NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ Ex-Cop City Hall Buddies Spent Most Of Last Week Getting Raided By The FBI

Legal Issues

from the ex-cop-distances-himself-from-ex-cops-he-employed dept

The most powerful entity in New York City isn’t the Mayor. Or City Hall. It has always been the NYPD, which has never been overseen by anyone who could remotely be considered capable, much less willing, to hold the department accountable, at least not in my lifetime. The chain of succession at City Hall over the past 40 years runs from Ed Koch to Rudy Giuliani to Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, with a brief stop for David Dinkins, who was quickly kicked to the curb by open bigotry and powerful police unions when it became clear he might actually try to introduce stronger accountability measures.

Bill de Blasio was the only mayor to be roundly rejected by the NYPD, and even that rejection was only temporary. Everyone in this chain of commanders has done everything they can to protect the NYPD. The present mayor may be the worst so far — a company man whose years of service as an NYPD officer have made him more deferential than most.

New York City hasn’t quite reached the levels of corruption that has made Chicago (in)famous, but it’s going to keep trying! With each passing year and election of an NYPD-worshiping mayor, the level of corruption increases. Believing otherwise is pure denialism.

And now, the mayor whose buddies in the cop shop (some current, some former) led him to deploy a gun-detection system the system’s developer has admitted won’t actually work where it’s being deployed (NYC’s subway system) is now at the center of another classic NYC clusterfuck. Here’s ABC News with more details:

The FBI conducted searches at the homes of two of New York City Mayor Eric Adams‘ closest aides on Thursday, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

The Hamilton Heights home of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is engaged to Schools Chancellor David Banks, and the Hollis, Queens, home of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks, were searched as part of an ongoing investigation, the sources said.

That early reporting might make it seem as though these raids were tied to a couple of outliers, albeit ones working very closely with Mayor Eric Adams. Later reporting makes it clear the problem isn’t limited to Sheena Wright and Phil Banks.

On Wednesday, in coordinated early morning raids, FBI agents seized phones and/or searched the homes of more than half a dozen senior city officials, including Sheena Wright, first deputy mayor; David Banks, schools chancellor, and his brother Philip Banks III, deputy mayor for public safety; Edward Caban, NYPD commissioner; and Timothy Pearson, mayoral adviser.

That’s multiple raids in one day, all targeting City Hall employees with close ties to Eric Adams. You’ll also note that one of the raid targets was the NYPD commissioner himself, Edward Caban — someone who has his own antagonism towards notions of law enforcement accountability.

But there’s a larger law enforcement nexus here. Eric Adams is a former NYPD officer. Philip Banks is a former NYPD department chief — one who resigned suddenly a decade ago when news surfaced he was involved in the bribing of several city officials. Adams liked Banks enough to give him a job, despite his immediately obvious ethical concerns.

Mayor Adams’ adviser, Timothy Pearson has his own issues. He held down a job at Resorts World Casino while simultaneously working for the mayor’s office. Pearson only exited his casino job after this double-dipping was exposed by the press. He’s also been sued four times for sexual harassment.

As for Commissioner Caban, he’s his own bag of trouble:

Commissioner Caban came under a cloud when it turned out his brother, Richard, was operating a Bronx bar and restaurant called Con Sofrito — a place where Adams celebrated his birthday and NYPD brass liked to party — in violation of multiple building and fire-safety codes and a judge’s order to shut down an outdoor terrace.

And yet, he’s still somehow the NYPD commissioner. And all of this comes on top of preexisting scandals, including multiple convictions tied to illegal fundraising for Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign.

Eric Adams — a.k.a. Mr. Law Enforcement — doesn’t seem to be all that concerned about enforcing laws. His staff and political appointees are allegedly engaged in an unknown amount of lawbreaking. And that only covers the recent raids, which, at minimum, imply unlawful activity. There’s also plenty of confirmed lawlessness on the record.

All of that adds up to this spectacularly terrible response from the mayor’s office in response to the raids:

“Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation,” the mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, said in a statement. “As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”

First, the feds don’t need to “indicate” anything about the mayor’s staff. It’s already clear at least one member of his staff (adviser Timothy Pearson) is the “target” of an “investigation.” Second, what the fuck does this even mean: “the mayor has repeatedly made it clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”

I have worked a number of jobs over the past 30 years, both as a subordinate and a supervisor. I have been told (or have told others) to “follow the law” exactly zero times over that period. This is not a normal thing for people to say. If it’s something you have to say “repeatedly,” it’s because you or the people you employ are “repeatedly” trying to violate the law or, as the case would seem to be here, actually violating the law.

Not that the NYPD is handling this any better following the raid of Commissioner Caban’s house. Its response to these events was to eject anyone asking questions or reporting on the raids.

When the Post tried to reach chief of patrol John Chell for comment about the raids and subpoenas,” the paper reports, “NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Tarik Sheppard got on the phone and called the reporter a ‘f- – – ing scumbag.’” Minutes later, the department reportedly kicked Tina Moore, the Post’s police bureau chief, out of the press room at NYPD headquarters.

Not a great look for anyone involved or anyone close to those involved. This is going to get extremely interesting extremely quickly. Friends, cohorts, and actual employees of the mayor and his office have already been on the receiving end of FBI raids. It’s only a matter of time before the bell tolls for the mayor himself. Even if Adams was smart enough to generate some plausible deniability, someone under investigation is going to roll over and offer up enough evidence to pierce this façade. Mayor Adams may ultimately survive this, but it’s going to leave permanent scars.

The overarching theme, however, is something we’ve seen several times before: the people who talk the loudest about law and order are the people who most frequently decide laws don’t apply to them. Power corrupts, and those with the most of it are almost always the first to succumb to this inevitability. As for the city itself, I guess it’s time to try again when the next election rolls around. But history suggests Adams will just be replaced by someone equally terrible and equally subservient to the whims and demands of the city’s law enforcers.

Filed Under: corruption, eric adams, fbi, new york city, nypd