NYC Mayor Eric Adams holds a press briefing on public safety.
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00:00:00it is so good seeing some of you you know
00:00:09i want to take a moment out uh to just as we all know uh the loss of the pope
00:00:18and uh it was just really impactful when uh fabian called me uh yesterday morning
00:00:28you know sort of surreal uh losing the pope and what the pope means for so many
00:00:35not only catholics uh but those of us who uh embrace the christian faith and as i spoke to
00:00:44some of the muslim leaders in this city and some of the jewish leaders in this city uh they too
00:00:50acknowledge uh this loss and so our heart goes out to those who were uh impacted and i was truly
00:00:57impacted from my meeting with him you know god works in mysterious ways to have the opportunity
00:01:03to have met him to be in the vatican to see some of the history of the uh what the vatican means
00:01:11uh and uh it was just a great loss it was a surprise loss you know we knew he was he was ill
00:01:17uh but uh you know it was just really surreal when i got that call from fabian uh yesterday morning
00:01:24and so let's lift up the community in prayers as they make the transition of determination as a new
00:01:30pope uh i'll be joining uh the cardinal of this um this morning at saint patrick cathedral he's having
00:01:39a special mass and uh it's going to give us all the opportunity uh to sit together and lift up his life
00:01:46and so uh moving on to today uh happy uh earth day every day we're delivering for safer streets in
00:01:56a more affordable city for working class families and just keeping new york is safe a lot of these days
00:02:03uh a lot of people are following our lead on this conversation about severe mental health illness
00:02:11you heard us talk about it over and over again uh remember the team telling me three years ago eric
00:02:18it's a challenge that you need to leave alone uh politically it's just not something easy to handle
00:02:25but it just was inhumane to walk up walk past new york is living in cardboard boxes in encampments
00:02:31we saw drug paraphernalia uh human waste stale foods uh experiencing schizophrenic phoenix schizophrenic
00:02:41behavior bipolar and we were just walking past these new yorkers and i said no to them in 2022
00:02:47we started in a very uh aggressive but compassionate journey to give people the care that they deserve
00:02:56and there was a city council even passed the law to say people have a right to sleep on the streets
00:03:01of i mean just like what are we thinking about uh to allow people to sleep on the streets when they
00:03:06can't make real decisions on their own and we took a took it upon ourselves that we needed to tackle
00:03:15this issue uh head on and that's what we did and three years ago we started our pursuit and it included
00:03:22cleaning up the encampments um people living on the side of highways in the train station if you go back
00:03:29i stated we were going to remove all the cameras out of our train stations and people said it wasn't
00:03:34possible but you know what we did it uh from under underpasses a gentleman stopped me uh in uh green
00:03:41point winsburg area who stated he used to play catch with his child under the underpass but then
00:03:47tents tents and cardboard boxes people were living and was lining the underpass we cleaned it up they're
00:03:52playing catch again in that area this impacts the quality of life of our city and we're not going
00:03:59to allow and ignore these types of crises and the sad reality is that many people with severe mental
00:04:06illness living on our streets and on our subways they need to go to the hospital we should not wait
00:04:14until uh those with severe mental health illness pushes push someone on the subway track slash an
00:04:20individual assault a a person who's walking down the street that is not a solution and we're we are
00:04:28refusing uh to sit back and allow this to happen and i want to be clear for the small group of people
00:04:33who are truly struggling with severe mental illness this is a lifeline uh the stories of those who turn
00:04:41their lives around after going through living on the streets and they received the help that they
00:04:47deserve it really is something that we should all be thankful for and i want to i want to really
00:04:52acknowledge what governor hochel and the state lawmakers are doing uh to put in place this uh support
00:05:00that is needed and we need to push forward and make sure that it happens but despite the progress
00:05:05there's still a lot of misconceptions around this work uh many people want to romanticize it
00:05:13and act like you could just walk up to a person with severe mental health illness and state uh won't
00:05:19you come inside and get care that is just not true and many people don't know it's not true because
00:05:23you're not out there uh you you know far too many people are particularly uh elected officials are
00:05:29sitting behind the desk uh never walking the streets never going into the subway system to look at this
00:05:36real work and the heroes that are doing it every day and one of those heroes is here i have a special
00:05:42guest uh lisa singh who's here uh every day doing that work um uh she's a psych psych psychiatric nurse
00:05:51who spends her nights on the subway uh as part of the path program which which looks for uh people most
00:06:00in needs and i would really suggest many of you who are writing these stories to spend a night walking
00:06:06these subways with her and get a first-hand view of how challenging this work is she's also uh along
00:06:15with her team of nypd offices homeless outreach workers tackling this difficult and challenging work
00:06:21with compassion and love every day in fact she's a miracle worker with the men and women who are here
00:06:29with us today uh i'm amazed when i'm out there with them and they make these encounters they have found
00:06:36pathways to talk to people and give them the care that they deserve and this is so important and
00:06:42that's why the supporting intervention act is crucial and joining us also is uh brian's uh setter
00:06:49uh brian knows this works he understands this works work he's not trying to do it uh in a place
00:06:55that lacks compassion but he's realistic and honest we have too many people who were removed from
00:07:01psychiatric institutions placed in their own care and they can't take care of themselves and we need
00:07:07to be honest about it and stop lying about it they need help and we need to be honest with the laws that
00:07:13we are passing and when you look at what brian is doing and captain lou i was out in the field with
00:07:20captain lou he oversees uh the path program and they bring their their a-game every day and we owe them
00:07:27a debt of gratitude folks because many people won't do this work and they're willing to do it and many
00:07:35people want to walk by they would ignore it what are we going to do about the homeless well this is
00:07:39what we're doing about the homeless the people who are here uh today and so uh last weekend uh some of
00:07:46you have may seen the washington post put lisa and the work on her of of the path program on the front
00:07:53page of the paper you know did you did we give everyone a copy okay good that's good stuff that's
00:08:01good stuff you know um we should not have to go to the washington post to highlight what our heroes
00:08:09are doing in new york city how about highlighting some of them how about you know you do the same
00:08:15you know why don't why don't we start really looking at these heroes we have among us and not
00:08:22criticizing them but lifting them up but thank you to the washington post uh i'm hoping to become
00:08:28contagious and some of our local um journalists would do the same to highlight the great work
