New York City Mayor Eric Adams apologized on Friday for referring to white New York Police Department officers as “crackers” more than two years ago in a moment captured on a now-viral video.
The clip of Adams using the racial slur recently surfaced in the aftermath of the funerals held for slain NYPD officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, according to the New York Daily News, which obtained exclusive access to the video.
“I definitely apologize,” Adams, the Black former NYPD officer-turned politician, told reporters at a press conference. “Inappropriate, inappropriate comments, should not have been used.”
Adams is just the second Black person elected mayor of the Big Apple. He said the racial slur while bragging about his accomplishments during his past career with the NYPD. The comment was made at a Harlem Business Alliance event in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood on Dec. 13, 2019 prior to jumping into the mayoral race, according to Politico and WABC-TV.
“Every day in the police department, I kicked those crackers’ a—,” Adams said in the video clip.
“Man, I was unbelievable in the police department with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement,” he said in reference to the police advocacy group he co-founded. “Became a sergeant, a lieutenant, and a captain. You know the story. Some people all of a sudden [are] trying to reinvent me. But the reality is what I was then is who I am now.”
Black Lives Matter Real Estate Forum President and CEO Thomas Lopez-Pierre is the person who filmed the video, according to ABC 7. He told the news station he didn’t think Adams’ comments were inappropriate when they were made.
“Then-candidate, now mayor [Eric Adams] made a public commitment to take 30% of billions of dollars in city contracts and spend it with Black and Hispanic and Asian women-owned businesses,” Lopez-Pierre told the station. “And that’s the reason why I voted for him.”
Adams tried to put his use of the racial slur into better context on Friday, telling reporters during a press conference that he was talking about “fighting racism” throughout his NYPD career.
“I was serious about fighting against that,” he said. “Someone asked me a question using that comment and playing on that word. I responded in that comment, but clearly, these comments should not have been used, and I apologize not only to those who heard it, but to New Yorkers because they should expect more from me. That was inappropriate.”
New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch told reporters on Friday that the video of Adams won’t dampen his relationship with police.
“We have spoken with Mayor Adams about this video” Lynch said in a statement. “We have spent far too many hours together in hospital emergency rooms these past few weeks, and we’ve worked together for decades before that. A few seconds of video will not define our relationship. We have a lot of work to do together to support our members on the streets.”
The 2019 clip is the latest unforced error committed by Adams since being sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1.
The 61-year-old former Brooklyn borough president was criticized later in January for comments made about “low-skill” New York workers. Adams was speaking on Jan. 4 about the need for New York employees working remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic to start returning to their offices when he committed the gaffe.
Adams tweeted a day later, after facing criticism, about previously working as a cook and a dishwasher himself.
“When you talk about closing down our city, you’re talking about putting low-wage workers out of a job,” he said. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
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