Video from last Friday’s commencement at the City University of New York School of Law shows that Mayor Adams received loud boos when he mentioned his previous career as an NYPD cop.
Hizzoner allegedly sparked the booing when he boasted that certain law school grads will go on to become “public figures” like himself, as shown in a video posted to Twitter.
Adams said, “Let’s be clear, for 22 years of my life, I wore a bulletproof vest and protected the children and families of this city as a police officer,” amid a mixture of booing and applause from the audience.
Many rows of students in caps and gowns had turned their backs to the platform as the mayor continued his brief speech.
Like these recent college grads, he went on, “I know what it’s like to protest.”
After the 1999 shooting death of an unarmed Guinean student by New York Police Department officers, Adams said, “When Amadou Diallo… spoke up,” adding, “I protested as 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.”
I’m good at making a scene, but that didn’t get me elected mayor. “I was elected mayor because I am capable of fairly representing the city’s large population,” he said.
Jordan Neely, a student, was killed in a chokehold, and the students claimed they demonstrated against the mayor because of his response to the tragedy.
Adams had the nerve to compare his time in the NYPD to the strictness, high standards, and commitment of our group. In the words of one unnamed 28-year-old CUNY Law student: “In the short time that we’ve been here, we’ve done more to serve and protect the citizens of New York City than he has in his 20-plus years as a cop.”
Adams’ “opportunistic” response to the lynching of Jordan Neely, in which he insulted the poor and propped up his program of compulsory psychiatric detention, “fuels the rage of my class,” she said.
Kelly Folkers, a 33-year-old CUNY law student, said that Adams had let down the city’s social justice movement.
For Folkers, “we are very concerned about his support of policing and the communities that are terrorized by police” in Queens and around the city is a major cause for alarm.
To paraphrase, “The violence in our city is a major cause for concern for us.”
Neely, a homeless straphanger with mental illness, was killed in a chokehold, and the NYPD was widely criticized for its handling of the situation, prompting student protests. Daniel Penny, a former Marine, has been accused with killing Neely.
Penny was charged with manslaughter on Friday, nearly two weeks after she killed Neely with a chokehold on the F train and then fled the scene.
“When it was announced that Eric Adams would be speaking at the CUNY law school graduation ceremony, everyone booed,” @ilissilia tweeted. The grads made a strong impression with their oratory. The grads heckled him and largely ignored him.
The protest might have ended the mayor’s talk at CUNY Law, although it was hard to tell. Adams’s spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Friday.
Hundreds of officers from the New York Police Department openly mocked then-Mayor Bill de Blasio during the 2017 funeral for fallen officer Miosotis Familia. The death of a veteran police officer prompted this demonstration against Mayor de Blasio’s callous decision to travel to Germany.
De Blasio was met with a “wall of blue” at the funeral for Officer Rafael Ramos in 2014.