00:08:35these men and women are doing uh it's a beautiful piece and it puts the human face on this critical
00:08:41public safety issue and i really urge all of you to read it uh what really struck me about lisa's story
00:08:49that she said what horrifies her the most is not having to make the decision to involuntarily give
00:08:55someone help it's potentially missing someone who needs it now can you imagine being out there
00:09:04talking to someone with a severe mental health illness they can't take care of themselves they
00:09:08are dangerous to others you try to convince them you can't convince them convince them and then you wake
00:09:13up in the morning and found out that person pushed someone on the subway track or that person slashed
00:09:18someone or that person jumped in front of the train do you know how much trauma that is you know how much
00:09:24uh ptsd that is this is what this team goes through when they're out there and they read a story about a
00:09:31person that did something harmful to themselves or others this is the real work that has to be done
00:09:37and this is a powerful example of what people on the front lines go through every day
00:09:41and they're making these tough calls tough calls of should you involuntarily remove someone with
00:09:49that i would love to turn it over to lisa uh to make a few few remarks on behalf of her and some of
00:09:57our team members that are here and i want to just thank you guys and ladies for what you're doing lisa
00:10:02um hi everyone um i'm i'm lisa singh um thank you for having me i i consider this an honor to serve um
00:10:19you know this marginalized population and i have to say um i wish that the article was a little bit
00:10:28more balanced in terms of including the work that nypd does they are phenomenal i could not go into
00:10:36these sensitive spaces without their their authority and their power and they come they come gentle you
00:10:44know they we go into these spaces they command the atmosphere and i really i don't believe that i could
00:10:50move the way that i do without them so i thank them i thank every one of them um so i am lisa singh again
00:11:00i've done i've been working with the homeless population for the past six months i've been a
00:11:05psychiatric nurse for about 28 years now um so i'm very familiar with homelessness as it relates to
00:11:13uh the mentally ill it's really a tough call a lot of the times um you know there's so many layers to
00:11:20homelessness um you know also taking into account that though there is mental illness present you
00:11:29know these folks still want to connect socially you know we don't we don't um grow in isolation
00:11:37we grow we we are each other's point of reference so when we look at someone we know that hey did i
00:11:43say something wrong should i said this way okay i shouldn't say that again and so when we look at our
00:11:48individuals we're looking for and and the article highlighted it really well that subtle face of
00:11:55mental illness uh i'll never forget you know there was one individual who i spoke with and he was
00:12:03oriented um very oriented to person place and time um but then he began to speak about a spaceship
00:12:12and the spaceship was coming to pick him up and so that was there was a presence of delusions yes and
00:12:21so he went on to say that he was adamant on going and and being picked up by this um spaceship and he
00:12:28said yes it's going to pick him up on the top of the empire state building last time i checked there
00:12:34is no landing pad for spaceships on the empire state building and and i don't mean to make light
00:12:40of it but um and so although that that delusion that belief wasn't to suicide but it was to it could
00:12:50have um led to bodily harm and even death so that is a 958 but do you see there's there's very subtle
00:12:58elements to every clinical picture and it really takes a keen eye um to see those things and to
00:13:05weave together a story and help in determining whether or not someone is a 958 yeah
00:13:10uh so we wbi pacific guys two homeless correspondents one in new york and one in new jersey and these are
00:13:30people that understand the system and are communicating with in real time because i think you're right what
00:13:34happens we objectify these people and that just further alienates them i'm just wondering though
00:13:40as a healthcare professional are you frustrated that when you refer someone into the system
00:13:46we've seen for instance around elmhurst hospital who was the epicenter of the covid epidemic
00:13:50several hospitals closed the truth is that over the last 20 years not only psych facilities but we've
00:13:57contracted healthcare facilities and the infrastructure support communities and this showed up in the
00:14:02cruel uh disparity in struggling zip codes can you is there a little bit of despair you have to overcome
00:14:08professionally knowing that the system itself and capacity yeah no it's it's it's an important
00:14:23point that you raise um good morning everyone one thing we should keep in mind about the scout and path
00:14:29programs the two programs that have our nurses and and police officers canvassing the subway system
00:14:35looking for people in psychiatric crisis is that we're bringing all the individuals that we encounter
00:14:40into the h and h hospital system right so we're not really relying at all on the private hospitals and
00:14:46kind of falling pushing people into a black hole where we can't keep track or have any influence over
00:14:51what kind of care they get at h and h they've actually managed to reverse that trend right they've actually
00:14:56brought back all of the psych beds that were lost uh during the covid period and they've opened a couple of new
00:15:01units for extended care uh now at three h and h hospitals so i think with respect to the particular
00:15:08work that we're doing focused on people in the subway system in the most acute psychiatric crisis
00:15:14the problem that you're identifying that does impact people with mental illness generally is not
00:15:19really as much of an issue because we're getting those folks into a system where we're keeping close
00:15:24eyes on them and we are they are getting beds they are getting admitted to hospital care and we're able to
00:15:29track how they do over time sure would in the spirit of pope francis and what the mayor said
00:15:35would it be worthwhile these wealthy hospitals are doing plastic serving so much also stepped up
00:15:40because often the mental health crisis steps off in something and someone who may be totally secure
00:15:46middle class life is working fine one day and all of a sudden so shouldn't they try to emulate what
00:15:51you guys are doing in the private sector you're preaching to the choir on that i mean no question look
00:15:56psychiatric care is the least profitable thing that hospitals do right because hospitals make money
00:16:02by performing medical procedures and so even non-profit hospitals understandably are kind of bottom line
00:16:08oriented and and there is pressure on them to reduce psychiatric care and it's something we we need
00:16:14obviously help from the state and i think we're getting some uh to reverse some of those trends
00:16:18uh for the mayor mr mayor if albany doesn't come through with what you're asking for what can you do
00:16:28as the mayor to either enhance what's happening or take more control of what's happening
00:16:35and that's what we have been doing uh this has been a three-year pursuit and the first uh action is to
00:16:42acknowledge the problem and not ignore the problem uh it was a huge undertaking uh going into the streets
00:16:49and not allowing people with severe mental health illness to live on our streets uh you know the
00:16:55pushback was unbelievable uh we came under great uh criticism we were inhumane you know it was it was
