NYC Mayor Adams Responds To FDNY Commissioner Stepping Down: We 'Need To Stop' With Sexist Beliefs

3 months ago

During a press briefing on Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams responded to questions on the FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh stepping down.

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Transcript

00:00This obviously comes about a year after Commissioner Sewell left the NYPD, who was also the first

00:07woman to hold that job.

00:10Do you have any concerns that the women you've appointed to lead these historically male-dominated

00:17departments, if they're not getting the support they need to continue in these roles for more

00:21than a couple of years?

00:22And then similarly, do you have any kind of message for maybe female rank-and-file members

00:27of those departments who are disappointed to see these pretty groundbreaking leaders

00:33leaving after not a very long time?

00:36I started out with five deputy mayors and a woman chief advisor and a woman chief of

00:46staff.

00:47They're still here.

00:49And I gave a diploma today to Cindy Adams, who could not graduate from high school because

00:56she did not have to sew.

00:58She did not know how to sew a dress.

01:02Men need to stop with this, you know, this sexist belief.

01:08If a woman wants to leave this administration, continue her work, a man leave, we don't say

01:13that you didn't give men the support.

01:15A man wants to go on and do something with his life, you know, that he frankly—no one

01:20asked me, oh, you didn't give Frank the support he needed?

01:23You didn't give him the nurturing that he needed?

01:25But a woman needs that?

01:26No, she does not.

01:28If a woman employee makes a determination, I broke boundaries, I did the change that

01:34I wanted, I increased the number of women in the department, I was the leading voice

01:38around the battery problems we have in this city, and I want to go do something else with

01:44my life, either in your administration or out of your administration, they have the

01:49right to do that.

01:50And I want to get to a day in this city and country where if a woman decides to do something

01:56else with her life, she's not all of a sudden saying, oh, you couldn't cut it, it was too

02:00much for you, it was too hard for you.

02:02No, she wants to do something else with her life, like the men that left wanted to do

02:07something else with their life.

02:09Right now, Commissioner Sewell is over at the New York Mets, and she's making a heck of

02:17a lot more money, and she's not waking up in the morning worrying about did we have

02:21a robbery on the subway system, and is the press going to say I'm not doing my job.

02:26Thank God for them.

02:27They leave here, they go on, and they live great lives after.

02:31They're dedicated public servants, and I'm really proud of both of them that we broke

02:37boundaries.

02:38We never had, it took 110 mayors before we had a woman police commissioner.

02:43It took 110 mayors before we had a woman fire commissioner.

02:46110 mayors before we had a commissioner of intelligence with Deputy Commissioner Weiner.

02:55It took 110 mayors before we had a first deputy mayor that was of African American ancestry,

03:02before we had a chief advisor of African ancestry, a Trinidadian deputy mayor, a Filipino deputy

03:09mayor, a Dominican deputy mayor.

03:11It took all these years, and many of them didn't do it because they were afraid, those

03:16mayors, because once the person leave, you're going to ask questions like that.

03:19Why'd they leave me?

03:20Because you didn't give them the support they deserved?

03:22No, I was willing to do what others were not willing to do, because I'm the second black

03:27mayor in the city of New York, and I'm willing to take those changes.

03:31Good luck to Commissioner, and if she wants to hang around, I told her you could be commissioner

03:35as long as you want in FDNY, and if you want to still hang around, there's other roles

03:40that need done, I welcome that, and I thank her.

NYC Mayor Adams Responds To FDNY Commissioner Stepping Down: We 'Need To Stop' With Sexist Beliefs

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