Eric Adams Called White NYPD Officers ‘Crackers’ in Unearthed 2019 Video 

Newly sworn-in New York City Mayor Eric Adams called his white colleagues at the New York Police Department (NYPD) “crackers” during an unearthed video from late 2019.

“Every day in the Police Department, I kicked those crackers’ ass,” Adams says in the video.

Adams’s comments came during a private event held by the Harlem Business Alliance on December 13, 2019, several months before he officially launched his mayoral campaign.

A former NYPD captain, Adams spoke candidly about his time spent in the nation’s largest police department. Adams said:

Man, I was unbelievable in the Police Department with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement. Became a sergeant, a lieutenant, and a captain. You know the story — some people all of a sudden trying to reinvent me. But the reality is what I was then is who I am now.

Adams joked that he would rather “grow a beard, smoke some weed, and leave this stuff alone” in the video instead of running for mayor. He also criticized his early detractors and told them, “well, negro, you run. You run. Go raise the seven million dollars.”

Later in the rant, Adams said that his critics know what he is “going to do as the mayor of the City of New York.” Adams said:

Let me tell you something, man. They are lining up — ‘Eric can’t be mayor.’ In the corners of the city, they are lining up. They know me. They know what I’m about, and they know what I’m going to do as the mayor of the City of New York. Listen, we’re not going to play this game.

Black Lives Matter activist Thomas Lopez-Pierre shot the video and uploaded it to his Youtube channel on Tuesday. Lopez-Pierre defended Adams’s racially-charged diatribe, telling New York Daily News, “This is how Black people talk. To us, it was family. We were having a conversation with family.”

Adams has made lowering New York City’s crime rate a top priority within his first month in office. For example, Adams revealed his “blueprint” to end New York City’s gun violence last week.

Lopez-Pierre was disappointed by Adams’ tough-on-crime stance. He said it is a “great plan for white people” and would lead police officers to kill more black men.

“More cops are going to get killed because black men do not have opportunity,” Lopez-Pierre said. “I think it’s a great plan for white people to feel falsely safe… Before the end of the year, more than one police officer is going to be killed.”

After the video was unearthed, Adams apologized on Friday and attempted to contextualize his racial comments.

“I definitely apologize. Inappropriate, inappropriate comments, should not have been used. Someone asked me a question using that comment and playing on that word,” Adams said.

“I responded in that comment, but clearly these comments should not have been used, and I apologize not only to those who heard it, but to New Yorkers because they should expect more from me,” he added.