Eric Adams

Adams, in a speech in Harlem in 2020, said: "Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio. New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is." He added, to the cheering crowd who had gathered for a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.: "You were here before Starbucks. You were here before others came and decided they wanted to be part of this city... folks [who] [are] ... hijacking your apartments and displacing your living arrangements...."

In January 2020, Adams drew controversy after making anti-"transplant" commentary at a Martin Luther King Jr. event. Speaking at the event, he said "Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio. New York City belongs to the people that were here and made New York City what it is".

Adams served as an officer in the New York City Transit Police and in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for 22 years, after being asked to "infiltrate" the police at the behest of the Reverend Herbert Daughtry, of the House of the Lord’s Church in Brooklyn. He graduated from the New York City Police Academy in 1984. He started in the New York City Transit Police, and continued with the NYPD when the transit police and the NYPD merged. He worked in the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village, the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, and the 88th Precinct covering Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. While serving, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group for black police officers, and often spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling. During the 1990s Adams served as president of the Grand Council of Guardians, an organization of black officers.

The Republican leader of Ohio’s Cuyahoga County said Adams "took Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of unity and made it a divisive message." New York City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens) said Adams’ “disturbing” remarks contribute to an environment of divisiveness.

In commemoration of the sixteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Adams announced a new memorial to Brooklyn residents lost that day alongside the victims’ families and first responders.

In August 2019, he was criticized over his inaction towards placard abuse in Brooklyn via Twitter. Adams responded by publicly comparing the accuser to the KKK.

International Day of Friendship has been Borough President Adams’ signature event celebrating diversity, which has been taking place since 2014. The event celebrates Brooklyn's rich diversity by hosting a free, family-friendly Unity Parade of Flags, Cultural Performances, International Cuisine and the Global Village, where visitors can touch, taste, feel and see other cultures. It is celebrated around the world as countries partake in a variety of events to promote peace and unity.

In September 2019, he controversially promoted new rat traps by presenting a group of dead rats with the new contraptions in front of the press early that month: Adams and his team said the traps were humane (the rodents were lured with nuts and seeds before being knocked out then drowned) whereas animal rights groups said that they were not.

In July 2018, he announced a joint $10 million, 19-plaintiff lawsuit with Housing Rights Initiative (HRI), filed by the Law Office of Jack L. Lester, Esq. in Kings County Supreme Court, based on a comprehensive investigation by HRI that found that Kushner Companies engaged in illegal construction practices in the 338-unit former Austin, Nichols and Company Warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. According to an independent lab analysis, families, including children and babies, were exposed to highly toxic and cancer-causing substances, including, but not limited to, the lung carcinogen crystalline silica and lead.

In July 2018, Adams urged the developer involved in the Kensington Stables site in Windsor Terrace to help preserve the stables as part of a new proposal for the site.

In February 2018, Adams supported State Senator Hamilton and Assembly Member Richardson in calling for statewide K-12 instruction of Black history.

In April 2018, Adams joined newly appointed New York City Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor Richard Carranza, Eagle Academy Foundation (EAF) President and CEO David Banks, and hundreds of students and mentors at JHS 292 Margaret S. Douglas in East New York to launch the Eagle Academy Mentoring Program, a groundbreaking multi-year initiative connecting hundreds of sixth-grade male students of color at middle schools across central and eastern Brooklyn with positive male role models.

In May 2018, Adams joined representatives from independent charter schools, parochial schools, and yeshivas, as well as educators, parents and students from across Brooklyn, at a rally in the Rotunda of Brooklyn Borough Hall to demand the City provide equitable security guard funding for every school across the five boroughs.

In July 2018, Adams expressed how he believes diversity must be improved in all public high schools including the city's Specialized High Schools; however, noting that the reforms proposed by the city would not make the necessary changes to the city's educational system. His position was that the high school admission system needs to present more equal opportunities for everyone and the way to do that is to offer free Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) prep for all lower-income students as well as to allow more students into the SHSAT schools altogether.

After a spike in rat complaints, Adams co-hosted a Rat Summit alongside Council Member Robert Cornegy, in June 2018 to address the issue of rats throughout the borough.

In February 2018, Adams and Brooklyn's entire New York City Council delegation joined in calling on Mayor Blasio to allocate $10 million in the City's Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) budget to complete the capital and operating costs for the creation of Brooklyn's first burn unit.

