Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams called out Black Lives Matter’s (BLM) silence on the rising number of shootings and crime-related deaths throughout the city during a Thursday interview with Spectrum News.
The host asked the mayor how to handle the increasing number of shootings occurring in the city, as she cited that over a dozen shootings took place on Wednesday night alone.
“By being consistent with our message. Here’s my question that I put out to the city. Hey, I thought black lives matter. Where are all those who stated ‘black lives matter?’ Then go do an analysis of who was killed or shot last night. I was up all night speaking to my commanders in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The victims were black, many of the shooters were black.”
“So I asked a question that was they were asking me when I was a child, it’s 10 p.m., do you know where your children are? Why are 16, 17 and 18-year-olds out in our streets armed with guns till 1 o’clock at night? When are we going to start asking these serious questions? If black lives matter, then the thousands of people I saw on the street when Floyd was murdered should be on the street right now stating that the lives of these children who are dying every night matters. We can’t be hypocrites.”
Since taking office in January, Adams has clashed with Black Lives Matter Greater New York and its co-founder, Hawk Newsome, over the city’s policing policies. Newsome alleged Adams made him out to be crazy for pushing for “cure violence” groups, which aim to mediate tensions between individuals and change the outlook on violence through education and community building.
“Eric Adams has a lot of good ideas but he doesn’t have a plan. We, in the aftermath of that clip you just ran, ran a series of interviews and we said ‘hey, ask this man where his plan at. He failed to produce a plan and now you have seven cops shot in New York City since he took office,” Newsome told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer in February. (RELATED: Black Lives Matter Activists Promise ‘Bloodshed’ If NYC Brings Back Anti-Crime Units)
A mass shooting occurred at a Brooklyn subway station Tuesday injuring 29 after alleged suspect Frank James opened fire and deployed a smoke bomb. Authorities tracked down and arrested James Wednesday afternoon in East Village, Manhattan after 21-year-old Zack Tahhan witnessed him while installing security cameras.
Shootings occurring in the Brox and Brooklyn on Tuesday and early Wednesday left three people killed and 13 others wounded, the New York Post reported. Among those killed was a 23-year-old woman, along with 22 and 21-year-old men. A 15-year-old girl was also shot and injured in the leg.
Black people were victims of 65% of murders and 74% of shootings in 2020, the New York Times reported.
The city witnessed a 58.7% rise in overall crime in February in comparison to the same month the previous year, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD). In the week of April 4-10, the NYPD recorded a total of 26 shooting incidents along with 36 victims, according to NYPD data.