Following recent shootings, New York City Mayor Eric Adams rushes to release safety plan

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has only held the office since the start of the new year, ran on the platform of bringing down crime, especially violent crime, in the city.

But his first few weeks in office have proven that task is going to be a challenge as many devastating shootings and murders have taken place. 

Those instances included: A woman pushed to her death at a subway station in Times Square; A baby shot in the Bronx; a Burger King worker, 19-years-old, killed during a robbery in Manhattan; Police officers wounded in East Harlem, the Bronx, and on Staten Island.

Adams did respond following each instance. He visited the mothers of those who had been injured or killed, he hurried to city hospitals to see the wounded officers, and he has organized three anti-gun violence discussions.

But the Friday killing of a police officer in Harlem has pushed the stakes for the mayor, and has sped up the timeline for him to intervene in order to improve public safety. He acknowledged that gun violence was quickly becoming a crisis during the infancy of his mayoral term, and Adams said he would deliver a speech soon to outline a public safety plan.

“This is a sea of crime that is being fed by many rivers, and we have to dam each one of those rivers,” Adams said on Sunday on CNN. “These crimes did not start during my administration. They have been here for far too long in many parts of our community.” 

New York City was mourning the death of Officer Jason Rivera, 22, on Sunday after he and another officer, Wilbert Mora, had been shot on Friday while responding to a domestic incident. Mora, 27, remained in critical condition and was awaiting transfer form Harlem Hospital to NYU Langone Medical Center on Sunday.