Throughout 2018, Adams has hosted a series of free opioid overdose prevention trainings his administration is holding across the borough amid the nationwide opioid crisis.

In July 2018, Adams publicly denounced President Trump's efforts to stop Ecuador from passing a U.N. resolution stating that breastfeeding is the most beneficial way of feeding a child and debunking untrue facts about breast feeding.

In January 2018, Adams announced a partnership between his administration, Brooklyn Community Services (BCS), and Turning Point Brooklyn to establish a first-of-its-kind a mobile shower service that will travel across the borough to serve homeless Brooklynites and other at-risk populations, such as day laborers, sex workers, and runaway LGBTQ+ youth.

In April 2018, Adams hailed a first-of-its-kind empowerment partnership with Kennedy Conglomerate Inc., a venture started by local entrepreneur Kareem Kennedy, for a mobile barber service to which he has allocated $3,000 in discretionary funding to provide free haircuts for the homeless.

In February 2018, Adams called on NYCHA to take action to address challenges associated with the citywide heating crisis by committing to spending its recent and future fuel cost savings on emergency boiler repairs and conversions.

In June 2018, Adams suggested lowering the height of the Alloy Development's Downtown Brooklyn project, 80 Flatbush, from 986 to 600 feet in order to not disrupt or overwhelm the existing community surrounding the building.

In June 2018, Adams led a stroller march against the Trump Administration's family separation at the US-Mexico border.

Following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, Adams joined the efforts of Brooklyn students by organizing an emergency meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall and a rally to demand stricter gun laws in Prospect Park. That same month, after a correctional officer endured a beating from six inmates at the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island, Adams stood outside the Brooklyn Detention Center to express his support to reinstate solitary confinement in prisons.

In September 2017, Adams unveiled his recommendations for the future of the Bedford Union Armory in Crown Heights. His recommendation was to disapprove the application with conditions, while calling for the inclusion of a greater amount of affordable housing on site. The Bedford Union Armory proposals would contain recreational facilities, spaces for locally based non-profits, as well as two new residential buildings, including a condominium building along President Street in place of the Armory's stables.

Adams proclaimed June 2017 as the first-ever Homelessness Awareness Month in the borough of Brooklyn. He honored the month by calling on houses of worship to engage with their congregants on the importance of helping those who are homeless or in need of assistance.

In September 2017, Adams unveiled cutting-edge technology by Tek-Tiles and other design innovations as part of the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BF+DA), which merge technology with fashion, as he unveiled $2.75 million in Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) funds from Brooklyn Borough Hall to advance economic development initiatives across the borough.

Given the success of the brewing industry in Brooklyn, Adams, since October 2017, has called for a more lenient Blue Law, allowing New York City businesses to start selling alcohol at 8 am. instead of the current 10 a.m. time.

In 2016, he launched a digital app process for board membership, which has increased applications by 10 percent, and he intends – under the authority granted by a 2015 state law – to appoint youth members to every community board.

In 2016, Adams invested $26 million and an additional $55 million in 2017—half of his allotted budget that year – to improve STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education across Brooklyn schools.

Adams introduced a bill in the New York City Council that would require all municipal buildings providing services to the public to have lactation rooms. The bill was passed by the City Council on July 14, 2016.

After facing a health scare himself when he was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2016, Adams adopted a whole-foods, plant-based diet and has encouraged all Brooklynites to eat healthier. He launched a plant-based nutrition page on his website with links to nutrition and plant-based/vegan blogs, plant-based/vegan diet recipes and natural grocery stores, as well as vegan meetup groups and events. He has also replaced all vending machines in Brooklyn Borough Hall with protein bars, sparkling water and nut snacks instead of sugary, unhealthy snacks. Additionally, Adams has also prompted the City Council to pass a resolution called "Ban the Baloney," which aims for schools across the city to stop serving processed meats. He has  also been an avid supporter of "Meatless Mondays" in public schools.

In March 2016, Adams was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Within a month, he switched to a vegan, whole food diet that cut out all animal products as well as sugar, salt, oil and processed starches. He also began exercising regularly, including using an exercise bike and treadmill in his office. As a result, within six months he had dropped 30 pounds and no longer required treatment for diabetes. He has stated that he wants to encourage others to switch to a more healthy diet, as well as to try to redirect public health spending for diabetes to focus more on lifestyle changes rather than just treating the disease.

