Mayor Eric Adams was on the defensive Friday as progressive attorney and advocate Olayemi Olurin accused him of promulgating harmful rhetoric around subway crime in the five boroughs during a contentious radio interview.
Olurin, during a segment on Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” with hosts Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy, claimed that Adams is responsible for New Yorkers’ perception that the city’s subways are rife with crime. She argued that he has drawn an excessive amount of attention to a handful of high-profile violent incidents and that there are millions of straphangers who commute safely each day.
Her accusations come at a time when subway crime is down. For instance, in the last month, transit crime dipped 14% compared to the same period last year, according to NYPD data. Furthermore, arrests in the system are up nearly 50% since the start of this year, in comparison to the same time frame in 2023.
Olurin, who describes herself as a “movement lawyer,” accused Adams of “fear mongering,” saying that he has drawn too much attention to a small number of violent incidents since taking office two years ago, which has led to policy decisions like sending thousands of cops into the subways.
“I think it’s your own rhetoric about the subways that has a lot to do with why people feel scared, despite the fact that millions of people ride the subway every day without incident,” Olurin said, in response to Adams discussing how people feel uneasy on the trains.
“You’ve continued to fear monger about crime in the subways,” she added. “You’ve added 2,000 police officers, despite the fact that you’ve acknowledged that the subways are not that dangerous.”
Adams fired back, asking “just give me the quotes on my rhetoric, can you give me the quotes on that?”
While not giving specific quotes, Olurin retorted that the mayor has “consistently” fear-mongered about subway crime since “day one” of his administration. She pointed to Adams’ multiple surges of cops into the system and his support of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent move to send 750 National Guard troops into the subways to randomly search bags for weapons.
“You’ve said repeatedly that the subways are dangerous, that New York is dangerous,” she said. “You complain about crime relentlessly.”
Charlamagne The God chimed in, “you put 1,000 police officers in the subway, 2,000 police officers in the subway, that don’t make us feel safe. We think something’s wrong if you’re doing that.”
Adams responded that his actions have been driven by conversations he has had with New Yorkers who tell him they feel unsafe in the subways and that deploying more cops in the system would put them at ease.
“When we get in the subway system, I ride the subway system and I talk to commuters and I say ‘what are you feeling and how do I help you with that fear?’” he said. “They say ‘Eric, if we see more visible uniformed officers in our subway system, we’re gonna feel safer.’”
The interview comes as subway violence, and crime in the city overall, have dominated headlines and public discourse in recent weeks following a spate of high-profile incidents in the transit system. Such incidents include the death of Jason Volz, who was pushed in front of an oncoming 4 train in a Harlem subway station on Monday and a shooting on a crowded Brooklyn A train earlier this month.
In addition to Hochul deploying the National Guard, Adams recently surged another 1,000 officers to patrol trains and platforms and announced a new crackdown on fare evasion with an additional 800 officers. The mayor also revealed Thursday that he has started the process of testing metal detector technology for the subways, with the aim of intercepting concealed guns and knives.
All those measures are aimed at battling the perception that the subways are out of control, officials have said.
“Now, would I prefer us not having to walk through these to come on our system. You’re darn right I do,” Adams said Thursday, during a press conference where he unveiled the new technology. “But we have to live life the way it is, and work to make it what it ought to me.”
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