New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) defended the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) dance crew after a viral video of the team performing last week sparked online criticism.
“This team SERVES and protects! Honored to join the NYPD Dance team at City Hall. I think it’s so important that our women and men in uniform have outlets like this to express themselves and bond. They work hard on the clock and dance hard off the clock — like true New Yorkers,” Adams wrote Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.
Adams and the NYPD have responded to the online criticism after the NYPD dance team’s performance on PIX 11 went viral last week. Thousands of users took to social media to take jabs at the crew for the video, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
“How many school music programs got defunded for this,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in response to a video clip of the dance team’s performance.
Other users on X criticized the dance team and suggested they were using taxpayer funds — a claim the NYPD said is false. During his Tuesday press availability, Adams said the backlash was a result of people wanting to be “mean-spirited,” noting the department has plenty of other internal clubs.
“This cost the police department nothing,” Adams said. “It really humanizes our officers. It is a way to alleviate the stress and difficulties and challenges of being — doing the job.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined to further comment on the video.
When reached for comment on the criticism, the NYPD referred The Hill to an interview Officer Autumn-Raine Martinez, the captain of the dance team, gave Tuesday on PIX 11 “Morning News.” Martinez echoed Adams, saying again the NYPD has various clubs for its officers.
“We have basketball team, they have volleyball, they have golf, they have everything, so we just were as a dance team, wanted to come together and dance,” she said.
“We’re not looking to be professional dancers. Some of us have never danced before. Some of us have danced our whole lives, but we have to have choreography that’s fit for everybody so that everybody feels comfortable doing what they want to do,” she continued.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard emphasized that the department does not use public funds for the dance team.
“So no, we don’t use any department funds or taxpayer dollars. They purely came together. They volunteer to do this. They do all of it on their own time. They practice and come together on their own time after work, off duty,” he said in the interview.
According to a report by The New York Times last month, the NYPD dance team includes seven members and is hoping for more officers to join them.
The Hill has reached out to Adams’s office for additional comment.
PIX 11 is an affiliate of Nexstar, which also owns The Hill.
–Updated on Feb. 21 at 1:17 p.m.