by Sharelle Burt
April 3, 2024
Adams sat in the hot seat while Olurin touched on the staggering statistics facing New Yorkers
Things got heated between defense attorney and political commentator Olayemi Olurin and New York City Mayor Eric Adams during an interview on Power 105’s The Breakfast Club.
Olurin presented troubling numbers based on analysis from federal monitors. Back in 2023, reports show controversial “Stop-and-Frisk” teams made unlawful stops that targeted Black and Latino people, finding 24% of the stops were unconstitutional.
Adams sat in the hot seat while Olurin touched on the staggering statistics facing New Yorkers when it comes to being protected by the NYPD. She checked him on the revival of disbanded units in 2020 that were accused of pushing disproportionate abuse against Black and brown New Yorkers.
The attorney claimed that of ten different precincts, 97% of the neighborhood safety teams reported stops of Black and Brown citizens:
“They did an analysis of over ten different precincts and of the stops of ten different precincts, they found that 97% of them, by the way of the Neighborhood Safety Teams that were disbanded in 2020 because of their disproportionate use against Black and Hispanic people that you revived,”
She continued.
“And a quarter of them are unconstitutional. That’s what the federal monitor said, not me.”
Eric Adams not only revived police units that were disbanded in 2020 for their disproportionate abuse against Black and brown New Yorkers, he revived stop and frisk. Since he became mayor, 97% of all stops and searches have been on Black and Latino New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/qXWsbqlcxG
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) March 29, 2024
The exchange went viral on social media and Adams was called out repeatedly for his numerous attempts to interrupt, but fans looked at it as guilt.
“The way he keeps trying to speak over you and interrupt you!! They know their guilty just never been held accountable like this!! I love to see it!!!” @LaurenJauregu wrote.
The way he keeps trying to speak over you and interrupt you!! They know their guilty just never been held accountable like this!!🔥 I love to see it!!!
— Lauren Jauregui (@LaurenJauregui) March 29, 2024
Another commended her for remaining calm during the exchange. “I wanted to climb the table. I dunno how you maintained the calm,” @yuhline tweeted.
NYPD recorded more stops in 2023 than it has in close to ten years – and according to the ACLU of New York, 89% of those stopped are Black and Hispanic. Under Adams’ leadership, he has pushed that “Stop-and-Frisk” is a key element in driving down crime in the Big Apple, but the math doesn’t match.
Records show between 2011 and 2014, after stops decreased by 93%, so did the number of serious crimes, including murder.
Due to the number of allegations of police misconduct, Olurin called Adams out on his claims that he turned those stigmas around. “You’re saying that you’ve turned things around, NYPD’s abuses but just last year, we paid out $150 million dollars in settling police misconduct from NYPD,” she said.
“And that was double the number in police misconduct since you became mayor.”
In February 2024, an analysis of government data revealed NYPD misconduct lawsuits cost the city over $540 million the last six years. To get into specifics, lawsuits have totaled $548,047,141 since 2018, including $114,586,723 in 2023 alone.
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