressive voice in this city,” Adams said.
“Being progressive is not what you tweet but what you do to help people on the street every day.”
He added: “We’ve allowed the term ‘being progressive’ to be hijacked by those who do not have a track record of putting in place real progressive changes. I am not going to surrender my progressive credentials.”
