During a press briefing on Thursday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) was asked about his legal defense fund.
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00:00I was up in the Bronx where you held the press conference with Darcelle Clark and you were calling out lawmakers saying that some of the legislation passed in recent years has led to the city being less safe. Is there specific local laws here in the city that the council has passed in recent years that you think are making the city less safe? Are you speaking with them? And then also do you have an update on your legal defense fund?
00:28It seems like it's $3 million in the red. Is there a plan to clarify that? How will you move forward on that?
00:33Yeah, first of all, we stated before the How Many Stop Acts. We're looking at the Gang Database Act. As you saw from being in the Bronx, we saw how the chief of detectives talked about how crucial the gang database was.
00:50So when you start to do an analysis, they passed a law that people have a right to sleep on the streets.
00:56You know, we could go down the line. I mean, these laws are just not in touch with what is happening on the ground.
01:05And that's the problem. And that's why I say lawmakers must get out from behind the sterilized environment of their chambers and go into the street and see the impact on these laws and what we're doing.
01:18And if you don't, you are going to hamper the productivity coming from our partners, our DAs, our prosecutors, the police department and other law enforcement entities.
01:31And so these laws have a direct impact. You saw those shootings. You saw how horrid they were.
01:36You saw the—you heard the numbers of recidivism. These are the same guys over and over.
01:41Some of them were arrested repeatedly for robbery. Some of them were arrested for repeatedly discharging a firearm.
01:47Total disregard for families and children. So it's a real problem when there's not a real connection in that partner.
01:54Criminal justice includes prosecutors, police, judges, and lawmakers.
02:00We're doing our job. We brought down crime. Lowest number of shootings this quarter in the recorded history.
02:06Second lowest number of homicides. Twenty-three thousand guns removed off our streets.
02:12We just continue to do our job. But that groundhog day of crime is a problem.
02:18Legal defense. I heard this over and over again about my legal defense.
02:23Unless you guys are planning on chipping money, why are you asking me?
02:28I have a relationship with my attorneys, and it is—my relationship with my attorneys is a relationship with my attorney.
02:35I don't understand—if the desire is, you know, he ever goes money, then I'm not going to fulfill that.
02:44I have a relationship with my attorney. That is not part of—I'm going to do my job as the mayor.
02:49And how I pay off my legal fees is between Eric Adams and his attorney.
02:52I have a relationship with my attorney.