00:17:03wrong what we were doing uh people were stopping and chaining themselves to prevent the tents from being
00:17:08removed off the streets but we did it and so uh we're going to ask for our help from our state
00:17:14lawmakers but we're not going to sit on our hands and uh brian has helped us carve out some real humane
00:17:21treatment this is what path came from this is what scout came from uh former members of the nypd's
00:17:26homeless unit stepped up and reached out to say listen we did this work before so we're doing our job
00:17:32and we're going to continue to do our part it makes life easier when we do some mandatory actions
00:17:38of holding people uh not just giving them medication for one day and allowing them go out the process was
00:17:45to you get someone that's that that's dealing with a severe mental health illness episode you bring them
00:17:51in you give them medicine for a day you let them back out you keep doing it until they do something
00:17:56harmful until they push someone to the subway until they slash someone uh to the uh you know a strike a
00:18:02woman who's walking down the block that's a that's a terrible system you can't have 51 percent of the
00:18:07people on rikers island with mental health illness and 18 to 20 percent with severe mental health
00:18:12illness we're criminalizing it and if we don't do proactive action we're going to continue to have
00:18:20these traumatic experience the uh the young lady who was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle
00:18:25this person had a history you look at these cases over and over again and you can't continue just to
00:18:33ignore it i believe the problem is that many people who are making these decisions they're not out there
00:18:40with lisa in these offices that's the problem you when it took me one day to walk in a subway station
00:18:49and approach i think i was with you nj you know walking up to a gentleman gentleman who was dealing
00:18:54with severe mental health illness i went over to him and said can we help him he almost went into a state
00:18:59of rage and lisa said something that is really important that many people overlook all these
00:19:06folks who are out there saying police should not be involved police should not be involved police
00:19:09should not be involved here's a nurse frontline nurse who's on the job she said this is a partnership
00:19:15you approach you approach someone who thinks they're waiting for a spaceship or believe everyone
00:19:21is the enemy or believe that someone is in harmony you approach them they can snap like that
00:19:26and a civilian that's not ready to be able to subdue that person that civilian could be in harm's way
00:19:33this is real work and it's challenging and we were willing to do it because we have of of you know
00:19:41professionals like lisa and these law enforcement officers i know one of the challenges um is the
00:19:47workforce of people working not just obviously in outreach but you work 28 years as psychiatric nurse
00:19:53what kind of message do you want to get out to the public maybe a student who's considering a career
00:19:57i know obviously it's talking about brian was saying that it's not the most lucrative right for
00:20:02hospitals but talking about how rewarding it's been for you to work with an often marginalized population
00:20:07that doesn't get the help that they desperately need i i you know i i believe everyone is designed
00:20:15they come with their own specific design um mr setton is a lawyer i believe he's designed for that
00:20:23look at the excitement when i said lawyer right he smiled right so i i you know i i i knew that
00:20:33this was my work um especially with um my background as well i was marginalized in my own home
00:20:40you know and a lot of us barely made it out of our childhoods right um and so i i i knew that i
00:20:46didn't want for anyone to feel that way if i had the power to make some sort of change um so i i it's
00:20:54funny because i'm working on a doctor right now and my plan is to write a book to get more people into
00:21:01nursing and really look at how you know that design and i think for nursing i think it's one of those
00:21:06disciplines that actually calls they beckon those that are meant to be um nurses yeah
00:21:19oh yes i'd like to ask so the article says that your team consists of five police officers
00:21:25and two homeless outreach workers are you the only team that's doing this or how many teams total
00:21:33consisting of five five police officers two outreach workers and i guess a head nurse yeah sure so we
00:21:41have two programs that are built on co-response in the subway system one is called scout it's a
00:21:47partnership with the mta pd and the other is path which you're seeing here which is with the nypd
00:21:53the path program operates five teams per night three that operate from 8 pm to midnight and then another
00:22:00two teams i'm sorry from 8 pm to 4 am and another two teams that operate from 4 am to noon the scout
00:22:07program also currently has five teams that operate in daytime hours 8 am to 4 pm they're about we're
00:22:15next month we're going to add five more of those scout teams with some funding support from the state so
00:22:20we'll be up to 10 teams doing this um mostly in the daytime we're going to get some scout teams out in the
00:22:25evening as well um and another five that are operating overnight and then in addition to that we
00:22:30also have some co-response teams that are part of our end of line operations we have another four
00:22:35that are embedded in the larger operations we do at end of line stations um where we're trying to get
00:22:41a lot of people services and into our shelter system but we also have nurses working closely with
00:22:47police officers at those at four end of line stations each night uh looking for people in psychiatric
00:22:52crisis to bring to the hospital and we're going to build up to five scout well so there's we're
00:22:59at five scout now we're going to build up to 10 scout and we have five path teams so that'll be 15
00:23:06and then another you know four to five operating at end of line operations so we're talking about about 20
00:23:11teams what is the difference between like if if you could have your druthers would you rather have
00:23:16more scout or would you rather have more path um the programs are really doing very similar things i
00:23:22mean they're i don't have a preference because they're all focused on finding people in psychiatric
00:23:27crisis getting them to the hospital i think the path teams have a little bit of a broader focus right
00:23:32they're also bringing a significant number of people into the shelter system who are not in acute
00:23:37psychiatric crisis um whereas the scout teams are operating in a daytime environment where there are other
00:23:43outreach teams on the ground that can be very time consuming sometimes they're kind of handing those
00:23:47folks who don't need to go to the hospital off to other teams through our non-profit partners
00:23:53but both teams really are laser focused on that mission of making sure people who can't recognize
00:23:58their own desperate need for hospital care are getting it and so uh you know as many of these
00:24:03teams as we can get out there that's what we're all about anybody else on this oh yeah go ahead
00:24:08i have a question for for the mayor that's all right thank you mr mayor mayor adams given the
00:24:16recurring concerns around the use of law enforcement and mental health interventions how does your
00:24:20administration plan to balance public safety with civil liberties when engaging people experiencing
00:24:26severe mental illness especially those in communities that already feel over police yeah you know um
00:24:33the it's important to find that balance and that is why what uh brian has created uh with these programs
