It's good to be a friend of Mayor Eric Adams, given his penchant to dole out plum jobs with cushy salaries to his long-time allies and associates.
But his love of patronage has started to raise questions, and now even his beloved NYPD is criticizing the results of his hiring decisions—specifically, the tenure of Lisa White, a long-time friend and ally of Adams with whom he once lived.
Last May, White was appointed as the NYPD's deputy commissioner for employee relations, a job that comes with a $241,000/year salary. Despite her lack of experience for the job—she was a former 911 operator—Adams was confident in her abilities. "[A]ll of my agencies, we know, we put in, we say you've got to get the best people for the job," he said last year. "We've done that. We've been successful."
It turns out that White is, if the New York Post is to be believed, not only bad at her job, but kind of weird, and not in the Eric Adams feels the power of crystals way, but in the Eric Adams hears ghosts and is kind of paranoid way.
According to the Post, White has accused subordinates of "planting bugs in her office, bugs on her phone…all sorts of crazy stuff." She's also claimed there are "ghosts in her office."
And then there was this alarming incident, again via the Post:
The final straw for one of them, a detective assigned to drive her in a department-assigned Ford SUV, came when White, 61, ordered the cop to turn on the lights and sirens because she was late for work.
When the detective refused, White ordered her out, hopped into the driver’s seat and took over, barreling from her Crown Heights apartment to One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan like a bat out of hell, the sources said.
"She told the driver to pull over and she went behind the wheel and almost got in like f–king five accidents," a police source said. "It was so bad that the driver … said, 'I can’t do this anymore. Now she’s putting my life at risk.'"
Now, this story could just be the result of cops blowing off steam to a friendly news outlet about a boss they don't like.
But what's not in dispute is that Adams's friendship with White goes back a long way. As the CITY reported last fall, the two have known each other for decades, when they were both members of Adams's group 100 Blacks In Law Enforcement Who Care. White also volunteered for nearly a decade as the treasurer of Adams's nonprofit when he was Brooklyn borough president.
But most curiously, the two were roommates: Adams rented and lived in a Crown Heights apartment that White owned for four years, starting in 2013. When Adams and White lived together, Adams also owned a four-unit home in Bed-Stuy and a Prospect Heights place with another "good friend."
When Adams was asked why he was living with White, despite owning multiple other properties, the mayor cited an "unspecified security issue." And that was that.
As one source told the Post, "This person has zero qualifications and knew nothing about the position," the source said. But, they added, "I don't blame her. Who wouldn't take this job if they had a friend that was going to just give it to them?"
Must be some kind of special friendship!
And more links for your Monday:
- The disciplinary trial for the cops who killed Kawaski Trawick is starting today, and things are already off to a great start.
- So shoplifting and then lying about it can get an NYPD officer fired, but not lying while on the job and under oath. Okay.
- Corey Grable, who is campaigning to be the first Black head of the PBA, will be pretty much just like every other head of the PBA. Via Gothamist: "On the campaign trail, Grable has argued that the PBA needs to push back even harder on officers being 'overly disciplined.'"
- Rikers Island is becoming more dangerous for the people held there. Via the Daily News: "In all there were 154 incidents of self-harm in the jails in December, with 100 of them taking place in mental health units on Rikers. The overall number of self harm incidents in December exceeded the 110 incidents reported in January 2022 by 40 percent."
- OK but why does Stuyvesant High School even have a swimming requirement???
- Godzilla, the Prospect Park alligator, has died. RIP, you were too good for this world.
- Do NOT try to hug Pete Davidson at a Knicks game.
- And finally, solidarity forever!
