NYC Mayoral Candidate Vows to Forgo NYPD Detail

New York – Mayor Bill de Blasio tells New Yorkers not to get a gun and to rely on police for protection. One of the people looking to replace him says, keep the police, I’ll get a gun.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, one of the top three declared contenders to replace the term-limited de Blasio, said in an interview Thursday that he would carry a gun and ditch the bodyguards. If it’s good enough for the average Brooklynite or Bronxer, it’s also good for the mayor.
“Yes I will, number one,” Adams, a former cop, said when asked if he’d carry a firearm as mayor on the FAQ NYC podcast. “And number two, I won’t have a security detail. If the city’s safe, the mayor shouldn’t have a security detail with him. He should be walking the street by himself.”
Stepping into the debate of shuls protecting themselves with armed guards, Adams criticized de Blasio for suggesting that houses of worship rely on police.

“Those guys that are walking with them? They got guns,” Adams said, referring to politicians. “So there’s a level of hypocrisy for a citywide official saying no one should have a gun in a church, but they don’t tell their people, hey, hang outside while I go inside.”

“If you start sitting in church and you start hearing the sound of an AK-47 piercing the bodies of people, ripping their bodies apart, and they coming down the aisle … and you believe that person next to you is a trained police officer,” he said, “…not only are you going to pray for the safety of your children, you’re going to pray that he has that gun.”

Police have traditionally served as the Secret Service for mayors of New York. Officers travel with them wherever they go, such as overseas trips or snowy Iowa and arid Nevada if the mayor runs for presidential office, as de Blasio tried last year.

But de Blasio’s detail has been caught in several controversies. His driver once got into a crash when it sped the wrong way, and it didn’t tell anyone until years later.

When the mayor is in the city, he usually goes around with eight to 10 officers, according the Daily News. Out of town trips are accompanied by five or six cops.