Protesters heckled and surrounded New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams outside of his office just one day after he defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
The large crowd was protesting against New York City’s vaccine mandates. Protesters held signs with phrases like “end the mandate,” and “give a voice to the vaccine injured.”
Video footage shared to Twitter reportedly showed Adams being chased after leaving his office Wednesday afternoon.
Adams largely remained silent during the video, choosing not to address the crowd directly. However, Adams is seen speaking inaudibly to a few protesters throughout the video.
These anti-vaccine mandate protesters are outraged by current Mayor Bill De Blasio’s policy, which requires all city employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The battle between Mayor De Blasio and people opposed to vaccine mandates intensified last week after more than 2,000 city firefighters took medical leave in a “sickout” as the October 29 vaccination deadline passed.
Adams is a former New York City employee. He spent 22 years working for the New York Police Department.
Adams did not take a definitive stance for or against the vaccination mandates in a series of media appearances after his victory. “We need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates,” Adams said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
The mayor-elect did not want to tell De Blasio how to do his job while waiting to be sworn into office on January 1. “Now, I stated I did not want to Monday-morning-quarterback the mayor. This is his time to be the man, he has to make the decisions,” said Adams.
“I hope the mayor — and I am encouraging him to do that — to sit down with unions and come to a resolution,” Adams told CNN. “And if he doesn’t, if this is still going to January, I’m going to sit down with them and we’re going to get this resolved.”