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  • New York. Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch Announce Hiring of Largest Police Recruit Class in Almost 10 Years

    New York. Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch Announce Hiring of Largest Police Recruit Class in Almost 10 Years

    Midtown News NYC Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch Announce Hiring of Largest Police Recruit Class in Almost 10 Years

    What you should know

    • Nearly 1,100 Police Officers in August Recruit Class Marks Largest Hiring During Adams Administration
    • NYPD Recruit Applications During Most Recent Exam Skyrocketed 579 Percent Compared to Before Expanded Eligibility Requirements
    • Announcement Builds on Administration’s “End the Culture of Anything Goes” Campaign,  
    • Highlighting Mayor Adams’ Efforts to Change Culture, Laws, and Investments That Improve Quality of Life and Prevent Public Disorder on City Street

    NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch today announced the hiring of nearly 1,100 police officer recruits, marking the largest class of officers sworn in by the NYPD since January 2016. The 1,093-person class also breaks the record for the largest NYPD class hired during the Adams administration, previously broken in January 2025, which consisted of 1,045 NYPD recruits. Including today’s class, already this year, the NYPD has hired 2,911 recruits — the highest number since 2006 — with another class still scheduled for this year. During the totality of the Adams administration, the NYPD has already hired nearly 10,000 NYPD police officers when including today’s recruit class, the 773 recruits sworn in the past April who are still in training at the Police Academy, and the more than 8,000 other police officers who have completed their training and already on the streets and subways keeping New York City safe.

    Today’s new class of recruits was sworn in this morning and will begin their training at the Police Academy tomorrow, joining a growing force of officers preparing to make the five boroughs safer once they graduate. The recruits reflect the diversity, talent, and experience that define New York City: they hail from 51 different countries, speak 34 languages, and include 80 individuals with previous or current military service.

    Today’s announcement also builds on the Adams administration’s “End Culture of Anything Goes” campaign, highlighting Mayor Adams’ ongoing efforts to change city culture, update laws and make strategic investments that improve quality of life and prevent public disorder on city streets. 

    “Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity, and today’s announcement shows we are investing in the future of both,” said Mayor Adams. “With nearly 1,100 new police recruits — the most in almost 10 years — beginning their training today thanks to expanded eligibility and modernized educational requirements we announced earlier this year, we are building a stronger and more modern NYPD that reflects the diversity, commitment, and determination of our city. These recruits will be part of the nearly 10,000 police officers who have stepped up to serve under our administration, helping us achieve historic reductions in crime and keeping our communities safe. Together, we are ending the culture of ‘anything goes,’ improving quality of life, and keeping New York City the safest big city in America and the best place to raise a family.”

    “Today is a defining moment for the NYPD and for New York City — 1,093 new recruits are entering the police academy, the largest class in nearly a decade,” said NYPD Commissioner Tisch. “The single most strategic thing the NYPD can do right now is hire more qualified officers. That’s why we were laser-focused on addressing our recruitment efforts and bringing in the next generation of officers. The momentum is changing, and thanks to Mayor Adams’ support, we will continue to attract the highest level of candidates to protect this city.”

    Today’s announcement underscores the administration’s signature investments to make New York City safer, more affordable, and the best place to raise a family, while maintaining record-high reserves and ensuring a strong fiscal future. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Adopted Budget — which builds on the “Best Budget Ever” — includes $3.4 billion for approximately 34,000 police officers, including four academy classes, and FY 2027 is funded to support a uniform force of 35,000.

    In February 2025, NYPD Commissioner Tisch announced a three-part plan to attract more candidates and modernize education requirements to address the hiring crisis the NYPD has faced in recent years. The NYPD was one of the only remaining big-city municipal police forces in the country with a college credit requirement — which limited its ability to compete for applicants with other local agencies and major cities nationwide. As a result of the changes announced in February, the department reduced barriers to employment by reforming the required college credit minimum to enter the Police Academy from 60 credits to 24 credits. The new plan also emphasizes physical fitness by reinstating the previous long-standing requirement of completing a timed 1.5-mile run. Additionally, a recent reassessment conducted by the National College Credit Recommendation Service determined that the completion of the six-month NYPD Police Academy recruit training program is equivalent to 45 college credits, an increase from the previous 36 credits. Graduates of the academy will now enter the NYPD with a minimum of 69 college credits.

