He’s not backing down.
Mayor Eric Adams defended his strident takedown of an 84-year-old tenant activist, justifying his comparison of her to a plantation owner because she “disrespected” him.
“[H]er behavior was acting in a disrespectful way,” he told 1010 WINS radio on Friday morning.
“I came from a family that my mom made it clear: never allow someone to be disrespectful to you.”
Adams headlined a town hall in Hamilton Heights Wednesday evening, where he was interrupted by Jeanie Dubnau, a housing rights advocate and assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University.
She challenged him for backing a recent decision that will lead to an increase in the rent-stabilized apartments dwellers across the five boroughs.
“Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own,” Hizzoner chastised her during the panel.
Adams argued that it was Dubnau’s tone of voice and finger-pointing that triggered his reaction.
“She disrupted [the meeting], and then she was degrading on how she communicated with me. I’m not going to allow civil service to be disrespected, and I’m not going to be disrespected as the mayor of this city,” Adams continued during the radio interview.
He also said her outburst was also part of a larger national movement trending toward disrespect of police officers, religious groups, and other government workers.
“I’m a representative of this city, and we need to start having a better dialogue on how we communicate with each other, both locally and nationally on how we communicate.”
Dubnau was born in Belgium shortly after her parents fled the terrors of the Nazi regime in Germany.
After hiding out in Belgium and France throughout World War II, Dubnau and her parents emigrated to New York City when she was 8-year-old where she has resided ever since.
The volunteer tenant organizer said she’s not holding her breath for an apology from Adams, who rents out a brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“Oh, he’s not going to apologize,” she told The Post. “I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized.”