Manhattan, New York

Mayor Eric Adams first week on the job was truly wild. The mayor promised to be a big presence in New York City and get shit stuff done, notably to bring proactive policing back and he wasn’t fucking around. Not even 12 hours into his mayoralty after being sworn in a minute after midnight in Times Square, he’s calling 911 while witnessing a street fight from a train station and doing most of his press conferences outside, showing more visibility and optical accountability than his Bill de Blasio did in his 8 abominable years as mayor. And during his publicity blitz, Eric Adams defiantly announced that he was going to bring swagger back to the city to get through the current rut that’s being induced by a rejuvenated pandemic.

Adams also fulfilled his promise to appoint a Black Woman as NYPD commissioner. And introduced her at the Queensbridge Houses where the new commish was raised up with great fanfare. Time will tell if the historic hiring of Nassau Chief of Detectives Keechant Sewell will return public safety to all New Yorkers big and small. Adams also decided to appoint a deputy mayor for public safety, a role resuscitated from the David Dinkins era that was made to bring down the high levels of crime that was plaguing the city at the time back in the early 90’s, a decision that actually makes sense considering that 100,000 index crimes were committed in New York City last year during de Blasio’s recovery for all of us.

But like his fiendish predecessor The Blaz, Adams has sadly tainted her moment and this city with the quickness by bolstering a close friend and his kid brother to official high brass NYPD positions practically right beside her. Even more warped that he pulled this machination stunt on a fucking snow day while Adams was working remote in his basement of the rowhouse he owns in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.  As the last sprinkles of the first snowfall of the year came down and while he was producing another stupid video about getting stuff done on the @NYCMayor twitter account, his longtime friend and mayoral campaign advisor Phillip Banks appointed himself as the new Deputy Mayor of Public Safety.

That’s right. A citizen appointed himself to an administrative position in the Mayor’s office, not Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City. And not just an ordinary citizen, but a citizen who was ensconced in a federal investigation while he was about to be appointed by the Blaz as deputy chief to Commissioner in cases involving bribery, pimping and money laundering with other top brass NYPD officers and two of de Blasio’s earliest and dedicated developer donors Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg.

And Phil Banks didn’t just do this on the down low, he announced this in a major private equity firm owned local newspaper The New York Daily News and was given editorial space by the print/digital publication in the opinion section to defend his self-hiring as well.

This can only be described as deranged. The NY Daily News actually published Phil’s editorial 6 hours before they reported it and erroneously headlined it as Eric Adams’s decision while hyperlinking the New York Times story of his crony’s hubris laden proclamation from a few hours earlier.

I don’t think I’ve never seen a major newspaper and journalism this compromised ever before. And to read Phil’s screed is like he thinks he’s doing the city a favor, and his claims that his self-appointment confirms his commitment to uphold law and order amplifies his hubris.

“The law is in my blood.”

But Banks blood was so low when he was officially promoted in 2014, he must have needed a transfusion or had anemia considering how deep he was in the pay to play access shenanigans he was pulling off with Jona and Jeremy, who were tremendously emboldened by de Blasio giving them a free pass for all their money bundling for him, as they were partying down and getting laid with the top echelon of the NYPD. When the feds started following his ass like Henry Hill catching Banks using multiple ATM’s, he didn’t have the swagger to continue his chief of departments role for Commish Bratton and abruptly stepped off. How Philty Phil managed to escape indictment is truly another one of the greatest stories of the naked city.

What’s not a mystery is how Banks had adjusted to his self-appointed position and how swift he grasped the power that came with it. When the NY Post reported that Commissioner Sewell  announced the termination  of the Internal Affairs Bureau Commissioner Joseph Reznick and deputy inspector Robert Ganley, who both were earning a salary and a pension while working in their respective roles. While most taxpayers and those who call for defunding the police think this would be a good thing removing two double-dipping bureaucrats off the city largesse, this move was truly rather sudden and erratic because Adams had no one to fill their positions. And considering the case of the IAB, it was confounding that the Mayor wouldn’t have an immediate replacement being after he told cops at the 103 Pct. in Jamaica that he will not tolerate abuse of the badge and the law. Even more confounding is how these two high brass cops got the boot for collecting two city salaries while Patrick Monahan is getting paid twice still working for the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

But there’s a reason for this shakeup, a nasty vindictive reason. Commissioner Sewell did not fire Reznick and Ganley, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Phillip Banks did. And he fired them even though he doesn’t have the authority to, Sewell does. And he fired them when he wasn’t even appointed as Deputy Mayor yet, and Banks got some sweet revenge on Resznick because the IAB was investigating his criminal pay to play and money laundering operation while he was working for Bratton and de Blasio.

