Closing arguments: Adams and Garcia

The candidates have spent the better part of the last year telling you about what they will do with the job — and that is important. With Primary Day almost here, now I think you should be asking one final question: “What is their lived experience?”

You may have heard me say that I am going to create a safe, fair, affordable city for all New Yorkers. What I want you to know is that those will be my priorities because those issues aren’t political to me; they’re personal.

After being beaten by police as a 15-year-old in South Jamaica, Queens, I turned pain into purpose and followed the guidance of mentors in the civil rights movement, going into the NYPD to reform it from within. As a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, I would often police the streets in a bulletproof vest one day during the high-crime 1980s and 1990s and protest bad behavior by cops the next.

Later, as part of the department’s data unit, I was part of the team that eventually proved what so many said was impossible: that New York could be a safe city. At the same time, I led the fight against overaggressive tactics like the abuse of stop-and-frisk.

Now, as gun violence is on the rise, our subway system is in danger from a persistent spike in violent crime, and our children are in the crosshairs, our campaign stands alone in proposing a comprehensive vision for delivering the justice we deserve with the safety we need.

I was one of six children raised by a single mom who cleaned houses, not always knowing if we would come home to an eviction notice on the front door or food on the table.

These are the struggles that have been felt by the same Black, Brown and immigrant households for generations, trapped on the wrong side of the inequality gap — and COVID-19 only made it worse. So I will take on this inequality directly with our People’s Plan that will deliver automatic monthly cash assistance, free or subsidized child care, and more efficient city assistance through a single digital platform.

My life story has prepared me for a time like this — to lead a real recovery, not only from COVID-19, but from the pandemics of violence and inequality that we suffered through long before 2020.