Fight like hell, Mayor Adams

Opinion

editorial

By Post Editorial Board

Speaker Adrienne Adams and the City Council poked Mayor Adams in the eye last week, passing Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ bills to ban solitary confinement and bury cops under massive amounts of unnecessary paperwork.

Adams needs to pull out all the stops in personally leaning on council members to not override his vetoes.

To be clear, the real victims are New Yorkers who deserve better: One bill would make jails more dangerous for detainees and staff; the other wastes cops’ time, making the general public less safe.

That’s why Adams rightly lambasted the council’s “far-left agenda” Wednesday: “This public assault on public safety is just wrong.”

You wind up in solitary for committing a serious jailhouse felony; one just-passed bill allows for nothing more than a four-hour “time out.”

If cops don’t just stop talking to the general public to avoid the added paperwork from the other bill, they’ll wind up trapped at the stationhouse filling out forms for an hour or two every shift, either losing time on the beat or collecting pointless overtime pay the city can’t afford.

Adams strives to be a uniter, not a divider, but he didn’t make this divide: His clear duty is to fight back with every tool at his disposal: Councilmembers have things they want funding for programs or projects, face time with the mayor, job placements.

They need to fear being in the mayor’s doghouse.

Their constituents (all of them Adams’ constituents) will suffer less from any holdups than they will from letting these bills become law.

Calling them out by name in their own districts, and in his radio hits, won’t hurt, either.

Visit church pulpits in the districts of vulnerable and wavering council members to preach the public safety gospel.

You can play a role, too: Call your councilmember’s office, or at least the City Council’s general line, (212)788-7100.

But mainly it’s up to Adams to fight like hell: The city’s safety is on the line — and so is his legacy.