More than two decades ago, I met a New York City cop with an up-by-the-bootstraps story.

Eric Adams had powerful hands, a quick mind and a threatening scar on the back of his shaved head — a relic from his days in the 7-Crowns, a youth gang named after the whiskey brand.

Yes, that Eric Adams is now mayor of New York City.

Now his legacy as a Black man who beat the odds is on the brink of imploding over a bribery scandal. There is an ugly pattern here. Adams’s tragic predicament is in line with another up-by-the-bootstraps Black American, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

As someone who has known Adams and Thomas for decades and written about both, I have turned to an old Latin phrase popularized eight centuries ago by Saint Thomas Aquinas: "‘"Corruptio optimi pessima" — "The corruption of the best is the worst of all.”

Thomas’s legacy is now at risk after repeated instances of alleged corruption — accepting lavish gifts from wealthy patrons with interests before the high court. That is a close match with the charges facing Adams. The mayor faced charges of illegally accepting luxury flight and hotel accommodations to help the Turkish government with New York building permits. He was also accused of taking a large number of illegal straw-man campaign contributions, including........

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