Source: Power 105 / The Breakfast Club
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was left flustered when confronted on a radio broadcast about reviving harmful racial profiling policies by the NYPD.
On Thursday (March 28), New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared on The Breakfast Club for a conversation with hosts Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy. It soon got tense due to lawyer and political commentator Olayemi Olurin challenging Adams on his administration’s stances concerning the New York Police Department and public safety, which left him at times visibly flustered.
As Adams had finished a point about the public perception of crime and safety in the city’s subway system, Olurin questioned him on his rhetoric about in press conferences. “You’ve continued to fearmonger about crime in the subways, you’ve added 2,000 police officers in the subways despite the fact that you’ve acknowledged that the subways are not that dangerous,” she said. Adams replied, “I’m lost. Can you give me the quotes where I’ve done that?”
The exchange soon got testy as Olurin quoted statistics from a federal monitor regarding the revival of policies utilizing racial profiling of Black and Brown citizens as Adams seemed to scoff with a laugh. “They said that you brought back units doing stop and frisk worse than what we’ve seen in the Bloomberg era.” Adams countered by asking her to show data, to which Olurin replied, “I know it’s been available to you because your spokesperson commented on it.” She then went on to recount how in their analysis, they found that 97% of all stops and searches in ten neighborhoods have been on Black and Latino New Yorkers.
Adams was clearly frustrated, at times directing his conversation towards Charlemagne and DJ Envy instead of Olurin halfway through the interview, saying she was providing “misinformation.” One key moment came as Adams attempted to deflect by bringing up NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller who was shot and killed in Far Rockaway earlier this week, claiming that Olurin was “dismissive” of his life. “Mayor Adams, that’s not going to work on me,” she replied. He then challenged her on if she has ever visited the family of a slain officer, to which she countered: “And the family of the 19-year-old who was killed by cops that he called for help yesterday in Queens, have you visited them?” He offered no response.
The entire interview between Mayor Eric Adams and Olayemi Olurin is available to watch above.