Eric Adams, a former cop and fervent Zionist has won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary and will in all likelihood be the next mayor of New York City. In November he will run against the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa.
This was announced weeks after the last day of voting due to absentee ballots as well as the new ranked-choice voting system that presented various kinks in the counting process. It was a close race, with Adams’s initial lead narrowing to within one percentage point over Kathryn Garcia. Only 950,000 total votes were cast in this election, although NYC is home to over 8 million people, with nearly 3.8 million registered Democrats.
In all likelihood, New York City’s next mayor will be Eric Adams, the City’s second Black mayor after David Dinkins who occupied the post between 1990-1993. Adams was the candidate who received the most support and most funding from the Democratic Party apparatus, highlighting the way that the Democrats seek to quash the demands of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement with a well-funded and well-marketed campaign.
Adams is, in every sense of the word, a cop. He is literally a former police captain and put support for the racist NYPD and “law and order” at the very center of his campaign. In fact, he still supports the blatantly racist “stop and frisk” policies responsible for terrorizing Black and Latinx communities and leading to countless needless arrests. While he claims he’s against “abusive” instances of stop and frisk, he also argues that cops should stop and question people. It’s not clear what he thinks the distinction between appropriate and inappropriate instances might be, but it ultimately amounts to advocacy of police terror and the hyper-policing of communities of color. And although New York City already has the largest police budget in the country, Adams wants to maintain and expand the racist police force.
Adams regularly used the fact that he is Black and from a working-class family to justify his positions in favor of the racist police.
Adams was endorsed by the pro-Trump New York Post, and is strongly pro-charter schools and vocally opposed to laws protecting tenants. And it’s no wonder — he is a wealthy landlord himself, with ties to and funding from real estate developers. Three millionaire hedge fund investors provided almost $2 million into the super PAC backing Adams’s campaign.
His coalition of support includes real estate interests, labor bureaucrats, and the New York Democratic Party machine. He’s been endorsed by unions like SEIU 32BJ and District Council 37, highlighting the support of labor bureaucrats for Democrats who are explicitly against the goals and demands of last summer’s BLM movement. Of course, rank-and-file workers are notoriously not consulted or given the space to have substantive discussions about the endorsements their unions make.
Further, Adams is a proud Zionist and has said that he would like to retire in the occupied territories in the Golan Heights. Like many of the city’s top cops, he’s traveled to Israel twice, seeking to nurture the already-cozy relationship between the NYPD and the Zionist occupation forces. He put out a strong statement in support of Israel last month, as the Zionist state murdered Palestinians, saying, “Today on Yom Yerushalayim, Israel came under attack from Hamas-fired rockets in Gaza. Israelis live under the constant threat of terrorism and war and New York City’s bond with Israel remains unbreakable. I stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Israel at this time of crisis.”
Eric Adams isn’t even trying to hide who he governs for: real estate, the cops, and U.S. imperialism.
It’s no coincidence that the Demoratic Party and their affiliated leaders put so much money towards Eric Adams. It’s part of a bipartisan backlash against the BLM movement — from the backlash against Critical Race Theory to Joe Biden increasing the police budget. It once again shows who and what the Democratic Party stands for.
It’s clear that Adams as mayor will mean harsh conditions for people of color and working-class people in New York City. This means that we have to organize and fight against every austerity measure, every increase in the police budget, and every attack on working-class and oppressed people.
