Mayor Eric Adams blasts socialist Zohran Mamdani on NYC public safety — as he racks up slate of cop union endorsements
Eric Adams' re-election campaign got some mutual aid from the boys in blue Thursday, as more than a dozen law enforcement unions rallied behind the mayor on City Hall's steps.
Adams, a retired NYPD captain, alternately heaped praise on rank-and file cops and blasted his chief electoral rival, Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, as a potential disaster for New York City's public safety.
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7 Mayor Adams at a rally outside City Hall where he accepted the endorsement of 13 law enforcement unions on July 17, 2025.
Paul Martinka
7 An Adams supporter holding a sign claiming that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is 'bad for NYC.'
Paul Martinka
'You can't romanticize public safety. It is real,' he said. 'And the men and women who are here today, receiving their endorsement, means so much to me because I ran on public safety.
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'All they ask of me, [is] if you're going to be our general, don't send us into battle and abandon us. Make sure you lead us into battle.'
The endorsement from the coalition of New York police, corrections, sanitation and probation officers' unions comes as Adams fights for his political life running as an independent in the crowded November general election.
7 Adams blasted Mamdani over his record on public safety.
James Messerschmidt
Adams trails in polls behind Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also running as an independent after being trounced by the lefty Queens state Assemblyman in last month's Dem primary.
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But the prospect of a mayor Mamdani — a vocal progressive who previously called to defund the police and has questioned the 'purpose' of prisons and jails — evidently prompted many law enforcement unions to back Adams.
Benny Boscio Jr., leader of the Correctional Officer Benevolent Association, said Mamdani threatened to bring back the failed policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Adams' predecessor.
7 A tweet from Mamdani in 2020 calling for police to be defunded.
@zohrankmamdani/X
7 A tweet from Mamdani calling the NYPD a threat to public safety in addition to being 'racist' and 'anti-queer.'
@zohrankmamdani/X
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'We cant afford to have de Blasio 2.0 back in City Hall,' Boscio said. 'Mayor Adams has been a profile in courage.'
The field of mayoral candidates — which also includes GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa and attorney Jim Walden, an independent — may have plans to reduce crime, but only Adams has put them into practice, said Lou Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association.
'We have action that has been working,' he said.
7 Adams shaking hands with a law enforcement union leader at the rally.
Paul Martinka
But the Adams administration's public safety record is arguably checkered, as crime overall has risen since his election in 2021, police data show.
This year alone, crime was up 29.2% compared to the same span in 2021, according to the data.
Compared to the same point in 2019, crime was up 26.5%, the NYPD numbers showed.
7 Adams claimed he received the endorsement because he 'ran on public safety.'
Paul Martinka
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Adams' administration has seen murders and shootings decline, on par with nationwide trends.
His leadership on the NYPD has also come under fire — as former top cops recently filed a barrage of lawsuits alleging corruption and cronyism, one of his unprecedented four commissioners resigned under federal scrutiny and the police department faces a staffing crisis.
But Adams has garnered praise for tapping Jessica Tisch as his fourth police commissioner, as she's made moves to clean house.
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Hizzoner said he'll tell union members during the campaign leading to November that Mamdani's signature proposals of city-run grocery stores and freezing rents will hurt the Big Apple.
'I'm going to tell them we don't want our supermarkets going out of business because of government grocery stores,' Adams said.
'I'm going to tell them that 700,000 small property owners deserve to have modest increases so they can ensure the sustainability of their buildings.'
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