During the city’s mayoral campaign last year, Eric Adams promised that fighting crime would be his top priority. After being elected, he vowed to be the new face of the Democratic Party and show America how to run a city. 

Last month, he and Gov. Hochul rolled out a plan to tackle crime and homelessness on the subways, saying a safe transit system was “vital” to the city’s recovery. 

Last Friday, amid fresh reports that crime is leap-frogging to new highs, Adams insisted the city is on the right track. “We’ve got to get it right,” he said then. “Two months in, we’re executing our plan and we’re going to defeat crime. I’m clear on that.”

On Monday he announced that the first of his anti-gun squads will hit the streets next week after a “very thorough, well-organized training.” 

So Adams is correct that he has been clear about his plans and he continues to say all the right things. His determination to win the war against crime and disorder remains refreshing. 

But no honeymoon lasts forever and the fact that crime is still taking parabolic leaps suggests the perps aren’t intimidated and maybe aren’t convinced Adams means what he says.

The NYPD reports that major crimes in the five boroughs spiked by an extraordinary 58% in February compared to last year. In response, former top cop Bill Bratton tweeted “Staggering doesn’t begin to describe the crime increase in New York City.”

For the year through last Sunday, the department recorded a 47% increase in overall major crime, with huge leaps in robberies, grand larceny and auto thefts. Fortunately, there was just one more murder than a year ago. 

Cops thwarted

And remember, too, that 2021 saw big increases in nearly every major category over 2020, and 2020 saw big increases over 2019. 

For example, there were 318 murders in 2019, 468 in 2020 and 485 in 2021.

Thus, the city is now in the third year of a new crime wave. 

The implications are enormous on both sides of the law. As one former member of Michael Bloomberg’s administration put it, cops “may no longer have the muscle memory” of how to turn the tide. 

That view is held by many former officers as well, who believe the handcuffing of cops that became policy in the second term of Bill de Blasio’s reign of error wiped out the department’s training and ethos. It was nothing short of a culture change when, after more than two decades of being hailed and rewarded for reducing crime, cops were more incentivized to avoid trouble and ­controversy. 

The same culture change happened to a new generation of criminals and would-be criminals who learned how to exploit police reticence. As cops pulled back, they filled the vacuum. 

When shoplifting is ignored in one store, copycats assume they are free to fill bags full of stolen items at other stores — and do. 

It doesn’t stop there. The broken-windows theory revolutionized policing 30 years ago because it taught the city that big crimes follow when little crimes are ignored. Perps who start with shoplifting often graduate to violence and even homicide. 

That’s where the city is now. Crimes at all levels, from beating the subway fare to stealing cars, to rape, robbery and murder are on the march. Shootings happen on busy streets during daylight.

The disgraceful actions taken in Albany to release most suspects without bail have contributed to the extreme lawlessness. The rapid release of the “poop perp” is the latest example of how destructive Albany has been. 

‘Poop perp’ out

Frank Abrokwa, 37 years old and with a rap sheet going back more than 20 years, allegedly smeared his own feces on a woman in a Bronx subway station, made a joke about it at his arraignment — and was soon back on the street. 

As my colleague Bob McManus wrote, “poop smearing may be socially corrosive beyond comprehension, but it isn’t a jail-worthy offense under New York’s spanking new, thoroughly insane, bail laws.”

All of which raises the bar for Adams and his police commissioner, Keechant Sewell. The law-enforcement crisis they inherited is no run-of-the-mill problem and won’t be solved overnight. 

But it won’t be solved at all unless Adams and other pols show the cops they have their backs, especially where there is a questionable police action. On that score, Rudy Giuliani set the template.

His mantra was, absent overwhelming evidence of police wrongdoing, cops deserve the benefit of the doubt in controversial shootings until the facts are known. 

He argued convincingly that the rush to judgment against police is unfair to the individual officers involved and robs them of the same rights that all suspects have — the presumption of innocence. 

The rush also damages the morale of the entire NYPD, which, especially in this political climate, already feels it is guilty until proven innocent.

None of this is new to Adams, who spent 22 years in uniform and has seen from the inside both the good and bad of policing. But his personal experience will carry him only so far in his new role. 

Now he must become the cops’ biggest advocate. Just as de Blasio’s inherent mistrust of the NYPD was a key ingredient in the city’s decline, Adams must persuade the men and women in blue that he is on their side and they can count on him when the going gets tough.

If he does that, he’ll have a chance to beat back the crime wave and save New York.

Shameless & clueless Cuomeback 

The normal process for politicians who seriously screw up is to take a break from the spotlight, do some soul-searching and try to return a changed person. 

That way, the public has reason to give him or her a second look.

Not Andrew Cuomo. 

He’s skipping the soul-searching and changing while blaming everybody else for his downfall.

In a remarkable attack that he called “my truth,” Cuomo used a coming-out speech at a predominantly black church in East Flatbush to argue that since he wasn’t charged with a crime, he did nothing really wrong. 

He only copped to being “old-fashioned and out of touch.” 

Emphasis on “touch,” according to the 11 women who accused him of unwanted touching, groping and other harassment.

Many of his accusers worked for him.

Recall that Cuomo quit instead of challenging the charges before the Legislature, which was poised to impeach and remove him. 

He’s talking tough now but when it mattered, he folded without a fight.

He was also so toxic that anybody who helped him smear his accusers lost their jobs, including his brother at CNN. 

Given that record, you’d think Cuomo would have the decency to accept responsibility for the damage he did. 

Instead, he proves he’s still not worthy of public trust.

HEADLINE:

“Fossil of Vampire Squid’s Oldest Ancestor Is Named for Biden”

Enough said.