    Following this expanded eligibility announcement, daily applications increased by almost 332 percent, from an average of 53.5 filings per day to 231.5 per day. During the most recent exam, that average skyrocketed 579 percent, with an average of 363 daily filers. There were more than 5,000 individuals registering to take the latest police exam in just 14 days. This massive increase reflects renewed interest in New Yorkers in serving the city.

    The Adams administration’s focus on public safety has already produced historic results. From January 2025 to July 2025, New York City experienced the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history. These historic numbers helped drive down major crime categories into the seventh consecutive quarter, with a 5.6 percent drop in July 2025 compared to the same month last year. Overall index crime across New York City is down 5 percent year-to-date, with reductions in homicides, robberies, burglaries, felony assaults, grand larcenies, vehicle theft, shootings, transit crime, housing crime, retail theft, hate crimes, and more — resulting in 3,605 fewer victims of crime in New York City so far this year compared to the same period last year. These record-low crime statistics build on the Adams administration’s work to remove more than 23,200 illegal guns from New York City streets since coming into office, including more than 3,400 illegal firearms already removed year-to-date.

    Mayor Adams has also invested in broader public safety initiatives to keep communities safe. He has launched a $500 million blueprint to keep communities safe from gun violence, surged police officers into the subways to help reduce crime in the transit system, released plans to crack down on auto thefts and combat retail thefts, hired additional mental health clinicians to support people with untreated severe mental illness and announced plans to pilot new technology in the subways, and expanded the Saturday Night Lights youth program to keep young people safe and engaged.

    Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch also expanded the NYPD’s Quality of Life Division — a strategic public safety initiative launched in April 2025 that brings together specially trained officers from existing NYPD community-oriented roles to address chronic quality-of-life issues and strengthen community trust — to all five boroughs earlier this week. The division, made up of Q-Teams, will expand to housing developments citywide next month.

    Through these combined efforts — recruitment, budget investments, and innovative programs — the Adams administration continues to prioritize safer streets, stronger communities, and a modernized police force prepared to meet the challenges of a 21st-century New York.

    Interested applicants can learn more and apply by visiting the NYPD recruitment website.

    August 20, 2025 MANHATTAN, NEW YORK

    Sources: NYC.gov/

  • New York. Mayor Adams Calls In for Interview on 94.7 the Block’s “Jonesy in the Morning”

    New York. Mayor Adams Calls In for Interview on 94.7 the Block’s “Jonesy in the Morning”

    Tarsha Jones: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the rat controller, the rat czar himself, Mayor Eric Adams. Good morning.

    Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, sister. Good to speak with you this morning.

    Jones: You did it. You did it.

    Mayor Adams: You know, when you start out doing something, you accomplish that task.

    Jones: You stayed the course. You did not let up. Now they’re complaining about the– they’re complaining about no parking spaces from the rat garbage cans that you put out there. They’re never, they’re never, they’re never satisfied.

    Mayor Adams: You know what? That’s why you have to just stay focused. You know what your mission is. And we heard back in ‘22, when we first came into office, rodents were everywhere. And a young lady stopped me the other day. She’s a small property owner. I was in Harlem. She said, “Where did the rats go?”

    Jones: We missed that. The []. Well, congratulations on that, because we’d be quick to attack you anytime something’s wrong. And finally, an issue that affected just about everybody in New York. We’re starting to see some progress. So kudos to you for that, mayor.

    Mayor Adams: You know, when you add the progress of, you know, dealing with our road issue, our trash issue, you add the progress of dealing with gun violence and removal of guns on the street, how we decreased the numbers. You know, some of the lowest records in history. And then you add the job progress. You know, dropping unemployment in the Black community by, you know, over 20 percent in the Black and brown community. And dropping it citywide.

    You start to really peel back and understand how much we have turned the city around, around public safety [and the] economy. And then add to that the scores that just recently came out with our children. And the reading and writing scores have increased because of what we’re doing in our schools.

    So it’s just, the record is a clear record of just real progress in our city. And that’s the message I got to get out to everyday New Yorkers [of] how much we have improved the city. And we should all be proud as New Yorkers, the city is moving in the right direction.

    Jones: It is. It absolutely is. And I also want to thank you for jumping in so quickly and putting together a mass shooting, an investigative team based on the mass shooting that took place in Crown Heights over the weekend.

