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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 6 November 2021

Adams, Bragg win NYC election amid historic Black leadership

some of our toughest neigh- came the state’s first African hands of police before be- Brooklyn borough president.
borhoods, to become public American woman elected as a coming a police officer him- Across town, City Council
servants committed to doing DA, said the historic wave of self. He became a captain and Member Vanessa Gibson be-
a great deal of good for every- Black leadership is both long an outspoken activist calling came the first Black woman
one,” said Jeffries. overdue and timely following out injustices in the New elected Bronx borough presi-
the national racial reckoning York Police Department. dent.
Nearly 28 years after Da- that occurred in 2020 after
vid Dinkins ended his sin- the murder of George Floyd Bragg, a civil rights lawyer Richards said there’s also a
gle term as New York’s first in Minneapolis. and former federal prosecu- huge burden with being the
Black mayor, the halls of tor, talked about being held first — or even the second
power in the city and state “I think the more we can at gunpoint by both crooks — person of color to hold an
are packed with Black leaders have people that look like the and police officers during his elected office.
from the city or its suburbs, people and the communities youth in Harlem.
(AP) — When New York- including three of the state’s that we serve, the better. I “It’s a lot of pressure,” he
ers this week chose Eric most powerful politicians: should not be the only one,” Days before he was elected said. “You don’t get to settle
Adams as their next may- Senate Majority Leader An- she said. district attorney, he was ques- in and you can’t make mis-
or and Alvin Bragg as the drea Stewart-Cousins, As- tioning New York City police takes.”
next Manhattan district sembly Speaker Carl Heastie Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, officers as part of a judicial
attorney, they elevated and Letitia James, the state’s who became the second inquiry into the 2014 police Adam Clayton Powell Jr. be-
two more Black men into first Black attorney general, Black person to hold that role chokehold death of Eric Gar- came the first African Ameri-
high office at a time when who is now running for gov- when he was appointed in ner, whose pleas of “I can’t can to represent New York
the city and state are be- ernor. September, recalled a recent breathe” became a rallying in Congress in 1945. Shir-
ing led by a historic num- political rally in Harlem at- cry of the Black Lives Matter ley Chisholm became the
ber of Black leaders. A majority of the city’s bor- tended by federal, state and movement. first Black woman elected to
ough presidents are now local African American elect- Congress from any state in
It’s a moment African Ameri- Black, as well as several top ed officials and candidates. Donovan Richards Jr., who 1969. Both faced immense
can officials say has been a prosecutors, including both last year became the first challenges because of racism.
long time coming, made pos- of its appointed U.S. attor- “There were young Black Black man elected as Queens
sible by an earlier generation neys, and its elected public boys and young Black girls borough president, said that Even though earlier African
of trailblazers who broke bar- advocate, Jumaane Williams, who were able to look at us in the past, he and other American leaders paved the
riers in the face of immense who is considering a guber- and say, ‘Oh wow. This is Black politicians were often way, Richards said he, Ad-
bias and carried the burden of natorial run. normal. I can do this. I can be told: “Don’t talk about your ams, Bragg and other Black
being the first. a mayor. I can be lieutenant Blackness. Don’t talk about leaders today still face bias
The change has happened governor. I can be a congress- where you’re from.” and microaggressions after
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, even as the number of Black person,’” Benjamin said. winning top offices.
one of a record seven Black people living in New York “Often we’re told to shy
people now representing City has declined, falling Many of the Black politi- away from who we are, to Richards said that when
New York in Congress, said by 4.5% since 2010 while cians, including Adams and shy away from our stories, he first took office, he was
the new mayor and prosecu- the city’s overall population Bragg, drew upon their life especially as Black men. You stopped several days in a row
tor will be “transformational grew. stories as they campaigned, need to smile a little more in at the entrance to borough
figures.” describing firsthand experi- your pictures,” Richards said. hall by a security guard ask-
According to the 2020 cen- ence with inequity, racism or “I think we have changed the ing to see some identifica-
“The emergence of individu- sus, 20% of New Yorkers are unequal and brutal treatment narrative.” tion. Richards explained he
als like Eric Adams and Alvin Black, 31% are non-Hispanic from the criminal justice sys- was the borough president.
Bragg follow in a long tradi- white, 28% are Hispanic and tem. New Yorkers on Tuesday
tion of leaders who emerge around 16% are Asian. elected an Afro Caribbean “Then he says, ‘You’re the
from the fiery furnace of the Adams talked about grow- of Dominican heritage, City borough president?’ I said,
Black experience in New Bronx District Attorney Dar- ing up poor and experiencing Council Member Antonio ‘Yes. Get used to it,’” Rich-
York City, particularly in cel Clark, who in 2015 be- brutality as a teenager at the Reynoso, to replace Adams as ards recalled, with a laugh.

Michigan to pay $300K to only staffer fired over Flint water

(AP) — The state of Mich- other compensation. Gov. ment is that she will not seek then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s ad- sources. Specialists inside
igan said Friday it agreed Gretchen Whitmer’s admin- her job back. And her invol- ministration finally acknowl- the agency insisted that re-
pay $300,000 to settle istration instead paid 56% untary resignation will be edged a crisis in Flint. sults from 12 months of wa-
wrongful discharge claims more to Shekter Smith to changed to a voluntary one,” ter sampling were necessary
by the only employee who close the case. he told The Associated Press, The Department of Environ- first, despite early trouble-
was fired as a result of declining further comment. mental Quality was sharply some lead readings and pro-
lead-contaminated water “The department has decid- criticized for not requiring tests from angry residents
in Flint. ed to agree to the settlement In 2014-15, Flint’s water was corrosion control additives who held up containers of
amount of $300,000, which drawn from the Flint River, a when Flint switched water foul water.
The deal with Liane Shekter resolves the dispute and al- money-saving decision that
Smith, who was head of the lows both the agency and was made by state-appointed
state’s drinking water divi- Ms. Shekter Smith to move managers who were running
sion, came weeks after an ar- forward,” said Hugh McDi- the ailing city. The highly
bitrator said she was wrongly armid Jr., spokesman for the corrosive water wasn’t prop-
fired in 2016 by officials who Department of Environment, erly treated before it flowed
were likely looking for a Great Lakes and Energy. to roughly 100,000 residents,
“public scapegoat” in one of Asked why the state is pay- eroding protective coatings
the worst environmental di- ing more, McDiarmid said inside the aging pipes. As a
sasters in U.S. history. there was no guarantee that result, lead was released from
the arbitrator’s figure would those pipes.
The state this week faced a hold during an appeal. Shek-
deadline to appeal the or- ter Smith had been seeking By fall 2015, a local doctor
der through the civil service more than $900,000 in lost and other experts rang the
system as well as an award compensation. alarm about rising lead levels,
of $191,880 in back pay and “A condition of the settle- especially in children, and