A dozen law enforcement unions representing correction officers, sergeants and lieutenants, as well as sanitation workers, endorsed Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday.
“Four more years! Four more years!” the crowd chanted.
“Mayor Adams has been a profile in courage — standing up for the rights of our members and providing the support we need to make the jails safer for everyone,” Benny Bosio, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, said.
“It’s my honor to endorse Eric Adams; he’s made the city cleaner and safer,” Dennis Schock, Local 831, said.
“Our voice is going to count moving forward here. Law enforcement will count,” Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives Endowment Association, said.
The rally was held a day after former Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon sued Adams and the NYPD, saying the department was filled with cronyism and corruption since he took office. It was the fifth such lawsuit filed in two weeks.
Those at the rally showed little concern about the litigation.
“As a man, everybody has flaws. To run a city as big as New York, to run a union, there’s deficits all around, but I don’t necessarily think it’s corruption,” Paul Idlett, president of the Correction Captain Association, said.
“I don’t see it. I know there’s been scandals, but the mayor was not there when those individual scandals were taking place. He was running the city. It’s those individuals that need to take responsibility for what they did,” Vincent Vallelong, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said.
One of the lawsuits was filed by a former chief of detectives, a fact dismissed by the leader of the detective’s union.
“If I was concerned about those lawsuits, I wouldn’t be standing here right today,” Munro said.
Notably missing from Thursday’s rally was the Police Benevolent Association, the largest police union in the country.
Todd Shapiro, the mayor’s campaign spokesperson, explained the PBA’s absence, saying the union doesn’t endorse until September.
Many of those in attendance took issue with Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and claimed his plans for the city would be detrimental to public safety.
“Our city, New York City, will never run on empty promises. That will never happen,” Alexander Sadik, president of Local 1182, said.
Adams is a former police captain who has made public safety his top priority at City Hall.
“I am them. I know the prerequisite to prosperity is public safety,” Adams said. “You can romanticize public safety, it is real. And the men and women that are here today, receiving their endorsement means so much to me.”