It’s really hysterical that Mayor Adams was rightfully being cautious about appointing his pal and adviser ever since it was announced he would be playing a role to reduce crime in NYC even though he assigned him the duty of vetting the next Black Female police commissioner, but to let him just invite and hire himself under the collective noses and behind the backs of his constituents and the press early in the morning on a fucking snow day is a good way to convey the swagger he promised to bring to City Hall. 

But not content with bring cronyism back to Park Row, Adams rode on that swagger momentum and hired his brother Bernard to be deputy commissioner of the NYPD on the next fucking day! Surely Mayor Swagger thought that since de Blasio made his tax boondoggle wife the co-mayor by making the First Lady a de facto municipal position and also how he hired his son to film b-roll videos of his parents (along with a college chum of his) that there would be no scrutiny or outrage about his nepotism hire, except that Bernie Adams was going to get paid $240,000 for his job whereas Chirlie and Dante (to my knowledge) worked for free so the Blaz wouldn’t violate city charter rules for hiring his relatives. Not the case with Adams, for swagger supersedes over all and justifies everything.

Or so he thought, because a few days later, the Mayor removed Bernie from that post and and appointed him to a manufactured a new position as head of his personal security, which also commands a hefty salary of $210,000. Hizzoner’s reason why he feels his brother is necessary and “qualified” for this role and why he broke his first campaign promise to not be flanked by cops everywhere he goes (while carrying a piece) is his perception and unconfirmed premise of white supremacist and anarchists in the city. Which sure sounds like he got this idea because of the actual rising resistance against him continuing de Blasio’s fascist vaccine extortion mandate in restaurants and entertainment and leisure venues and the workplace.

Especially when anti-mandate protesters came to his house.

It’s quite obvious how Mayor Adams is not blurring any lines between being professional and personal about his crony and nepotism hires, but the way he’s been defiant about his Bernie bro is truly batshit laughable. From describing his qualifications to lead an Executive Protection Unit team touting his leadership experience when in the last decade his brother was an assistant director of a Virginia college faculty parking (or maybe an assistant to the actual director) and how Bern’s presence will scare those nasty white supremacist anarchists out of town.

By the way, these are the white supremacists Adams is so worried about, which is why his NYPD won’t confirm this threat:

There also is another reason Hizzoner gave his brother a fat paycheck city job and it’s probably because Bernard needs the money after his involvement in a pyramid scheme while he was Virginia’s U glorified parking attendant. No wonder he was quick fast to come back to the city after his big brother won. And like Mr.  P. Banks, Bernie also made his presence and influence felt with immediacy given that the Mayor is considering removing the NYPD from his security detail and replace them with a private contractor, this not only will easily be rewarded to a donor Adams wants to reciprocate but also will make Bernard’s job easier considering being a rent-a-cop parking valet for nearly a decade by supervising a whole platoon of rent-a-cops protecting the Mayor wherever he goes. Can’t wait to see these hired goons on Citibikes!

But this is no fucking joke, these crony and nepotism hires are serious lapses of ethics and morals and a shit-stained middle finger at accountability, which was savagely emphasized by Hizzoner’s spox Stefan Ringel who told the press about Banks’ self-appointment that “we do things in a different way” in City Hall now, which got absolutely no follow up question from the press or any reaction from city officials.

Phillip Banks and Bernard Adams have also buttoned their lips since getting their plum positions, but it’s quite obvious that their presence has reduced the first Black Female NYPD commissioner in New York City history into a figurehead position, despite what Mayor Adams denials and protestations.

When Mayor Adams made his first speech to New Yorkers, he compared his constituency to Snapple soft drinks, saying they were made of the best stuff on earth. But in only a few weeks, Mayor Product Placement is already running the city like he’s the Burger King, because for the coming four years, he’s going to have it his way.