Eric Adams' message to Democrats on policing, crime: Big mistake allowing slogans to direct how we govern NYC

Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Eric Adams had a stern message for his fellow Democrats Tuesday as he refuted the sloganeering by some in the party concerning policing and rises in violent crime.

Appearing on "The View," the Brooklyn Borough president and former police officer declared it would be a "big mistake" to allow slogans to direct how New York City is governed, referring to the support by many Democrats for movements to "defund the police." He vowed the city would never be run that way under his watch.

"I believe that you can’t run cities based on slogans. And because you’re able to handle your Twitter handle does not mean you can handle the complexities of running the cities in America," Adams told co-host Meghan McCain after she asked if he agreed Democrats would lose elections if they kept pushing far-left policies like "defund the police."

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"We’ve allowed people to take terms and slogans to define what it means to be liberal, progressive, moderate, conservative. I don’t live by that. I’m a very complex person. Life is complex. I look at the issues and come up with real solutions to solve them," he added. "And I say to the Democratic Party, if you allow slogans to direct how we govern New York City, we’re going to make a big mistake. That can’t happen and I'm not going to allow that to happen in my city."

Adams claimed violence was "destroying" New York and predicted it would also hurt its economic recovery because high earners worried about safety would leave. 

"I am not the choir when we talk about public safety. I wrote the song," he said as he talked about his experience serving as a policeman in the city. 

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He disagreed with co-host Sunny Hostin, who claimed that he couldn't have both more police officers operating in an anti-crime squad on the streets to fight crime, which he has proposed, and justice within policing at the same time.

"I strongly disagree with you. You can have it both ways. That is where we’re having the challenge. We believe we need one or the other. We believe we need to have public safety or justice. That is wrong. You have them both," Adams said. 

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"We have to deal with this very real violence and not allow both these conversations to become convoluted. Dealing with police misconduct is a separate conversation from dealing with the violence in our streets," he added. "I know we can have both … We’re going to have a police department that’s respecting the public. We’re going to rebuild trust and we're going to have a safer city because of that."