Since early last year, Eric Adams, a former policeman and current mayor of New York, has claimed to carry a photo of an officer he worked with early in his police career, Robert Venable, who was killed in 1987. for the first time a month after taking office, in 2022, at an event commemorating two slain police officers. Shortly after he had himself photographed holding the photo, at the request of the New York Times.
Now the same newspaper he wrote that the mayor would have lied: citing a source, he claimed that the photo would be “fake”, would have been specially produced by Adams’ staff after he had mentioned it during the commemoration, probably for reasons of political expediency. Again according to the source cited by New York TimesAdams’ assistants allegedly found Venable’s photo on Google, and after printing it they simulated wear, among other things by staining it with coffee.
The mayor’s office has denied the allegations. The New York Times however, he maintains that even the denial of Adams’ spokesman, Fabien Levy, would have left several doubts: Levy would not have expressly disputed that the photo had been created by an assistant to the mayor, even if he reiterated that Adams had actually kept a photo of Venable for many years. What is certain is that Adams and Venable were friends, as confirmed by some of their former colleagues. Previously, Adams said he kept the photo in his wallet until it got too bulky, but still kept it in a clip-on clip.
Not all of Venable’s relatives reacted the same way to the story of the New York Times. The daughter, Januari Venable, who was eight at the time of her father’s death, said she did not recall ever meeting Adams until 2022, but added that she feels happy that her father is still remembered, regardless of the presence or less than the photo in the mayor’s wallet. A niece of Venable’s, who recalls visits Adams made to her family after her uncle’s death, said she would feel disappointed if the fake photo story were confirmed.
Adams worked in the police from 1984 to 2006. Today he is a member of the Democratic party, elected mayor after winning the 2021 election. He had previously served as the borough president of Brooklyn, the most populous of New York’s boroughs. In his party he is considered rather divisive: in the primaries, in which the voters of each party choose their candidate and which for Democrats in New York are the real elections, he won by less than 8,000 preferences, 0.8%. on the other candidate. He promoted a more moderate program than other more progressive Democrats, and focused on fighting crime, which has met with support especially among the black and Latino population of the city.
Eric Adams tells quite often personal anecdotes, sometimes taking some liberties. Always the New York Times he collected several and underlined that it is almost always practically impossible to verify the reliability of the stories told by the mayor. Many of these apparently serve to create a greater bond with the electorate rather than deceive them; other times the mayor reports wrong facts even with respect to rather serious issues, for example when speaking of the difficulties in managing migrants or the spread of crime. Other stories are more innocuous: among other things he talked about a strange method he uses to kill mice, said he was vegan but was seen eating fish, and said he knew “a few tricks” with skateboarding, later appearing have some difficulty when he tried to use one.