FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 11, 2021
Contact: Yonah Zeitz, yonah@katalcenter.org • 347-201-2769
Follow @KatalCenter | #ShutRikers | #CutShutInvestNY
Trump Admin’s Move to Drop Adams Case is an Attack on Justice
Eric Adams Selling Out Immigrants to Curry Favor with Trump is an Attack on All New Yorkers
Response by the Katal Center Members and NY Co-Directors
New York, NY: Last night, news broke that the Department of Justice issued a memo instructing the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York to drop the prosecution against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a sprawling corruption case. For months, Adams has worked to curry favor with Trump in the hopes of getting the charges dropped, and yesterday, the deal struck by Adams with Trump became clear. News of the memo from the Justice Department came just hours after Adams ordered his top commissioners: “Don’t criticize President Trump, don’t interfere with immigration enforcement.” Adams is selling out New Yorkers in exchange for a ‘get out of jail free’ card from President Trump.
Statements from Katal Center
Tawana Atkins, Member of the Katal Center, said: “It is incredibly upsetting that democracy is under attack. The alignment between President Trump and NYC Mayor Adams is deeply troubling. We have a president who is a fascist, and since he was inaugurated, he has rolled out executive orders that harm me, my family, and my community. Mayor Adams is allowing for the criminalization of New Yorkers who happen to be undocumented. This is just the warmup for what they have planned moving forward. Our communities are already overpoliced, and now that will only be heightened. To that, we say hell no! Now more than ever, we need independent institutions like the Lipmann Commission to draw the line and hold this Mayor accountable for reducing the city’s jail population and shutting down Rikers.”
Lah Franklin, Member of the Katal Center, said: “New York City Mayor Adams siding with President Trump’s executive order to continue to criminalize asylum seekers in a ‘sanctuary city’ is abhorrent. We all know why he did it— to protect himself from the federal criminal charges that were placed on him. Yesterday, he got exactly what he wanted when the Department of Justice asked the Southern District of New York to drop his charges. He put his selfish needs above those he is supposed to serve and protect. He did this at the cost of yet again putting Black, brown, and low-income families at risk. Moving forward, we must remain steadfast to what’s at stake. This Mayor is doing everything he can to criminalize communities of color and keep Rikers open. All while families are being destroyed through deportation, incarceration, and so much more. Families are suffering, and real human lives have been lost. We demand accountability, and we need answers. This is not the time for independent institutions to provide political cover for a Mayor. This is the time to hold him accountable for protecting NYC communities and shutting down Rikers.”
Eugene Mccabe, Member of the Katal Center, said: “It is not surprising, but what Mayor Adams has been doing to harm our communities is alarming. Calling yourself a public servant is one thing, and being a public servant is another—are you helping the community? This is the case with Mayor Adams; he does not put the self-interest of New Yorkers first. He has not been helping communities but rather causing more harm. Communities across the city are living in a state of fear from the heightened level of surveillance and over-policing. Calling police, “New York’s finest” distracts from the reality of their work. Despite portrayals in popular media, there is a dark side to policing that’s overlooked. It’s a strange feeling being scared to call the police, knowing they may only escalate a situation. Unfortunately, I foresee more money being put into the NYPD to carry out their tactics of intimidation and criminalization of Black, brown, and low-income New Yorkers. We should all be concerned about what this Mayor is doing and plans to do moving forward. But we should also fight back—this Mayor must be held accountable for reducing the city’s jail population, shutting down Rikers, and investing in real community safety: housing, health care, education, and jobs.”
Statement by Melanie Dominguez and Yonah Zeitz, Katal NY co-directors: “We reject the craven move by Adams to throw our immigrant neighbors under the bus. It’s bad enough that Adams, like the president, has no regard for the law or accountability, but now, as a sitting mayor, he’s placing the people of New York City in danger for an explicit benefit to himself. This is dangerous territory not just for our constitution, but for the communities in our City struggling to survive. Adams should resign.
As an organization working to end mass criminalization and mass incarceration, we know that, left unchecked, efforts to target and criminalize immigrants will metastasize into more criminalization, more police, more jails. That is why we urge all groups who support the closure of Rikers Island Jail Complex to forcefully speak out now against Mayor Adams’s move to target immigrants in a quid pro quo with President Trump.
In particular, we demand that the Independent Commission for Sentencing and Incarceration Reform—the so-called Lippman Commission—clearly and forcefully speak out against this move by Mayor Adams to target immigrants. The Lippmann Commission has long aligned itself with Mayor Adams, and it is long past time for this alignment to end. At this point, being in cahoots with Mayor Adams is to be advancing his dangerous criminalization agenda that will harm our city, separate immigrant families, and move us further away from shutting Rikers.”
Background: #ShutRikers is a campaign of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. Katal and our allies are working to cut the correctional populations and the budgets used for caging people; shut down Rikers Island; and invest in real public safety: housing, health care, education, and jobs.
###
