New York City Hands the 'Defund the Police' Movement Yet Another Humiliating Defeat

Despite a troubling “mistake” made by the New York City board of elections involving 135,000 test votes that were allegedly accidentally included in initial vote tallies, mayoral candidate Eric Adams still ended up having enough votes to win the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, according to a projection from the Associated Press:

I grew up poor in Brooklyn & Queens. I wore a bulletproof vest to keep my neighbors safe. I served my community as a State Senator & Brooklyn Borough President. And I'm honored to be the Democratic nominee to be the Mayor of the city I've always called home.

Thank you, New York! pic.twitter.com/YU2DBIFU5D

— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) July 7, 2021

Because NYC is heavily Democratic, the Republican nominee in the race – Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa – is expected to have an uphill climb in hoping to defeat Adams.

Though some in the media have downplayed it, Adams’ opposition to the defunding the police and his apparent victory is yet another stunning rejection of the Defund the Police movement, which was also dealt a blow last week when a Minneapolis judge ordered the city council and mayor to beef up its police force on grounds that the city was not fulfilling its obligations to its residents.

Adams’ background lends him credence on the matter of supporting the police. He is a former NYPD officer who assured voters during the primary that he understood the police perspective and the perspective of black residents who were mistrustful of police.

In April, he correctly pegged the leaders of the Defund the Police movement as mostly “young white affluent people”:

In an interview with New York Magazine published Tuesday, Adams said the “defund the police” movement is led not by people of color in the Big Apple, but rather by young white professionals.

“Now, this is really being led by a different demographic,” Adams said. “There are a lot of young white affluent people who are coming in and setting the conversation.”

[…]

“When you start defunding, hey, the cop is no longer on your corner,” Adams continued in his New York Magazine interview. “That cop is no longer in your lobby. That cop is not standing outside when you leave your Broadway play. And I have never been to an event where the people were saying we want less cops. Never.”

I should also note that in addition to opposing defunding the police, Adams has also fought to end lockdowns in the city and is a proponent of lifting the charter schools cap.

His victory just goes to show that even in liberal New York, Democrats have their limits on the nonsense they’ll put up with from the progressive left. New York Post op/ed page editor Sohrab Ahmari put a finer point on it with his hot take on Adams’ victory:

No, he isn’t perfect. Far from it. But Eric Adams is (A) not an anti-cop, anti-anti-crime loon and (B) proof, yet again, that working-class people of color don’t like de-policing and other nutty boutique priorities of the gentry left.

— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) July 7, 2021