Why the NYPD is dreading the prospect of indicted mayor Eric Adams being replaced by super-woke Jumaane Williams

Members of the NYPD have been eager to move on from an allegedly corrupt and heavy-handed leadership but are now dreading the prospect of a cop-hating alternative taking the helm, sources tell DailyMail.com.

The mayor's recent federal indictment could see New York City Public Advocate and ultra progressive Black Lives Matter activist Jumaane Williams step up to the job if Eric Adams is ousted or resigns. 

'Jumaane Williams is a known cop hater,' one NYPD official told DailyMail.com. 'He has a notorious reputation in the department for choosing the side of the criminals and throwing cops under the bus.

'This is somehow the choice we have in New York: A mayor who flaunts his rampant corruption or an incompetent politician who despises law and order.'

Several officers who spoke to DailyMail.com admitted they were shocked but not surprised to see Adams become the first sitting New York City mayor in history to be indicted last Thursday. 

But they are now turning their attention to what comes next.

If Adams resigns or is forced out, Williams will serve as interim mayor until a special election could be held 80 days later.

Many in the NYPD dread this prospect, but also want to see Adams gone, blaming him for instability within the department.

Upon taking office in 2022, Adams appointed an outsider, Keechant Sewell, as police commissioner, but she abruptly quit in July 2023 amid a power struggle with the heavy-handed Adams, his deputy mayor for public safety Phillip Banks and aide Tim Pearson, two ex-cops.

Her replacement Edward Caban, an ally to the mayor, resigned earlier this month after his phone was seized in a federal investigation. 

He was replaced by interim commissioner Thomas Donlon, who days later had materials from his home seized by the feds.

On Friday Adams pleaded not guilty to corruption charges during his arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court, accused of accepting lavish overseas trips in exchange for favors and defrauding taxpayers of $10million through fraudulent campaign funds.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and receiving campaign contributions from foreign nationals.

The mayor's indictment has been the talk of the NYPD.

'There's nobody surprised by this,' one detective told DailyMail.com. 'We're just surprised it took this long and that there ain't more people named in the indictment.'

'We all think Adams should step down,' he added of the ex-NYPD police captain who was elected on a pro-business, anti-crime platform. 

'He's just making the police department, the fire department, and all the other major city agencies look bad. It's making it look like we're all corrupt.

'We feel like the new police commissioner should be out of here too,' he continued. 

'All the cops I'm speaking with, we agree that everyone from the two-star chiefs on up should all be out, and that the department should be revamped from top to bottom.'

But Adam's arrest has raised a new set of concerns.

'In all honestly, I'd rather bring the bozo back than keep this guy,' he said, referring to the former unpopular Mayor Bill de Blasio who can't run again. 

'Adams has to go. But then it doesn't get any better when he leaves because then we get Jumaane Williams. We're really stuck between a rock and a hard place.'

Another officer echoed this, telling DailyMail.com: 'A POS like Jumaane Williams will just add another gaping hole in an already sinking ship.'

Williams, 48, has a history of protesting against the police and has similar political views to far-left Democrat progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sparking fears that things could go from bad to worse in the city.

'A wounded Eric Adams, a weakened Eric Adams remaining in office, is better than the socialist Jumaane Williams,' former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa told DailyMail.com earlier this week. 'That will open up the floodgates to socialism, and we will become Chicago.'

Adams, a moderate Democrat and former cop, has been the target of progressives like AOC, who oppose his pro-NYPD views and statements denouncing the Biden administration's migrant policies.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has repeatedly endorsed Williams, has been the leading Democrat voice against Adams, demanding his resignation in an essay for The New York Times published just hours before the mayor was indicted.

During 15 years in public service, Williams has stoked anti-police sentiment and pushed for criminal reform, including to end solitary confinement in city prisons. He is also a prominent pro-Palestine activist.

The failed gubernatorial candidate is a firm proponent of slashing the NYPD's budget but lives in a US military base in Brooklyn that offers 24-hour security.

Williams was a leader of the BLM protests that took over the streets of New York City the summer of 2020.

In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, he led marches to Brooklyn Borough Hall to demand NYPD budget cuts.

Some cops are now even looking at disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo as a potential replacement, hoping he will run for mayor and defeat Williams in an election.

'My hope is that Andrew Cuomo will step up to the plate,' the detective said. 

'Believe it or not, even though he did his thing with Covid, he's still one of New York's favorite politicians.'

An NYPD official who served under Adams told DailyMail.com that everyone in the department expected this period of reckoning would come.

'I don't know one person that's surprised this has happened, knowing Adams' history,' the source said. 

'I never thought there could be a worse guy than de Blasio, but then Adams is proving me wrong.'

'The police department looks like a rudderless ship right now,' he added.

But he shared the concern of other officers about Williams's reshaping the department.

'There's not a lot of respect in the police department toward Jumaane Williams,' the official said. 'He holds hands with AOC, which guys don't like.

'But hopefully he'd be just a placeholder,' he continued. 'I'd expect he'd have limited powers in what he can do, and they'd have to call for an election within 80 days.'

The first official told DailyMail.com that officers had been anticipating this indictment since last November when the feds seized Adams's electronic devices.

'Everyone's talking about this,' he said of the indictment. 'We're all joking about it because we all knew. The rumor was going around since late last year that the FBI was going to lock him up at some point. It was just a matter of when.

'And when it did happen, I don't think there's many cops that are like, "Oh god, the feds are being so unreasonable", in this case because of the reputation that came with Adams and his inner circle,' the official added.

'The fact nobody was surprised is a really telling state of the politics in New York City these days,' he added. 

'It's a who's who of shadiness and corruption in the Adams administration. 

'I can't wait to see who else gets locked up within the department and with other city agencies.'

The insider said it has been 'extremely frustrating' to see Adams's heavy influence in running the department, usurping the commissioner's authority by putting loyalist, former NYPD colleagues in key positions both inside and outside the department.

He pointed specifically to officials like Banks, a former NYPD Chief of Department named by the feds as an 'unindicted co-conspirator' in a 2018 corruption case.

'There's been this air of superiority by high level executives who were appointed by Adams and have walked around 1 PP (police headquarters) with that kind of mayoral cover,' the official said. 

'It's been worse this past year since Sewell left. I mean, why would anyone want to take this job? With Adams as mayor, you're just going to be a target.'