New poll says 54% disapprove of how Mayor Eric Adams is handling crime
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams blamed the courts after a new poll gave him low marks on fighting crime.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer tells us the mayor says there are no quick fixes and feels he's on the right track.
When you get elected because, as a former police captain, you tell New Yorkers you have the so-called "secret sauce" to make the streets safe again, you have to expect voters to be looking for a quick fix. That expectation apparently has the mayor riled up.
"You can't pinpoint and say, 'By Tuesday of this day, you're going to see this.' That is not what crime is about," Adams said Friday.
Yes, New Yorkers are an impatient lot.
Despite the fact that the NYPD has taken 2,500 guns off the street since Adams took office on Jan. 1, he is now getting low marks on crime fighting.
Only 37% now approve of the way Adams is handling crime, while 54% disapprove. In February, 49% approved and 35% disapproved.
"I am less than six months into my administration, and so throughout this six months, it's going to be a roller coaster, but at the end of it, we're going to turn this city around," Adams said.
The mayor blames the courts and bail reform for making his job harder.
"The judges are letting them out, so the police officers are catching the guns, catching the bad guys, and by the time the police officers get back on patrol, they see the guy they just caught," Adams said. "Every time we try to take these steps, we have others who are trying to prevent us from protecting innocent New Yorkers. Who's on the side of innocent New Yorkers? I'm on their side. Other people need to join us."
Adams says the city crime-fighting efforts are hampered by the flow of illegal guns into the city from the iron pipeline, the increase in ghost guns and the shortage of federal law enforcement agents from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau (ATF), who are supposed to keep the guns from crossing state lines into New York.
"We need more ATF agents. Twenty-four hundred in the country, only 80 in New York," Adams said.
The mayor insists that when he's through, "This is going to be a safe city."
