New York's dirty mayor. It's more than upgrades on flights to Turkey. He brought back racist Stop-and-Frisk.
For years and under many New York administrations the NYPD practice of Stop-and-Frisk was standard operating practice.
The practice had New York police officers using the questionable excuse of “reasonable suspicion” to stop and detain citizens, mostly Black and Brown.
The data has shown that any interaction between the cops and a civilian increases the chances of that citizen getting hurt or killed.
In other words, a police stop can frequently turn deadly particularly if you are Black.
In 2013, thanks to the landmark lawsuit Floyd v. City of New York, the New York City Police Department was held accountable for at least some of its routine, everyday, racist violations of civil rights. In a nearly 200-page decision, Judge Shira Scheindlin declared that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures. She also found the practice to be racially discriminatory, violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. She then ordered a court-appointed monitor to oversee a bunch of reforms (The Nation)
Under every NY mayor since Scheindlin’s ruling illegal police stops using the excuse of reasonable suspicion has declined.
Until Eric Adams.
Similar statistics apply to jay-walking violations.
Only ten percent of the city’s jay-walking tickets have been issued to white folks.
Recently the spotlight has been directed at bus scofflaws and turnstile jumpers mainly in the Black community.
So, when Eric Adams was recently busted for bribery and corruption I argued it was a serious matter.
Official corruption is, if nothing else, an additional tax on the working people of this city.
But the misdeeds of Mayor Adams go way beyond upgrades to first class on Turkish Airlines.