A video of New York City Mayor Eric Adams surfaced online showing him deride white New York City Police officers as “crackers.”
The 2019 clip, which was recently posted on YouTube, showed Mr. Adams giving a speech in a small auditorium and saying, “I mean every day in the police department, I kicked those crackers’ ass.”
Thomas Lopez-Pierre, who posted the video, said Mr. Adams was speaking at an event was hosted by the Harlem Business Alliance. Mr. Adams, who was preparing to run for mayor at the time, was talking to supporters about his time as a law enforcement officer with the New York City Police Department.
“Cracker” is a derogatory term usually used to refer to poor White people.
“Man, I was unbelievable in the Police Department with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement,” he went on to say, referencing the organization that he co-founded composed of Black NYPD officers. “I 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.”
Mr. Adams goes on to talk about the mayoral race. Between laughs, he says that he would rather “grow a beard, smoke some weed and leave this stuff alone. You hear me?”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After running on a law-and-order platform, Mr. Adams took office last month as New York City faced rising crime and an understaffed police force.
The crime wave further rocked the city when two NYPD Detectives Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were ambushed and shot dead on Jan. 21. They were promoted posthumously to the rank of detective.
President Biden visited Mr. Adams in New York on Thursday to discuss gun crimes and discuss his administration’s plan to crack down on sales of illegal guns.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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