On Thursday, Eric Adams was endorsed by numerous police and law-enforcement unions, a boost for the mayor’s reelection campaign as he looks to consolidate support from the city’s moderate and conservative voters amid a crowded field of challengers.
The mayor rallied with members of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association, and Lieutenants Benevolent Association, among others, on the steps of City Hall, calling out politicians who have called for scaling back police budgets. “They talk about defunding. They talk about reducing these rank and files. But working-class New Yorkers, they want the men and women who are standing on these steps right now,” Adams said.
Adams is running for reelection against former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa without the benefit of the Democratic Party ballot line held by primary winner Zohran Mamdani — who faces an uphill battle to win over the department rank and file. The mayor has made a point to emphasize his own moderate political leanings and has appeared numerous times on Fox News and Fox Business so far this year as well as on Dr. Phil’s programs. One person in the union crowd behind Adams at City Hall on Thursday held a rudimentary MAGA sign that said: “Make Adams great again.”
The law-enforcement-union endorsements also come as Adams’s handling of the NYPD faces closer scrutiny thanks to a collection of new lawsuits alleging corruption throughout the police department. On Wednesday, former NYPD commissioner Thomas Donlon filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, alleging that the department acted as a “racketeering enterprise” under Adams’s leadership and that he was retaliated against and summarily removed from his role leading the NYPD after speaking out about the purported corruption.
In the 251-page filing, Donlon claims that NYPD leadership blocked internal disciplinary reviews against officers and forged documents to extend promotions to “unqualified, politically connected officers over those who had earned advancement through merit.” Donlon’s lawsuit lists Adams and First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, Chief of Department John Chell, and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry as defendants as well as former chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey and others.
“A coordinated criminal conspiracy had taken root at the highest levels of City government — carried out through wire fraud, mail fraud, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and retaliation against whistleblowers … This enterprise — the NYPD — was criminal at its core,” the lawsuit reads. Adams and his spokesperson have dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous” and Donlon as a disgruntled former employee. Another set of lawsuits made similar allegations, however. Earlier this month, four former NYPD chiefs sued Adams as well as former NYPD commissioner Edward Caban and Maddrey, alleging that the chiefs were forced out of their roles after raising concerns about unqualified officers receiving undeserved promotions.
One of Adams’s opponents has already begun to invoke the lawsuits against the mayor. In an interview with Fox News, Sliwa knocked both Adams and Cuomo in typically colorful fashion, positioning himself as the best option to face Mamdani. “Eric Adams is damaged goods. Every day a new case of corruption in the police department. They believe he’s corrupt,” Sliwa said. “Andrew Cuomo is a creep. Slapping fannies and killing grannies. Everybody likes Curtis Sliwa. My favorable ratings are the highest in this election cycle.”