    Mayor Adams: Really, really sad and it hurts us all.

    Jones: That’s horrible.

    Mayor Adams: Yeah, our heart goes out to the families. And when you look at it and see that, you know, two of the shooters have been identified.

    Jones: Good.

    Mayor Adams: And they were shooting at each other.

    Jones: But everybody else be []. Like everybody else be []. But you swooped right in and put together that squad to get to the bottom of the mass shootings. That was in record time.

    Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, because we wanted to really deal with the retaliatory action that comes after a shooting. You know, oftentimes people don’t realize the shooting spurs other shootings. And so hats off to the crisis management team of one group that covered that area. It’s called Elite Learners. And they’re doing an amazing job. Shooters in that area have dropped by 60 percent because of what they’re doing.

    And they were on the ground. And so this mass shooting should not tarnish the good work that they’re doing in the other crisis management teams. So the mass shooting response includes getting our crisis management team members on the ground, supporting each other, and really stopping further harm to the community and individual people.

    Jones: I agree. We are on the phone with Mayor Eric Adams, ladies and gentlemen. If you have a question, try and call 844-947-0947. No guarantees that I’ll be able to actually get through to you, but give it a try. And we’ll be back with more of him when we return.

    [Commercial Break.]

    [Audio Drop.]

    Mayor Adams: … And that’s been used as evidence to further investigate the case and make sure we finally got what happened there.

    Jones: Thank you for that. Also, thank you for shutting down the beaches. I know you’re probably getting backlash for that. Although, you know, with the weather and the riptides and the hurricane that’s approaching, that was very responsible and, again, quick thinking.

    Mayor Adams: Yeah, you know, and people don’t realize the riptides and the heavy waves. You may not realize it. You may not think that it’s going to impact you because you’re a good swimmer. But in reality, it is dangerous, extremely dangerous, even for good swimmers. And so the decision was to nearly close down for today and tomorrow. Now, the hurricane may not hit land here. That’s what the National Weather Service is telling us. But it still would impact the coastal areas.

    So low-lying areas, people should be prepared. They should have to go. They should have to go back. And they should be, you know, really locked into NotifyNYC. So they’d be prepared for it. But you’ve got to be very careful. Even when the hurricanes don’t hit our shores, it still could be extremely dangerous.

    Jones: Right. The riptide’s been ripping before this hurricane even got on the sphere. So thank you for saving people from themselves.

    Mayor Adams: Well done. Well said.

    Jones: Thank you. There’s a 6-year-old child and a mother and another 20-year-old high school student arrested because of these ICE arrests, and you have stepped up. Well, go ahead and tell everybody what you have done.

    Mayor Adams: You know, we’ve done a—when it comes down to those who are undocumented in the city, we’re a big believer that we should put people on the pathway to a green card of citizenship. And we’ve done a lot to do that. We’ve put money in our Best Budget Ever. We’ve put money into legal services. and we also put people on the pathway of getting a work authorization because people want to work, and we don’t want people depending on the government.

    And part of the process is showing up for your court cases. If your court case is up on a docket, you come in, you have to come in for your visit. And we believe when people go to court, they should not be arrested while going to court or held in custody, I should say held in custody, and then later deported while they go into court because that makes people fearful to carry out the process.

    Jones: Right, and that’s by design. That’s a setup.

    Mayor Adams: Right, right. And, you know, I always talk about when I was a rookie cop, a Chinese immigrant was being robbed while I was off duty and I took action, and he was afraid to come forward because he was an immigrant. And people were preying on immigrants back then. Because they knew they were afraid to go to the police.

    So we want to encourage people to go to the police, children to go to school, and all the other activities, and not feel as though that they’re going to be held, you know, in custody because they’re showing up. Now, if the person is wanted for a serious violent act, then we believe ICE should take action. You know, they should do what’s right and apprehend that person, but not innocent people who are going to court to follow the process.

    Jones: I hope that the court sides with you and the other reps that are filing the suit to stop this heinous activity. But is it too much, too little, too late?

    Mayor Adams: Well, number one, when you take these cases– number one, you want to set precedent. And number two, you want to give the opportunity for the person to be returned back to another city they were deported from. And so it’s like you saw. Some cases where people were returned back. And so it’s, no, it’s never too little, too late. Because precedent is very important in these cases.

