International Desk: Democratic candidate and former New York City police officer Eric Adams beat The Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and has been elected the new mayor. He became the second African-American to manage the largest city in the United States.

“Because I’m standing here, every day New Yorkers will realize they have a right here,” Adams said in a statement during the vote count.

Adams was born in 1960 in Queens. His mother was a cleaner and his father was a butcher. He retired from the police service in 2006. He was then elected senator and served as a senator in 2013.

David Dinkins was the first black mayor of New York. He served from 1990 to 1993. Nearly 30 years later, the black mayor is again a New Yorker.

Adams described the beating at the hands of police officers as a teenager. He was arrested for trespassing at the time. When he later joined the police, he was a vocal critic of the department, speaking out on behalf of black officers and speaking out against injustice.

Criminal issues in the United States police have come to the fore in the wake of the assassination of black George Floyd last year. There were allegations of bias in law enforcement. The debate centered on the questions of when and where police officers are needed, or sometimes whether they are needed at all. The image of the force is expected to return once the former police captain is elected mayor.