Arrested development

To the editor:

The most important question for the NYPD is who will be the next commissioner. Mayor Eric Adams lost an excellent police commissioner in Keechant Sewell. It was his own fault. Adams is an incompetent mayor and insecure man who was willing to sacrifice a qualified and critically important leader in order to get a yes-man or yes-woman.  

Adams will probably want to choose Juanita Holmes, the former NYPD Chief of Training and current NY Commissioner of the Department of Probation, installed by Adams after the mayor allowed her to overrule Sewell and throw out the running requirement for police recruits because too many women were failing. Holmes also bypassed Sewell and invited Cardi B to entertain recruits at the Police Academy. 

The rapper talked and danced with young women at the police academy in order to allow her to fulfill her court-mandated community service over a 2018 assault in a strip club in Queens.  What a great role model for young cops! What was Adams’ reaction? He said he was just sorry he wasn’t invited (to see Cardi B).

Adams is becoming a city version of Donald Trump in that he makes up self-serving stories about himself, surrounds himself with sycophants, won’t answer reporters’ questions, mocks those who criticize him or his policies, and is becoming more of a divider of New Yorkers than a uniter.  

Whomever Adams picks for his police commissioner, the NYPD will be weaker and less professional than it has been under Keechant Sewell. Women in the NYPD are realizing that it’s not enough to be a highly qualified professional police leader; they must do whatever the mayor wants even if they know it’s not good for the NYPD or for the people of NYC.  

Michael J. Gorman