    Jones: Are they allowed to go to the schools and snatch these kids out of school? Because school’s about to start, and the kids might be afraid to show up. Are the ICE agents allowed to go and sit outside the schools and snatch them up as we stand today?

    Mayor Adams: No, no, no, they’re not. You cannot go into the schools unless you have what’s called a federal judicial warrant that allows you to do so. So, no, they cannot go into the schools.

    Jones: Can they stand outside the school and wait for the kids to come out and say, oh, that looks like this person that we, or they look of dissent. So let’s snatch them up.

    Mayor Adams: Yes, technically they can. Technically they can. But we have had no actions at all where they stood out to schools and, you know, grabbed children. And in this case with the child, they took the family while they were showing up for court proceedings. They took the family, and this young child was included in the family. But technically they can stand outside the schools, but we have had no cases involved in that. And they cannot go inside the schools and take a child.

    Jones: Thank you, Mayor Eric Adams. I appreciate you always checking in here every other Wednesday, guys. And be safe out there. Keep up the good work. Don’t get distracted.

    Mayor Adams: Thank you. Stay focused, no distractions, and grind. That’s my message.

    August 20, 2025

    Sources: NYC.gov

  • Chemerinsky Says “Democracy Is Failing.” The Founders Built a Republic to Stop Mob Rule

    Chemerinsky Says “Democracy Is Failing.” The Founders Built a Republic to Stop Mob Rule

    This video is a Berkeley Law Alumni Association virtual “book talk” that launches a new series featuring Berkeley Law faculty publications.
    The host, Yury Kapgan (Quinn Emanuel partner; Berkeley Law ’01), introduces Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discussing his 2024 book “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”

    What Chemerinsky argues (the core “about”)

    Chemerinsky’s central claim is that the United States is facing a serious democratic legitimacy crisis, driven by (1) collapsing public trust in institutions and (2) extreme political polarization—and that several constitutional design choices amplify those problems.

    Main points he covers

    • Erosion of trust in government institutions
      • He cites polling showing very low confidence/approval for the federal government, Congress, and the Supreme Court (used to frame the “democracy crisis” problem).
    • Structural features of the Constitution that, in his view, undermine democratic equality
      • Electoral College: He argues it’s anti-democratic and historically connected to slavery-era compromises; he highlights modern “popular vote vs. Electoral College” mismatches.
      • U.S. Senate: Equal representation for states produces major “one person, one vote” distortions as population gaps have widened.
      • House of Representatives: He says it has become less representative due to partisan gerrymandering and because the size of the House has been frozen since the 1920s.
      • Supreme Court: He criticizes life tenure as excessive, especially with longer life expectancy and younger appointments.
    • Compounding modern developments
      • Partisan gerrymandering enabled by modern data tools; he references Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) as limiting federal court remedies.
      • Money in politics, especially Citizens United, and the growth of “dark money,” which he argues fuels cynicism and distrust.
      • Race and slavery: He argues constitutional compromises that entrenched slavery have long-term effects that still shape inequality.
      • Amendment difficulty (Article V): He argues it’s become so hard to amend the Constitution that needed reforms are blocked.

    What he proposes as “fixes”

    He emphasizes that many reforms could be statutory (not constitutional amendments), including:

    • Reducing Electoral College distortion by ending winner-take-all allocation of electors (state practice) and moving toward proportional allocation.
    • Requiring independent redistricting commissions for congressional districts.
    • Expanding the House to improve representation (and indirectly reduce Electoral College skew).
    • Stronger disclosure laws to combat dark money (he says disclosure has historically been upheld by the Court).
    • Various measures to blunt the impact of Citizens United (e.g., restrictions tied to government contracting).
    • Updating and strengthening the Voting Rights Act via legislation.

    For changes he views as unlikely by amendment (like eliminating the Senate’s equal state representation), he’s blunt about feasibility. But he says one plausible constitutional amendment is:

    • Supreme Court term limits, commonly proposed as 18-year nonrenewable terms, staggered to create regular vacancies.

    He also floats, more speculatively, the long-term idea that the U.S. may someday need a new constitution, and discusses how such a process might be designed (nationally representative convention + public ratification).

    The “update” portion (current events framing in the talk)

    Late in the talk, he adds that if he were revising the book, he would discuss what he characterizes as unprecedented norm-breaking and constitutional conflict in the period after January 20 (he frames these as threats to constitutional democracy), and then he shifts to civic action: stay informed, get involved (ACLU/Common Cause/etc.), support litigation and institutions, speak out, and organize politically.

