Is the FBI closing in on New York City Mayor Eric Adams?
Is the city’s second Black mayor heading for some kind of criminal indictment? Can the scandal-plagued Adams Administration survive as we move closer to the 2025 New York City Mayoral Elections?
These are some of the questions we must now seriously consider after last week’s news that several high-ranking officials in Adams’ inner circle had their homes raided and searched.
What are the feds looking for?
Last Thursday, federal authorities executed search warrants at the homes of Sheena Wright, the city’s first deputy mayor; Schools Chancellor David Banks; NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban; and Tim Pearson a senior adviser to Adams. Several other officials reportedly also had their phones subpoenaed.
These actions come after FBI operations last November when phones and laptops, belonging to Adams and his chief fundraiser, were seized. Adams was apparently so alarmed, he abruptly left Washington (before a scheduled White House meeting about New York City immigration issues) to return to New York when news of that raid broke. And in the aftermath, Adams hired a criminal lawyer.
By the look of things, the horizon appears bleak for a mayor that has thoroughly betrayed Black New Yorkers, as I made clear in an article last year.
Adams is proof positive of writer Zora Neale Hurston’s adage: “All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.” Time and again, Adams can be seen serving his true masters: the NYPD. Why else does he always cut everything—except the inflated NYPD budget? Why does he always make lame excuses for NYPD abuses? And why is he always attempting to undermine legislation that seeks to hold criminal cops accountable?
Let’s review some of Adams’ behavior since he became mayor.
One of the first acts of betrayal Adams engaged in was: his fraudulent attacks on the 2019 bail reform bill. For decades, impoverished Black New Yorkers have been abused by an oppressive bail system that jails many before court dates, because of their economic indigence. We know this policy forced many to plead guilty to charges they could have beaten—or for which some were actually innocent.
Over the years, many organizations and activists fought to change this perverse bail system. The tragic tale of Kalief Browder—punctuated by his suicide—helped to publicize this institutional injustice against Black New Yorkers. It should also be note here that: Adams fought to retain solitary confinement, of which Browder was subjected to while he was incarcerated (between 2010 to 2013) at Rikers Island.
In February 2022, Adams traveled to Albany to try to convince lawmakers to weaken the bail reform bill. Like his NYPD massas, he made the false claim that bail reform was leading to high crime increases. This bogus assertion has been repeatedly debunked by numerous sources. Yet still he repeated this lie. Why?
For years now, there has been a movement against the mass incarceration and criminalization of Black Americans. Of course, those who use us as grist for their criminal “justice” mill have much invested in exploiting us by utilizing the police and courts. Obviously, any disruption of this crooked institutional enterprise is detrimental to those who have been making money and building careers off the misery of Black people.
Therefore, what better advocate for promoting such a racist corrupt system, which targets Black people, that a Black-skin man?
What was truly galling here is this: after he was rebuffed, in Albany, Adams reacted angrily to the press coverage aftermath by playing the race card saying, “How many Blacks are on the editorial boards? How many Blacks determining how these stories are being written?”
Not long after this, Adams dispatched former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell to complain to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, because Bragg stated he wasn’t interested in prosecuting low-level “crimes.” Adams made the utterly ridiculous declaration that Bragg’s prosecution priorities would somehow jeopardize police safety.
Earlier this year, an insightful article in The Intercept pointed out that families of police victims were mobilizing to fight Adams’ plans to veto criminal justice reform bills in the New York City Council.
But while attacking bills that address racial policing, this Black mayor keeps cutting services and adding to the NYPD budget bloat. Adams is now pushing to build, as in Atlanta, New York’s version of Cop City.
Earlier this year, Adams suffered a humiliating defeat when the New York City Council overrode his protective vetoes of new policing legislation. Prior to this, there were rumors that Adams allegedly tried to extort City Council members to change their votes.
Now, with the investigations, by the FBI, the news is that NYPD Commissioner Caban, whose home was also raided, maybe removed. Many officials are calling for Caban to step down.
But the real story here is Eric Adams. This Black mayor has been a disaster for New Yorkers—especially, Black New Yorkers. It remains to be seen if Adams will eventually be indicted, though that prospect seems much more likely after last week’s FBI raids.
A dark cloud of probable criminality hangs over Adams’ administration.
However, the pertinent question for Black and Latino New Yorkers is: given his abandonment of our issues, does Mayor Eric Adams deserves a second term in 2025?
