Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at how random violent incidents underscore the challenges that Mayor Eric Adams faces as he tries to improve public safety. We’ll also get details on the gag order imposed on Donald Trump by the judge presiding over the former president’s hush-money case.
Mayor Eric Adams found himself in a tough situation in the aftermath of two deaths on Monday that seemed to confirm some people’s fears that New York City was unsafe and out of control.
A police officer died after being shot in Queens, and a subway rider was pushed in front of a train and killed in an unprovoked attack in Manhattan.
Later the police arrested the 24-year-old man they said had shoved the passenger, and they filed murder charges, saying that he appeared to have struggled with mental illness and had a history of violent acts. On Tuesday a 34-year-old man was in custody in the shooting in Queens and was being treated at Jamaica Hospital. The police said he had refused to get out of an illegally parked S.U.V. when the officer asked him to do so.
Adams lamented what he said were “bad people doing bad things to good people,” but he was adamant that the city had not spiraled out of control. I asked Emma G. Fitzsimmons, who as our City Hall bureau chief covers Adams daily, to discuss whether the two incidents were an inflection point in his efforts to reassure New Yorkers about safety.
Adams has a mantra: “Crime is down, jobs are up.” Doesn’t the violence undercut the idea that the city is becoming less dangerous?
The mayor has talked a lot about how shootings are down and murders are down, but the killing of a police officer shows that gun violence is a persistent problem.
At the same time, the mayor has been encouraging New Yorkers to get back on the subway and commute to work. He has noted that there are only a handful of felonies every day on a system with four million riders. But when someone is fatally pushed on the tracks, that undermines his message.
On Tuesday he complained that social media amplifies the relatively few incidents that have happened, making people even more afraid.
He talks a lot about the perception of crime and the reality of crime. He has acknowledged that it’s also his job to make people feel safe and that incidents like these have a chilling effect and play on the psyche of New Yorkers.
The mayor wants to remind people that these incidents are relatively rare. He has said all along that there’s a small number of violent offenders who should be in jail and a group of people with severe mental health issues who should be getting treatment.
But there are different ways that people experience crime. Car thefts are high, for example.
And while he says, correctly, that murders are down from when he took office, murders are still higher than in 2019. So, New Yorkers are still understandably worried about crime.
The mayor, who has ordered more police patrols in the subway, said that “bad guys no longer fear the police.” If that’s true, what’s left for him to do?
This is tricky for the mayor because I think he believes the police presence is preventive in some way — you might be less likely to rob someone on a train if you see a police officer. But he has focused on mental health because, even if you have a lot of police officers and members of the National Guard on the subway, they’re not necessarily going to stop someone from pushing a rider onto the tracks.
The mayor pointed out that the subway shoving incident took place at a station where there were “six cops.”
I don’t think you could put enough police in the system to prevent someone who is going to do something like that.
The question is how effective the city has been in getting treatment for people with severe mental health issues, especially since there aren’t enough psychiatric beds in the state.
What did he say about gun violence?
He said that too many people who face gun charges are back on the street, that there are too many guns in the city, and that there are too many problems with the criminal justice system. But he chose not to focus on bail reform. He talked about the discovery process slowing down trials, and he said too many police officers and prosecutors are retiring or leaving in frustration.
He blamed this on a broken criminal justice system. He called on state lawmakers and judges to keep dangerous people off the streets.
But there’s not a lot the mayor can do on his own to change the criminal justice system.
He’s focused on things the police can do, like taking guns away from people. But if a mayor is going to take the credit for crime being down, then will New Yorkers hold him accountable when there are high-profile crimes like this?
Ed Koch, when he was mayor a generation ago, was famous for asking, “How’m I doing?” How will these incidents affect how people think Adams is doing?
It’s been a difficult few months for the mayor. There are several investigations involving him and some of his associates. His poll ratings are down.
If he runs for re-election on a public safety message next year, incidents like these could hurt the message that the city is back. But they give Adams, a former police officer, a chance to talk about safety and to push for his more aggressive policing approach. That’s a role he’s quite comfortable with.
In the specialized legal language of the courts, it is a “restriction on extrajudicial statements by the defendant.” In everyday terms, it is a gag order imposed on Donald Trump by the judge presiding over the hush-money case in Manhattan.
It was also the latest effort to rein in the former president’s raging rhetoric.
The judge, Justice Juan Merchan, prohibited Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors or jurors. Merchan called past comments by Trump “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating,” saying they “went far beyond defending himself against ‘attacks’ by ‘public figures.’”
On his social media site on Tuesday, Trump made an ominous reference to his onetime fixer Michael Cohen, one of the main witnesses in the hush-money case. Trump said, without explanation, that Cohen was “death,” a comment that would arguably now violate the gag order. In another post, the former president called Merchan “a true and certified Trump Hater” who should be recused from the case.
METROPOLITAN diary
What a romantic thing
Dear Diary:
One lovely day after work last June, I met the guy I had been seeing in Central Park. What a romantic thing, to meet the guy you’ve been seeing in Central Park after work.
We walked and talked. He explained why he had missed my birthday party the weekend before. I had been hurt that night, but as I looked at this handsome man next to me, the one who made me laugh and often made me milkshakes, my hurt turned to confusion.
I took the opportunity to ask some hard-hitting questions about us. The answers fell flat.
We stumbled across the symphony. What a romantic thing, to stumble across the symphony in Central Park with the guy you’ve been seeing.
We plopped down and scanned the crowd, which was mostly older couples. Hands were being held. Lipstick kisses were being planted on cheeks. Heads were resting on familiar shoulders.
I looked at the handsome man next to me — at his hands and cheeks and shoulders — and my confusion turned to understanding.
What a romantic thing, to have your heart slightly broken by the guy you’ve been seeing, after stumbling across the symphony in Central Park after work.
— Lillie Chamberlin
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
