Mayor Adams meets with NYPD Dance Team after social media blowback
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Mayor Eric Adams met with several members of the NYPD Dance Team at City Hall Tuesday after they received backlash on social media following a recent performance.
The online firestorm started after the dance team appeared on the PIX11 Morning News to show off their moves.
What followed was a deluge of hateful comments targeting the volunteer club -- from body shaming to questions from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about how much they were costing taxpayers.
The mayor said he invited them to City Hall to show him a few moves -- and show solidarity with them.
"Going to do one of those Rockettes kicks," Adams jokes when they arrived.
The team told the mayor about how they go into schools and attend other community events on their own time and on their own dime, but under the banner of the NYPD.
"So it's a good way for the kids to have a different approach to policing," Adams said.
Dance Team Captain Autumn-Raine Martinez came back on PIX11 Tuesday morning, five days after the initial dance demonstration, to explain that her squad is an all-inclusive group that comes together for their own mental and physical well-being.
They were met with sexism and body shaming.
"We never expected to have so many hateful comments or hurtful comments," she said. "We just were hoping to show that we come together, and we are trying to build rapport and camaraderie."
Comments went beyond appearance, with conservatives wondering why the women were not out fighting crime, even though like other volunteer self-funded NYPD sports clubs, they meet after hours.
Progressives like Ocasio-Cortez quipped about the defunding of school music programs to pay for the team.
"They don't use any taxpayer funds or dollars," said an NYPD spokesman.
The congresswoman's spokesman said she had nothing to add when PIX11 reached out.
Earlier in the day at his weekly open press availability, the mayor offered his support to all police who engage in extracurricular and charitable activities.
"It was just mean, and I want these women to know I appreciate them and New Yorkers appreciate them," Adams said. "This costs the department nothing, it humanizes our officers, and it's a way to reduce stress and difficulties of doing the job."