Adams Called White NYPD Officers 'Crackers': Report

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams called his white colleagues in the NYPD a racially charged word: "Crackers," according to a new report.

A video shows Adams use the word during a 2019 event, the New York Daily News first reported.

The report states Adams bragged about being a better officer than his white colleagues.

“Every day in the Police Department, I kicked those crackers’ a--,” he said in the video, according to the Daily News. "I was unbelievable."

The Daily News report and uncovered video fueled a quick negative response by right-wing media figures and politicians, who charged Adams flirted with racism against white people.

Curtis Sliwa, who was Adams' Republican opponent in the mayoral election, noted the mayor called him racist during the campaign.

"But when you call white cops 'crackers' like Eric Adams did, wouldn't you consider that racist?" he tweeted. "Time to damn your river of divisiveness and apologize."

Adams, when asked about the video during a news conference, apologized. He said he used it in the context of fighting against the racism he experienced as a Black cop.

"I definitely apologize," he said. "Inappropriate, inappropriate comment. Should not have been used. Someone asked me a question using that comment and playing on that word, I responded in that comment.

"But clearly it's a comment that 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, and that was inappropriate."

While Twitter accounts connected to right-wing figures such as Sean Hannity and Dan Bongino heaped implied criticism on Adams, he did receive support from an unlikely source: Patrick Lynch, who heads the powerful Police Benevolent Association union.

Lynch, who seldom failed to criticize Adams' predecessor Bill de Blasio, asked for "fairness."

“Whenever a controversial video of a police officer surfaces online, we ask for fairness instead of a rush to outrage. We will apply the same standard here," Lynch said in a statement. "We have spoken with Mayor Adams about this video. We have spent far too many hours together in hospital emergency rooms these past few weeks, and we’ve worked together for decades before that. A few seconds of video will not define our relationship. We have a lot of work to do together to support our members on the streets."