00:24:41is to have our outreach workers and some of them amazing we had a few with us when we in the subway system
00:24:48with chief gulata and law enforcement that's the balance what many people tend to want to do is to have it
00:24:57merely a civilian you can't do that you have to have the balance they have to be well trained
00:25:05not to overreact sometimes the presence of the uniform intimidates people who are going through
00:25:11a crisis and that's why they know the proper distance but they they make sure that individuals
00:25:16are safe in the process and always hear this terminology about the neighborhoods that feel that police
00:25:22their communities are over please police i have never been in one community that stated to me eric
00:25:30take my police away never uh every community every town hall i go to every adult town hall i go to
00:25:38to to um i hear the same thing where are my police i want more police so those who sit in the sterilized
00:25:45environment of this safety or maybe live in a fort somewhere they have the luxury of saying they don't
00:25:51want police that's not what the communities that i visit say they want their police i've never heard
00:25:59in one town hall we feel over police i've heard just the opposite so the loudest is not the majority
00:26:09they want their police they want proper policing and they want support from their mental health
00:26:15professionals and i'm going to deliver that and i'm going to ignore the noise in the process
00:26:19of this okay thanks thanks to all of you
00:26:24Lisa thank you
00:26:26thank you
00:26:28thank you
00:26:40thank you
00:26:42good group good group
00:26:55hello jr i got a few more items i must touch on okay that's okay
00:27:01uh matter of fact congratulations jr to your great event i just want to finish up with some of the public
00:27:08safety stuff we're doing and uh really the connection of public safety uh is about education
00:27:15if you don't educate you will incarcerate we look at the number of people who uh are dealing with learning
00:27:21disabilities and lack of proper educational opportunities that are in rikers island it speaks
00:27:26for itself and so we announced uh yesterday we had an excited announcement expanding our successful
00:27:34evidence-based um foundational reading and math initiatives nyc reads and nyc solves uh the 2025
00:27:452026 school year a total of more than 490 000 students at 884 842 elementary schools
00:27:55and 102 middle schools would benefit benefit from this program a great program of new york city reads in
00:28:02new york city solve and just moving forward and giving children the fundamental uh tools they need
00:28:09to succeed and this is a permanent commitment of 167 million dollars for early childhood education
00:28:17hiring of 3700 new teachers in nearly 750 schools across the city a thousand new teachers who have
00:28:25already been hired and over 600 million dollars we invested in education this fiscal year 25
00:28:34and just moving on uh dealing with after they educate educated uh we want them to be employed and we
00:28:42again uh we are doing my favorite thing and that's breaking records for the 11th time we broke the all-time
00:28:49high jobs record with over 4.8 million total jobs in new york city and the goal is to just really have a
00:28:57holistic approach to make sure the city is the best place to raise children and families jr good morning
00:29:04mr mayor how are you how are you doing i am well uh first thanks for gracing us with your presence on
00:29:10saturday night every set uh awards uh you couldn't ask for a better mayor thank you uh so uh mr mayor
00:29:20as we talk about uh pope francis morning loss of this modest man uh you met with him what's one takeaway
00:29:28that you came away with uh from meeting with him that's one and uh the second question is new yorkers
00:29:36and a lot of elected officials are still up in arms about ice being at rikers island uh it's being said
00:29:44that it's not only violent criminals and gangbangers that are being deported people with minor infractions
00:29:52are being deported as well how do you respond to that uh first uh the takeaway you know i think
00:29:58lisa alluded to it's amazing how some people interact with hundreds of thousands millions of
00:30:05people but they have the unique ability to make each person they communicate with feel special
00:30:12that's a real uh art you know with all the hands you shake all the people you interact with
00:30:19you're able to have each individual feel as though for that moment he's or she's paying attention
00:30:28to to you and i met people throughout my life who has that ability and that's what i felt when i
00:30:33met him you know there was a line of people that he was interacting with but he was present when he
00:30:40was speaking with me he was not looking past me he was not looking to say who's next i have to speak
00:30:45with hey i'm shaking a hundred hands today no for this moment i'm present in front of eric adams not the
00:30:51mayor this individual who asked me to pray on behalf of peace uh globally particularly during the time we
00:30:59were dealing with some issues in the middle east that was my takeaway and your question about uh
00:31:05people are concerned who are these people i just don't know who these people you're talking about
00:31:11those who cover my my town halls are a great way to have a litmus test of for um what people are
00:31:20feeling on the ground in my town halls my i do senior uh old adult town halls i do youth town halls i do
00:31:27regular town halls and i get a feeling of what is concerning people we have not been in one town hall
00:31:34not one town hall now no one stopped me on the subway system no one stops me in the supermarket no one
00:31:40stopped me when i'm walking the street and say hey what is this ice on rikers island like who are
00:31:46these people this bubble that we live in you guys live in a bubble you don't even realize how much
00:31:51you're in the bubble you talk to each other you interact with each other uh you tweet each other you
00:31:56like each other tweaks you do a thumbs up you know this is all y'all rural this is not the world of
00:32:03everyday people you know what everyday people want they want dangerous people off this street
00:32:08that's who i hear and so the first deputy mayor is dealing with that this case is in is in court
00:32:14i'm not going to do anything to get in the way of that let the first deputy mayor and the
00:32:18court plays out and whatever way it goes i'm gonna follow the rule
00:32:22you know mr mayor uh the public advocate was on my show last week oh that's the people okay
00:32:29it starts with him and a few other people
00:32:35so let me say this let me say this let me say this yeah yeah yeah let me say this uh jr think about
00:32:41this for a moment public advocate wakes up at noon he he takes a nap until two he goes look around the
00:32:52fort to make sure the guards are awake and then he go back and take another nap
00:32:55then he looks at the press and say my job for over 200 000 is to find a way to criticize eric or
00:33:02something he leaves the fort with a security detail he has the army protecting him in that fort
00:33:11and then he's going to talk about everyday new york is should they how they should be safe tonight
00:33:15are you kidding me are you kidding me should i take him seriously
00:33:31i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry about this this whatever is happening
00:33:37i know you two like each other
00:33:41i wanted to follow up on iceland writers yesterday a temporary restraining order was put on that plan
00:33:47your thoughts about that and then it seems like this could get caught up in the ports would you ditch
00:33:52that effort for something else or why not talk to the city council who sued you about this they said that
00:33:57you guys haven't had any type of communications on about this particular plan um as i stated um this
00:34:03is in the courts um first deputy mayor if you want to do a gaggle with him he can answer all those
00:34:08questions um so can we arrange for him to do a gaggle with him because i don't want i don't do anything
00:34:13to interfere with what's in the court he wouldn't be able to sign the executive order if you didn't
00:34:20give him that authority so it does have to deal with you i'm glad you stated that i'm the mayor of the
00:34:26city and with that power of being the mayor i have the ability to delegate it delegate to competent
00:34:31people in my administration and thank god i do have a competent team that i can hand over items to
00:34:38like closing rikers uh like dealing with uh funding uh for our infrastructure there are a host of things
00:34:45and as the mayor if you don't know how to delegate and and ensure people can do the job you're gonna
00:34:50have a problem and so i delegated the issue to the deputy mayor and the press office sent over
00:34:57a statement yesterday and i'm going to refer you to that to that statement um it's in court let the
00:35:02court handle it what's up andrew how are you good so james comber republican chair of the house
00:35:09oversight committee has asked the attorney general of the united states to file criminal charges against
00:35:15andrew cuomo for his statements to congress about the nursing homes and the health report do you think
00:35:21you've said repeatedly you believe that the justice department acts with political intent in many
00:35:27cases and they did in yours do you believe if they charge andrew cuomo with the crime this is a
00:35:32continuation of political action rather than justice related action
00:35:36uh listen i um first of all i'm going to do to all those who are going through whatever they're going
00:35:47through legally anyone who's going through things legally i'm going to do uh to them what they didn't
00:35:53do to me i'm gonna let them handle their cases uh they have spokespersons they have legal teams
00:36:02uh they need to handle that and uh although i was not given that same level of respect um out of out
00:36:12of my uh years of public service and many of them knew me uh i'm not going to do to them what they did
00:36:18to me let them handle the case i have a city to run but you don't think this is political uh let them
00:36:24handle their case i have a city to run juliette juliet i'm sorry i thought i said that was my
00:36:33do you want to know chris yeah sure no i didn't call on my hands
00:36:41i'll keep it up i'll keep up my hand yes yes um have you heard from tom holman since the ruling
00:36:47yesterday the temporary restraining order on rikers and secondly um that along with um a couple other
00:36:54examples of your office in the city council being at odds in the last couple weeks i'm sorry i did
00:36:59what i didn't hear i'm sorry examples of your office and the city council being at odds recently
00:37:05the council reportedly wasn't looped in about the restoration of early childhood education funding
00:37:10your administration didn't show up at the council hearing on federal funding cuts last week
00:37:14the first fd mayor is accusing the city council speaker of misusing her position by demoting members
00:37:19who endorsed andrew como for mayor have your interactions been strained by the fact that the
00:37:24speaker is running to replace you and do you believe that the election is getting in the way
00:37:28of these bridges of government your office the city council the controller's office working together
00:37:33and hashing out a budget look no plane we're going to land the plane and uh what i was really
00:37:42surprised surprised surprised about is uh that um how underreported it was that two city council members
00:37:55lost their seats on the budget negotiation committee because they didn't endorse someone i'm amazed how
00:38:04underreported i can only imagine if i would have done that what you guys would have done to me you know
00:38:09it was it was it was it was it was underreported i mean the the the the the fact that two electeds
00:38:24lost their seats because they didn't endorse a candidate how is that not problematic that's that's a real
00:38:32issue that's a real issue and i believe the first deputy mayor was right for pointing that out
00:38:38uh we uh we uh we're in the middle of negotiation we can't use our uh uh authority as an elected uh
00:38:48to uh in any way benefit ourselves uh even with brad lander you know i was reading something the other
00:38:55day someone sent me a letter brad lander is to try to appease a pocket of people here he's not willing to
00:39:04invest in israel anymore to get endorsements from people you're not supposed to do that i mean you're
00:39:11not supposed to um say your decision of of of investment should be based on um outcomes how well
00:39:21the financial outcomes are but in spite of all of that the being the adult and not the cult allows me to
00:39:29put aside all of those personal things and get it done this is not the first time uh uh the speaker
00:39:37has been hostile to the things we want to do but we still pass the budget i don't walk around with
00:39:44you know with vendettas and attitudes i mean we now learn why she was trying to block everything i do
00:39:51you know but they say it's part of the business uh speakers have run against mayors before controllers
00:39:59have put up uh indicators of running scott stringer did it with bill de blasio he kept saying he was
00:40:05going to run he was going to run and so it's unfortunate when individuals use their personal
00:40:12ambition uh to get in the way of what we need to do for the city i've never done that i'm never going
00:40:18to do that and people have accused me of okay he's making his decisions based on his personal
00:40:26uh uh issues when my life has been so consistent no one is ever able to point to here's what you were
00:40:34doing then that you're not doing now you were never able to do that i'm the same eric the same eric
00:40:41but we're seeing what they're doing um it's not going to get in the way we're going to land
00:40:45we're going to land a plane we're going to get the budget done in spite of the name calling that
00:40:50they're doing in spite of all that they're doing they have they have um uh really dedicated their
00:40:56lives to get in the way of all the stuff we've done for the city but in spite of all they've done
00:41:01more jobs in the city history crime is down employment is down we're financing our schools even with
00:41:10fiscal cliffs we're able to do it uh all the stuff we've done is not because of them but in spite of
00:41:19them and we're going to land the plane with this budget how are you doing i'm all right um one
00:41:27noteworthy thing about pope francis was his really profound empathy for the downtrodden and immigrants
00:41:35do you have any concerns that your sort of emphasis on crimes committed by migrants is sort of unfair
00:41:42given that migrants actually commit fewer crimes on a per capita actually commit fewer crimes on a per
00:41:49capita basis than u.s citizens i don't understand the question my question is you you are sort of
00:41:55publicly mourning pope francis who had a really sort of noteworthy empathy for immigrants so the question
00:42:02is do you have any regrets about your emphasis on the crimes committed by migrants given that
00:42:08statistically they commit crimes at a less frequent rate than u.s citizens well uh tell me what is a
00:42:14greater level of empathy for migrants than someone who takes in 240 000 190 000 or going on with their next
00:42:23level of their lives who educated 40 000 children who ensured their legal services who ensured that they were
00:42:31housed clean um clean uh clean environment uh clothing fed uh national leaders uh dana has stated
00:42:42that eric you have done what no other city has done what is a greater level of empathy than than providing
00:42:51for them and i don't point out that when undocumented people commit a crime i point out when anyone commits
00:43:00it's a crime and so if you are documenting or undocumented and you shoot a police officer or you rape
00:43:06a child or you uh rape a 14 year old child up in harlem uh and then you're out and a few days later
00:43:14when you hurt innocent people i'm going to push against you and i've done that regardless if you
00:43:20if you're documented or undocumented i'm on the side of innocent people new yorkers and americans that are being
00:43:28victimized by any group you know so i know what side i'm on the question is is whose side are you on
00:43:34i'm on the side of broken class people who are being victimized by anyone a small number of people
00:43:41in the city and in this country victimized innocent people and i'm not going to say because you're
00:43:48undocumented i'm not going to talk about you no i'm going to talk about anyone that victimizes
00:43:54innocent people in the city i'm on the side of broken class innocent people the question many
00:44:00people need to start asking themselves is whose side are they on um good morning mayor how are you
00:44:07nj i'm doing well thank you sir thank you given all that you uh said on ice and rikers or or not said
00:44:15on ice and rikers uh are you willing to uh reaffirm your support for due process for anyone
00:44:23arrested in new york city due process is clear i'm a i'm a strong believer in due process uh don't
00:44:30you know don't rewrite my history i tell people all the time i was a ranking member of crime and
00:44:37corrections in the state senate i visited many of the correctional facilities in the state strong
00:44:42advocate uh for the abuse of stop and frisk testified in federal court floyd versus the new york
00:44:49city police department the federal judge mentioned my testimony on the one of the reasons for ruling
00:44:55against the police department she saw me on the street matter of fact when i was running for office
00:45:00and she said what are people talking about here when it comes down to you you were the leading voice
00:45:05of reform in law enforcement due process is the cornerstone of who we are as a democracy we should
00:45:11always have that that due process and we should never move away from it it's crucial and no one knows
00:45:16that better than me uh a due process and so yes i reaffirm my commitment that people must have due
00:45:24process and and and the courts make that determination the courts should determine if due process was used
00:45:30and if it was not if it was not used and listen i critique the criminal justice system but um it's
00:45:37the best criminal justice system we have on the globe and i've traveled internationally and witness
00:45:43what happens when you don't have a due process criminal justice system with all the critiques i
00:45:47have uh i i love the system we have because there are ways to ensure you get your due process
00:45:55so sir if somebody gets scooped up off the street and and you know not charged specifically with any kind
00:46:02of crime doesn't go to trial uh and get sent to a gulag in el salvador you have a problem with that no
00:46:09there's a court system that would determine if someone's right was violated and what i do know
00:46:15about doing investigations like one case uh where an individual of the courts made the determination he
00:46:23could be deported there was a big outcry that he should not be deported there are evidence you know
00:46:27if you're hanging out if you're handing out literature um lifting up hamas uh which is a terrorist
00:46:34organization if you're trying to recruit to do so if you damage property because you want to
00:46:38break into a building somewhere on the college campus uh you know there are out repercussions
00:46:44because because of that and so the court makes that determination i know people think being mayor
00:46:50you make the determination on everything i don't there are uh areas of our uh government and judicial
00:46:59system i know my role i'm not going to tell my the police officers to go out and break laws to do
00:47:05anything courts make the determination of the outcome but i will tell you this uh we have dangerous gangs
00:47:12in our city and i would not be sipping um you know uh drinks with them i would not turn them into heroes
00:47:22uh you know i would not be sharing a tito's incelsior with them you know i'm not going to romanticize
00:47:29bad people that do bad things i'm not going to do that and i'm going to call it the way it is
00:47:34we have dangerous gangs in this city that are harmful to migrants documented and undocumented
00:47:42people so if uh if those who want to lift up these gang members and um domestic abusers uh that um their
00:47:52wives have uh complaints on their domestic abuse uh i'm not going to be drinking tequila with them
00:48:02hey mr mayor how you doing what's going on not too much um can i set up an interview with joe you
00:48:07know that she didn't do that yet okay um your administration joined the congestion pricing lawsuit
00:48:16yes uh i'm just wondering if you can talk about what you see as some of the benefits of congestion
00:48:20pricing and why the city's joining well uh we have to deal with congestion on our streets we know
00:48:27that well not only does it is it an environmental issue that's why we fought to get a hundred million
00:48:32dollars for those uh for those communities that have an environmental impact uh you know congestion
00:48:40hurts our business i speak to business leaders the time of deliveries uh it's an issue but we got to
00:48:46get it right i've said it over and over again we have to get it right um you know i don't want to
00:48:50negatively impact working class people uh i don't want to uh make sure we displace the traffic into
00:48:58other communities like stanton island the bronx and other areas i don't want to turn you know outside
00:49:03the outskirt of queensborough bridge uh into a place where people are driving parking you know so we just
00:49:09have to give it right we have to get thinking through that's the job of the mta and the governor and i
00:49:15said that over and over again that is their job i wish it would have been in the hands of the mayor
00:49:21and the city council but i don't have that control this you know we creatures of the state now they
00:49:26made the determination i respect the determination how are you doing i'm good how are you good good um
00:49:34just to follow up on that real fast um did you so is that one of the things you guys are hoping that
00:49:40you guys can work out you said you don't want it to have a negative impact on working class people
00:49:45are you hoping maybe to change how um it's charged that toll um and while this lawsuit's playing out
00:49:52and then also um on on the breakers um you know you held a press conference last year wanting rikers or
00:49:59excuse me eyes back on rikers i guess what is your hesitance maybe now to speak you know a little bit
00:50:05more about it maybe just its impact and its importance you know you know what's interesting
00:50:10the the first person that brought that to me about um utilizing uh rikers um ice on rikers was uh
00:50:20councilman holden this is before before this administration took off and holden reached out
00:50:27uh as a matter of fact i have a few text messages from him that's saying listen why aren't we doing this
00:50:32this was this was one of his ideas that he sends me a lot of ideas but again it's not a fear of
00:50:39speaking of anything it's in court you know i i respect the the uh the judicial process it's in court um
00:50:47uh why uh delegated to the first deputy mayor if um uh if i am going to you know all of a sudden
00:50:57uh say you know i want to hijack the conversation it's in court and uh the democratic member of the
00:51:01council as part of the speaker's caucus he was one that brought this he was the first one that talked
00:51:06about this pre um this administration getting in office and so i think that that's part of the
00:51:12conversation to speak with him and say tell us about the conversation you had with eric pre
00:51:17this administration getting in office and he was advocating he was almost annoying me
00:51:21you know so all of this is mystery this is not a mystery this is something that he thought of
00:51:36and you know none of this in court let the court decide and you know maybe the speaker should call
00:51:41him in as part of her witness to see how long he wanted this um then on congestion pricing are you
00:51:49hoping there might be some kinks that are still worked out with congestion pricing maybe just
00:51:53i'm gonna continue to advocate for working class people that's important to me we put 30 billion
00:51:58dollars back in the pockets of working class people paying to uh excuse medical debt uh free high
00:52:05speed broadband dropping the cost of child care uh you know forcing care of children my goal is to
00:52:11put money back into the pockets of working class people and so i'm gonna continue to advocate to do
00:52:17that you know what's going on craig what's happening so um back in october last year yes that you defended
00:52:26acs there was a horrific death of a four-year-old yeah and um but so now we're here again not even a year
00:52:33later um you know you said at that time you wanted to have a review of what happens it didn't happen
00:52:37again you know young new yorkers should die like this so now we have another instance a four-year-old
00:52:42girl who died over the weekend or was found dead over the weekend acs at door knocks it clearly it
00:52:47seems like they did not properly do their job so in the review from the last case what is your
00:52:51administration doing to prevent these from happening because it's the buck stops with you and then
00:52:56secondly on your mayoral race are you concerned at all you and andrew cuomo are kind of aiming for that
00:53:02same kind of voter base to the moderate are you a little bit concerned here that if this becomes
00:53:06a four-way race between you uh cuomo and then the working families party whether that's lander
00:53:11madani and then uh curtis liwa that you're taking away votes from somebody like cuomo leading to
00:53:18a far-left candidate which you clearly don't agree with taking the city hall uh uh uh no i'm not and
00:53:23if anything he's taking votes away from me i'm the man you know why is he in my race you know
00:53:29you know i mean like you said you said am i taking votes from him i'm the mayor you know so if anything
00:53:36um i was here already you know why are you in my race you know i'm saying go find go find like it's
00:53:43like almost when you have a a a house somewhere and someone is trying to move in it's like go find your
00:53:48own house you know so think about that for a moment you know you taking votes from him oh how about him
00:53:55taking votes from me i was the moderate first i didn't pass bail reform that saw these problems
00:54:01i didn't have a nursing home uh a crisis i didn't do a disproportionate amount of um of you know issues
00:54:09around uh the problems with uh dissemination of vaccines and testing um i i'm not living in my
00:54:18daughter's house i had my own house in new york you know so so i mean you said eric are you taking
00:54:24votes from him i mean what are you doing on my block
00:54:31you're going as an independent into the general it's seemingly going to pick you two against each
00:54:36other for those same votes what i'm saying is that are you worried though that even though
00:54:40say it happens either way he takes votes from you you take votes from him it could
00:54:43completely end up with somebody like a lander we know you do not like or a mendon who do not
00:54:48either agree with at all well well i i don't find some based on his remember i'm running on my record
00:54:55he's running from his record when you looked at what he allowed the far left to do when he was in
00:55:03office i'm not sure he wouldn't allow that to do again you know and then when you look at the fact
00:55:09during difficult and tough times i didn't abandon the city no matter how difficult it was for me
00:55:17no matter how hard it was for me i said to the people of new york i was elected to serve you and i'm
00:55:26going to continue to serve you whatever happens to me and i'm going to continue to do that but what
00:55:31we should never do we should never discount the electoral process the process ends in november
00:55:40and everyone who's in that race must go through that process we're not coordinate coordinating
00:55:47anyone we're making everyone go through the process and i'm looking forward to getting reelected
00:55:54on um an independent line as a democrat that's what i'm looking forward to yes i'm sorry yeah yeah
00:56:02i can't you know that's another one of those um that's another one of those circumstances that i
00:56:09continue to say uh those of you who cover these stories you know you should spend time
00:56:17going with the employees that that do this work you know because you can't really cover these stories
00:56:23without going through it and i really will encourage you to go out and spend a day with an acs employee
00:56:33because here it is you get and you get employees who are criticized for taking children away too
00:56:39prematurely you get criticized for why didn't you take a child away you get criticized because why did
00:56:47you knock on that door so hard why did you take the door you get criticized for not taking the door
00:56:52you if you go out and spend time with them and see how they have to make these decisions how they have
00:57:00to do this investigation that is why i take my hat off to them the hundreds of thousands of uh interviews
00:57:08of meetings of sit-downs of having to use that sixth sense to make these determinations and so it's
00:57:16horrific to have a baby left in the house her mom passed her her her her sibling passed and the acs
00:57:25you think acs knocked on that door and say i'm not going to do the investigation i'm not concerned
00:57:30with what's happening behind that door that's just not the reality you know i've embraced acs since
00:57:35my days of borough president i marched across the bridge with them i heard them call for reform i
00:57:40saw the commitment and dedication i saw how traumatized they are when they lose a child or a
00:57:47victim of this this is painful you know and we see that as just being professional but it's not as
00:57:53personal to them many of them go through a great deal of trauma when a case like this happens and so
00:58:00um i stand with my employees in acs i know their commitment i know their dedication we're going to
00:58:07do an investigation find out what happened here and do our best to prevent it from happening and god
00:58:12knows how many cases they say we you never you don't you never hear about the lives they save you hear
00:58:19about uh a life that is lost but they save thousands of lives because of their actions and you know how many
00:58:28people stand up and applaud them how many times do we like i said with these with with uh lisa the
00:58:33nurse and these officers when was the last time we wrote a story that applaud the men and women of acs
00:58:43that have saved the lives of children when the when the last time we wrote that when the last time
00:58:47that we said they went on x hundreds of thousands of cases and you you don't have any uh laws when the
00:58:55last time we did a deep dive into the trauma of being an acs employee and when the last time you
00:59:00guys just went out with one of them and said let me just do some house visits to you let me let me
00:59:05walk into a community where there was just a shooting last week and i'm still going to knock on that door
00:59:09like when have you ever gone out i know you write about when we have a loss of life but have you ever
00:59:16gone out and saw the work of being an acs investigator an acs employee i mean that is how that's why i go
00:59:24out with police officers that's why i go out uh with transit workers and others because i said before
00:59:30i make decisions on your life i need to go out and see what is your life you guys are writing about the
00:59:36lives of people who are saving the lives of people and you never even walked in their shoes you never even
00:59:42experienced what it is to knock on that door and look in that household and say i got to make a
00:59:48judgment call am i going to take this child and then if you take the child you have a whole new group
00:59:53are saying you prematurely taking children away from parents and breaking up households this is real
00:59:59folks you got you got did you get my my my brother in the back yes yes how are you i'm good how are you
01:00:07good good i got two questions i used to have hair that long man um when you were in dc uh did you
01:00:15have any uh time to meet with anyone from the trump administration to discuss about the unpausing of
01:00:20the empire on wind farm um and then secondly um there was an uproar in bedstuy about the removal of a
01:00:27black superintendent um what do you say to the black community members of bedstuy they're upset of the
01:00:33first the lack of black educators and second the removal of the superintendent the um what we have
01:00:42done around uh people of color being superintendents and uh playing the role uh of those who are making
01:00:53the decision from chancellor banks to uh uh chancellor uh melissa uh aviles ramos um showed that diversity
01:01:03is important to us and quality because they're both qualitative uh leaders um the issue and best
01:01:09eye we spoke with leaders in our community and we know we're going to come to a resolution uh you know
01:01:18best eye you know that's that's my home you know uh district 16 is crucial and so we're going to sit
01:01:25down and we're going to explain to them what we're doing why we're doing and we're sure we're going to come
01:01:29to a resolution with that and i had a great conversation with several of the leaders there
01:01:33and we're going to be able to land the plane yes yeah i did not meet with um anyone from the
01:01:41administration i was there at the african american mayor's association uh it was a great gathering a
01:01:48great meeting uh we did not meet with anyone um with the administration but we have been reaching out to
01:01:56to talk about uh you know the the project is crucial you know the wind farm uh that we're creating with
01:02:03some it was a vision and a dream i had since my days of our president uh we're talking about you know
01:02:08powering uh half a million homes uh this is real energy and we're going to continue to communicate
01:02:15and speak with them and we're going to get our unions engaged because these are union jobs these are great
01:02:19union jobs and we can lead the way here uh on the eastern uh seaboard yes in the theme of blue-collar
01:02:30workers and essential workers earlier on i asked you about the role that undocumented folks played as
01:02:36deliveries does as working on our common care facilities and the last couple of months the trump
01:02:43administration there's been a punitive vibe there's been a discussion about taking people
01:02:48away deporting them would you be willing to speak up on behalf of these people that served us during
01:02:52the pandemic and did essential work so that they could have some kind of legal status so they don't
01:02:58have to hide in the shadows well listen we don't want anyone hiding in the shadows that's dangerous
01:03:03i always talk about the officer uh i mean when i was a police officer in district two during my beginning
01:03:09years in policing a chinese immigrant was robbed and i heard him i was on the train at the time going home
01:03:17and uh he didn't want to go to the police because he was afraid he was going to be deported and people
01:03:23were preying on immigrants during that time particularly chinese immigrants because of the language barrier
01:03:29and the unwillingness uh to report crimes out of fear of deportation and so it's it's a handicap and
01:03:37it impacts our city if people number one don't take their children to school because that's the safest
01:03:43place for a child if not they could be subject to so many different issues number two if you're dealing
01:03:48with a medical issue you should go to the hospital if not the long-term impact would overcrowd our
01:03:52emergency rooms uh three uh you should go to your houses of worship you should go to your jobs
01:03:58uh you should always participate and i've said this over and over again and you know remember when
01:04:06the election was over uh there was just this loud cry that all of a sudden uh we're going to see
01:04:12this terrible environment in our city and i kept saying that's not that's not happening ice has not
01:04:18been in one of our schools they have not raided our churches they have not raided our our jobs they have
01:04:24not raided our hospitals and so the hysteria that was created were those who wanted to create that
01:04:30hysteria and i kept being consistent go to school go to your job go to your house of worship go to the
01:04:36hospital call the police if you need it but we that's what we have witnessed and so we have to
01:04:42encourage people to continue with their lives and as the challenges come in front of us i'm a fight on
01:04:49behalf of the people of the city i have an obligation to do that and i lived up to that obligation and i
01:04:55continue to say um we gave free legal services to migrants and asylum seekers we gave free education
01:05:04to the children of the things that were needed we did and we should be proud of that other networks
01:05:12and saying people are being rounded up in other jurisdictions is there something unique that you've
01:05:17negotiated with the trump administration that keeps us from that happening i'm the i'm the mayor of not
01:05:24other jurisdictions i know new york city is the city of the globe but i'm the mayor of new york i must
01:05:31protect the residents of this city i have done that i have done it on every level from victimizing crimes
01:05:41to sex trafficking to educating children all the indicators of if a mayor protected the people who
01:05:48are in his city i pass them i pass them regardless of how people want to paint me and depict me when
01:05:57you do an analysis of the number and not the noise you cannot walk away saying this mayor has not
01:06:03protected the people of this city and that's what i'm going to continue to do on every level i mean you
01:06:08know is it lost on you that we had the lowest number of shootings of shootings in the city and recorded
01:06:15history second lowest number of homicides dropped down all of our major crimes managed 240 000 migrants
01:06:22and asylum seekers i mean what else do i need to do before we're going to realize that this mayor knew
01:06:29what he was doing he navigated us through covet he navigated us through crime he navigated us through
01:06:35migrants and asylum seekers he brought back all of our jobs second largest number of tourism in the history
01:06:40of the city dealt with the fiscal cliffs they it would be 89 percent of our union contracts are settled
01:06:4990 something percent of us pass all of our legislation up in albany what else must i do