Eric Adams

Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and retired police captain serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City Police Department for more than 20 years, retiring at the rank of captain. He served in the New York State Senate from 2006 to 2013, representing the 20th Senate district in Brooklyn. In November 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President, the first African-American to hold the position. He was reelected in November 2017. On November 17, 2020, Adams announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City. On July 6, 2021, the Associated Press declared Adams the winner of the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. Adams defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election in a landslide victory. Adams was sworn in as mayor shortly after midnight on January 1, 2022. As mayor, he has taken what is seen as a tough-on-crime approach and reintroduced a plain-clothed unit of police officers that had been disbanded by the previous administration. In efforts to improve the city's standards of living, he has implemented a zero-tolerance policy on homeless people sleeping in subway cars alongside increased police presence. Adams was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on September 1, 1960. His mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter (1938-2021), worked double shifts as a housecleaner and had received only a third-grade education. His father was a butcher who struggled with alcohol abuse. Both of his parents moved to New York City from Alabama in the 1950s. Adams was raised in a rat-infested tenement in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and his family was so poor that he often brought a bag of clothes to school with him in case of a sudden eviction from his home. By 1968, his mother managed to save up enough money to buy a house and move the family to South Jamaica, Queens. He was the fourth of six children and as a young boy he sometimes earned money as a squeegee boy.