    Q&A themes

    In audience questions, he addresses:

    • The role of lawyers and judges as “guardrails” via litigation.
    • His criticism of limits on nationwide injunctions (discussed in connection with a birthright-citizenship-related case mentioned in the webinar).
    • Whether Congress can end dark money (he says yes via disclosure).
    • Whether SCOTUS term limits can be done by statute (he says likely not; prefers amendment).
    • Whether to change the First Amendment for AI-era speech (he says the text is fine; interpretation could evolve).

    Midtown Tribune Independent USA news from New York

  • Governor Hochul Signs “Stop Hiding Hate” Act to Ensure Social Media Platforms are Transparent & Accountable

    Governor Hochul Signs “Stop Hiding Hate” Act to Ensure Social Media Platforms are Transparent & Accountable

    New Law by Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Lee requires social media companies to publish policies and moderation practices to combat online hatred

    New York Stop Hiding Hate - Hochul

    — This weekend, Governor Hochul signed the “Stop Hiding Hate Act” (S895B/A6789B) which requires large social media companies to be transparent and accountable for their policies and moderation practices regarding online hatred.
    The legislation was sponsored by State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D, WFP – Manhattan) and Assembly Member Grace Lee (D, WFP – Manhattan) and modeled after a similar law signed in California.

    The law, written in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), will require any social media company operating in New York State to post their terms of service in accessible language, including information on the process through which users may flag content.
    The bill also requires social media companies to submit terms of service reports to the New York State Attorney General including statements on whether the terms of services define, and how they define hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference, as well as how they enforce those policies, and steps taken and data on flagged and actioned items of content.

    Earlier this year, in response to X’s request to meet about amending this bill, Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Lee rejected their meeting request, noting that they did not believe that X wanted to meet in good faith to improve the bill, but would rather look to weaken it. Their letter noted that X has experienced “drastically higher reports of online hate speech ever since the company’s ownership change” and that Mr. Musk has personally used the platform to promote transphobic, antisemitic, and anti-immigrant ideologies, as well as spread misinformation about US elections. The letter includes examples to back up these claims.

    State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal said: “With white supremacy, antisemitism, islamophobia, anti-LGBTQ hatred and anti-AAPI violence all on the rise, social media companies must ensure that their platforms don’t advance disinformation and hate-fueled violence. The current social media landscape makes it too easy for bad actors to promote false claims, hate and dangerous conspiracies, too often leading to violence like January 6 and the rise in antisemitism and islamophobia we have seen in the aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel. I’m proud that the “Stop Hiding Hate” Act, which Assemblymember Lee and I wrote in partnership with the ADL, is now law. This act will require social media companies to report their moderation policies to the NYS Attorney General for public inspection. This will help boost accountability and transparency for social media companies who currently face far too little regulation, and create a safer social media environment for all.”

    Assembly Member Grace Lee said: “Social media companies have created an environment where hate and disinformation spread like wildfire. Algorithms that prioritize the most attention-grabbing posts often amplify hateful language, giving it a massive platform. These companies have a responsibility to protect users from this hate, but have failed to do so. The Asian community was deeply affected by this phenomenon during COVID, as hateful conspiracy theories spread online, fueling real-world hate crimes. The “Stop Hiding Hate” Act ensures greater accountability and transparency on social media, requiring companies to clearly outline the steps they are taking to eliminate hate on their platforms. It will provide critical protections for all users online and hold these platforms accountable to the public. I am proud to have worked with Senator Holyman-Sigal and the ADL to make New York only the second state in the nation to pass this important legislation and have it signed into law.”

    Scott Richman, Regional Director, Anti-Defamation League – New York & New Jersey, said: “We are elated that Governor Hochul has signed S895/A6789. Today represents the culmination of the hard work of Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Lee and tireless advocacy from community organizations and constituents across New York who support this measure for greater internet transparency and safety. We know there is still work to be done to protect vulnerable communities from hate and extremism online, but we commend Governor Hochul for taking this important step in creating a safer internet for all New Yorkers.”

    Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal 

    December 23, 2024  NEW YORK

    Sources: NYsenate.gov , MIdtown Tribune news

    Midtown Tribune Independent USA news from New York