More than 15 million people visited Brooklyn in 2015. Adams has redesigned the Brooklyn Tourism Visitors Center and Gift Shop inside Brooklyn Borough Hall, continued "Dine in Brooklyn" restaurant week, started the BK Sings Karaoke Contest, and hosts annual events such as New Year's Eve celebrations in Coney Island and Grand Army Plaza, as well as a Jamaican patty eating contest on Labor Day weekend.

Adams has allocated $3.3 million of his FY15 capital budget towards projects across the borough including sites in neighborhoods such as Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flatbush and Park Slope.  In July 2014, he used his vote as a member of the Board of Trustees for the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) to commit $13 million to a new fund that will create 7,500 new affordable units citywide.  Additionally, Adams believes in a 50-30-20 model of affordability for new housing, ensuring a focus on middle-class households.

After the 2014 killings of police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, Adams wrote an editorial for the New York Daily News calling on police officers and the community to work with each other to build a relationship of mutual respect.

On November 5, 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn borough president with 90.8 percent of the vote, more than any other candidate for borough president in New York City that year.

To address the displacement of longtime residents by gentrification, Adams has held a series of town halls in Bedford–Stuyvesant and East Flatbush to investigate cases of tenant harassment, and also organized legal clinics in East New York, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Sunset Park to provide free legal assistance to tenants.

In 2012 Adams served as co-chair of New York's State Legislators Against Illegal Guns.

Adams and five other mostly African-American state lawmakers wore hooded sweatshirts in the legislative chamber on March 12, 2012, in protest of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was killed by George Zimmerman.

On December 2, 2009, Adams was one of the 24 state senators to vote in favor of marriage equality in New York State. He spoke in support of the freedom to marry during the debate before the vote.

As a freshman state senator, in 2007 and 2008 he was among the legislators who suggested a pay raise for themselves, though they ranked third-highest in pay among all state lawmakers in the United States.

Adams was first elected to the New York State Senate in 2006, serving for four terms, until late 2013. He represented the 20th Senate District, which includes parts of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Sunset Park.

Adams was a vocal opponent of the NYPD's "stop and frisk" policy, which predominantly affected young Black and Latino men, and which in 2000 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had said constituted racial profiling. In 2011 he supported calling for a federal investigation into stop-and-frisk practices. He sought to stop the NYPD from gathering data about individuals who had been stopped but not charged. The New York Daily News penned an editorial in 2013 saying Adams’s claims on the NYPD's stop and frisk policy were "beneath credibility."

He was criticized for backing fellow state senator Hiram Monserrate, also a former police officer (who in 1999 joined Adams to criticize NYPD practices), after Monserrate was accused of domestic violence toward his girlfriend, involving his cutting her face with a broken glass and causing lacerations that required 20 stitches to close. After Monserrate was convicted of misdemeanor assault, in 2010 Adams was one of only 8 Senators to oppose his expulsion from the New York State Senate, which passed with 53 votes.

Adams served as an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City Police Department, for 22 years. In 1994, though endorsed by the Nation of Islam, he was defeated in the Democratic primary for a New York Congressional seat. From 2006 to 2013 he was a Democratic State Senator in the New York Senate (representing the 20th Senate District in Brooklyn). In November 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President, the first African-American to hold the position. In November 2017 he was reelected.

In 1994, Adams, endorsed by the Nation of Islam, was defeated by Major Owens in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional seat in central Brooklyn.

In 1993, while President of the Ground Council of Guardians, Adams accused politician Herman Badillo of betraying his Hispanic heritage by having as his wife a white, Jewish woman (Irma, to whom Badillo had been married for 32 years, and who had Alzheimer's disease), instead of a Latino. Badillo responded that "Voting based on race is the definition of racism, and has no place in a civilized multiracial society..." Badillo added: "I don't apologize to anyone for the fact that my wife is Jewish."

Adams was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and South Jamaica, Queens. He graduated from Bayside High School in Queens in 1978. He subsequently received an associate degree from the New York City College of Technology, a B.A. from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and an M.P.A. from Marist College. By his own admission, he was a D+ student.

Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is the Borough President of Brooklyn, New York City.