How Mayor Adams’ public safety success will defi ne his legacy
having eviscerated and paralyzed
the economy. Clearly, this pandemic
upended life with families and essential
workers paying a hefty price as many
lost loved ones.
Thankfully, Mayor Adams has the
support of leaders including President
Biden, who is due in New York City this
week to show Democratic solidarity at
a crucial time, as crime is becoming
an impediment to advancing the party
agenda across the United States. Without
safer cities where families can walk the
street without danger of assault, robbery
and even death, our democracy finds itself
at a bad intersection and abyss.
Mayor Adams’ predecessor, Bill de
Blasio, a die-hard progressive, should
join hands to assuage centrists bothered
by his support about defunding police.
Like every other leader before him, a better
legacy remains ideal.
Additionally, no meaningful public
safety discussion should ignore homelessness
and its connection with mental
illness. Presently in New York City,
there are about 48,723 homeless people,
consisting of 10,362 families and 15,346
children. One should not ignore the challenges
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 4 - FEB. 10, 2022 13
OP-ED
BY GEORGE ONUORAH
Mayor Eric Adams, who assumed
office on New Year Eve, Jan. 1,
2022, was anointed mayor following
a very contentious election
battle running as a centrist. He promised
to keep New Yorkers safer, a daunting
task even for a former NYPD captain.
The surging omicron variant put a
damper on Adams’ historic inauguration
as the city’s second African American
mayor. Still, history will chronicle
Adams as the 110th mayor of the greatest
city that is home to the United Nations.
New York City is facing a big challenge
with crime that will put Adams —
a former police officer — to the test. He
won his race on the promise that “Public
safety is the prerequisite to prosperity.”
Other equally pressing issues — the COVID
19 pandemic, homelessness, housing
and rebooting the economy decimated
by the pandemic — are on his radar.
This newly minted mayor clearly understood
what it will take to surmount
the threat to public safety in our city, and
return to normalcy after more than two
years of hardship and deaths, with COVID
LAST WEEK’S TOP STORY:
Irishman arrested at JFK Airport after allegedly mooning
flight crew: Feds
SUMMARY: Police officers at JFK International Airport took an
unruly passenger off a Delta Airlines transatlantic flight from Ireland,
after the soccer coach allegedly “pulled down his pants and
underwear and mooned a flight attendant and passengers.”
they face and the stress they go
through; plus, it’s a public safety issue.
Since the advent of this pandemic,
the subway has become a rendezvous
for the homeless, lodging on the subway
cars and inconveniencing straphangers.
Before people wore face masks, at
times, the emanating odors could leave
a whole subway car abandoned because
the pungent smell can be unbearable.
The ones that are mentally ill and not
on medication often create havoc and engage
in aggressive panhandling. Some
who perhaps have mental and emotional
challenges remain a menace, leading to
concerned advocates calling for promulgation
of new mental hygiene laws or
strengthening of the existing Kendra’s
Law of November 1999 (Kendra Webdale
was pushed into the subway track by
a mentally ill man). The law mandates
involuntary outpatient commitment or
outpatient treatment and grants judges
the legal authority to mandate treatment
for those who are noncompliant with
meds or a danger to themselves or to undergo
psychiatric evaluation. Those are
safeguards to help keep our communities
and counties safe.Adams should also
consider the deployment of NYPD personnel
and Mental Health Crisis teams
for transit safety. Commissioner Ydanis
Rodrigues of the Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA) should by now understand
the magnitude of this problem and
is probably already at the drawing board
working on urgent solutions to ameliorate
them.
Addressing public safety in New York
City may ultimately require some police
officers to be reassigned from their desk
jobs at our 123 precincts to the streets
and subway where their training can
better be utilized. Replacing NYPD officers
will not be challenging at all. NYC
has an army of retired folks, patriotic
volunteers and community-minded individuals
who want to serve their city.
Let’s think outside the box and do what it
takes to improve public safety.
In the final analysis, our goal of
making our city safer requires prudent
management of resources, efficient manpower
allocation and streamlining of
city bureaucracy. These are crucial actions
for Mayor Adams to advance his
bold agenda to reimagine post-pandemic
NYC.
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