Adams: This is why we must get tough vs. guns
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams pressed his case that he is the top public safety candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor on Thursday, saying that a rare fatal shooting in posh Park Slope punctuated the need for a swift crackdown on guns.
“It’s too easy to get a gun in the city of New York — you can get a gun faster than you can get a vaccination,” Adams said on the Brooklyn corner where a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on Wednesday.
The pointblank slaying of a Brooklyn mother took place blocks from the Barclays Center. The victim’s ex-girlfriend later surrendered to investigators and was charged with murder, according to authorities.
The gunfire pierced a mostly placid area of Brooklyn, and it wasn’t clear that the execution-style killing of Nichelle Thomas, 52, suggested any broader shift in crime in the neighborhood. The incident on the edge of Park Slope marked the first recorded shooting in the neighborhood this year.
Still, gunfire across the five boroughs has climbed during the coronavirus crisis, and the city is licking its wounds after the homicide rate spiked last year to its highest level in almost a decade. Adams called the Park Slope attack “a symbol of the shootings” that have shaken New York during the pandemic.
“A little more than a year ago, most of us felt safe,” Adams said.
“That level of safety is dissipating and eroding every day.”
The former NYPD captain presented a menu of prescriptions: It includes a new “anti-gun unit” in place of the police department’s recently disbanded anti-crime units, spot checks for weapons at the Port Authority and a tri-state commission focused on choking the flow of firearms.
He said Thursday that he wants to see more plainclothes cops on patrol, arguing that law enforcement in the city needs to regain an element of unpredictability — but he stressed the officers must be highly trained.
Adams supports police reform and has floated NYPD budget cuts in the past, but he has also sought to burnish his law enforcement background as the race heats up. The Democratic primary set for June 22 is widely expected to determine the city’s next mayor.
Adams trails Andrew Yang in the polls, and he ripped the onetime presidential candidate last week over a new parking violations plan, calling it a frivolous issue. Yang responded that he thinks “about what’s happening to families in New York all the time — particularly the victims of violent crimes.”
On Thursday, Adams continued to question other hopefuls’ commitment to battling gun violence as the bruising pandemic ebbs.
“They should have this at the top of their agenda,” he said. “If we’re not safe as a city, then we will never have the city recover from COVID-19.”
‘It’s too easy to get a gun in the city of New York — you can get a gun faster than you can get a vaccination.’ ERIC ADAMS, BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT