New York City Mayor Eric Adams ripped the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the deadly subway shooting on Tuesday.
As reported by The Associated Press, the man responsible for the subway attack, Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday after a brief manhunt. Mayor Adams spoke about the arrest on NY1 while also addressing the latest wave of violent gun crimes to rock the city.
“By being consistent with our message, here is my question that I put out to the city: I thought Black lives mattered. Where are all those who stated Black lives matter?” asked Adams, as reported by POLITICO. “Then go do an analysis of who was killed or shot last night. I was up all night speaking to my commanders in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The victims were Black. Many of the shooters were Black.”
The mayor went on to ask, “Why are 16, 17, 18-year-olds out on our streets armed with guns at 12 or 1 a.m.?”
To tackle the rising violence, Adams rolled out a new gun crime task force in March, theGrio reported. The move fulfilled his campaign pledge to revive a controversial NYPD gun crime task force that was disbanded in 2020 under former Mayor Bill de Blasio over public outcry about racial discrimination and police brutality.
The gun crime units will have a strong presence “in about 30 precincts throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens,” per The Hill, citing a Bloomberg report.
Meanwhile, the mayor and Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, have clashed over policing policies since Adams won the general election last year.
“He wants us to have a fight in the newspapers to distract people from the real issues,” said Newsome said in an interview with POLITICO Wednesday. “The mayor is great at press conferences and he is really good at making statements, but he lacks efficiency and the ability to lead our city in a safer direction.”
The mayor was reportedly quarantined in Gracie Mansion during the subway shooting as he reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
James donned a construction vest and a gas mask and set off a smoke canister on a rush-hour subway train where he shot at least 10 people Tuesday morning, authorities said.
The shooter escaped in the chaos, but conveniently left behind several clues, including the gun, ammunition magazines, a hatchet, smoke grenades, gasoline, and the key to a U-Haul van, per the report. Five people reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
James’ social media, including a YouTube channel that shared threats of violence and racist and misogynistic language, per CNN, has since been taken down.
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