Mayor Adams predicted Tuesday that two progressive public safety bills passed by the City Council will foster an “everything goes” environment in the five boroughs — but voiced hope that the measures could drive more moderate-minded voters to the polls in future elections.
The bills, which would ban solitary confinement in city jails and require NYPD officers to document all investigative encounters, both passed the Council by veto-proof margins last week. Despite the rigid Council support, Adams hasn’t ruled out vetoing the measures, making it unclear for now whether they’ll become law.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File
A solitary confinement cell called “the bing,” at New York’s Rikers Island jail. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
On Tuesday afternoon, Adams told reporters he’s still “looking at my options” as it relates to potential vetoes. He also argued the bills wouldn’t have passed if more New Yorkers participated in Council elections.
“I think the majority of New Yorkers line up to: We need a well-managed, peaceful, orderly city. It’s unfortunate that a large number of them have become apathetic to voting. That will let a numerical minority hijack philosophies and the management of our city,” Adams said during his weekly briefing at City Hall. Adams has previously said progressive Democrats fall into that “numerical minority.”
Foreseeing future electoral backlash over the two legislative measures, Adams, a centrist Democrat, continued: “I’m hoping that this is going to encourage New Yorkers to engage in politics more.”
The next Council elections are in 2025, when Adams is also up for election.
The NYPD-related bill, known as the “How Many Stops Act,” would require city cops to log information into a department database about all encounters they have with civilians that are investigative in nature. Under current laws, NYPD officers only need to document so-called Level 3 stops, where there’s “reasonable suspicion” of a crime in progress, while Level 1 and Level 2 stops, which can be conducted without any suspicion of wrongdoing, can go unlogged.
The second bill that has drawn Adams’ ire would prohibit the use of solitary confinement in city jails like Rikers Island.
Council Democrats have argued the NYPD bill would help prevent biased policing at a time that the department’s federal monitor says unconstitutional stops of Black and Brown New Yorkers remain a problem in the city. They’ve held up the solitary confinement ban proposal as a long-overdue measure needed to outlaw a practice the United Nations considers “torture.”
Adams has countered that the How Many Stops Act would saddle officers with unnecessary paperwork duties that will take time away time from actual policing. Outlawing solitary confinement, meantime, Adams has said would inhibit the Department of Correction from keeping jail guards and inmates safe.
On Tuesday, Adams said his beef with the Council over the two recently-passed bills is part of a broader “philosophical difference in belief” on “how you maintain law and order in this city.”
“Go visit other cities, where these initiatives have come in place, you need to go see other cities, and you will realize my school of thinking of having a well-managed, organized city,” he said. “This city is too complicated to have an any-and-everything goes city.”
Spokespeople for Adams did not immediately return a request for clarity on which other cities the mayor was referencing.
The only Council member Adams called out by name as part of his broadside was Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat. He said a bill she introduced that would create a standardized system for allowing street vendors to operate on the Brooklyn Bridge would create “an unsafe environment.”
Brewer
Theodore Parisienne for New York/New York Daily News Councilmember Gale Brewer
Asked for a response to Adams’ comments, Brewer told the Daily News her bill would make sure vending on the bridge is “well managed.”
“The vendors should still have a chance as long as they are A: legitimate and B: comply with the criteria,” she said, noting that her proposed rules include restrictions on how close together vendors can stand.
Addressing his broader point about ideological rifts, Brewer questioned Adams’ analysis of the Council’s political leanings.
“I don’t know who he’s speaking about. The speaker of the City Council is a very centrist, balanced person and she felt very strongly about these bills,” she said, referring to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens). “The people in the City Council who voted for all of this care about the city as much as he does.”
