Late Friday New York Mayor Eric Adams issued an apology after a video from 2019 showed him using a racial slur while describing his white counterparts in the police department,
According to ABC 7 New York, in the video Mayor Adams, who is a retired police officer, was speaking at Harlem Business Alliance. In the video, he said, “Every day in the police department, I kicked those c****ers’ a**, I was unbelievable in the police department with 100 Blacks in law enforcement.”
On Friday, he said, “Definitely apologize, inappropriate comments, should not have been used, someone asking me a question using that comment and playing on that word, responded in that comment. Clearly is a comment that should not be used and I apologize, not only to those who heard it, but to New Yorkers, because they should expect more from me and that was inappropriate.”
Mayor Adams also clarified that his comment expressed his fight against racism. “My fight, you know, my fight in the police department was fighting racism throughout my entire journey and I was serious about fighting against that,” he added.
The president of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), Patrick J. Lynch released a statement after the video resurface and said, “Whenever a controversial video of a police officer surfaces online, we ask for fairness instead of a rush to outrage. We will apply the same standard here. We have spoken with Mayor Adams about this video. We have spent far too many hours together in hospital emergency rooms these past few weeks, and we’ve worked together for decades before that. A few seconds of video will not define our relationship. We have a lot of work to do together to support our members on the streets.”
Thomas Lopez-Pierre, who filmed the video and recently released the video shared that he released it in support of Adams. ‘Eric Adams is a big boy, he’s a politician, who cares about criticism, he’s the mayor,” said Lopez.
When asked if he thought the comments were inappropriate at the time of the recording, Lopez said, “Uh, no, then candidate, now mayor made a public commitment to take 30% of billions of dollars in city contracts and spend it with Black and Hispanic and Asian women owned businesses. And that’s the reason why I voted for him.”
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TSR STAFF: Jade Ashley @Jade_Ashley94
