by Eric Umansky

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Lawmakers and advocates have slammed New York City Mayor Eric Adams and called for changes in the wake of ProPublica’s investigation into a secretive, problematic police unit led by allies of the mayor.

ProPublica found that the mayor championed the New York City Police Department’s Community Response Team despite a pattern of aggressive and often abusive policing flagged by department officials. An officer in the unit killed a motorcyclist after swerving his police car into him. A team commander punched and kicked a driver in the head. And another commander shoved a man into a car window after the man complained about being stopped for no apparent reason.

Two of the unit’s founders, who are close to the mayor, have their own problematic records.

One, Chief of Department John Chell, once shot a man in the back, killing him. While Chell argued he fired by accident, a jury in a civil suit determined the shooting was intentional. The jury awarded the man’s family $2.5 million dollars. Chell did not........

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