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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Launch of Strong Cities Network

September 29, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: First of all, I can assure I fully have received your message, and I thank you for your characterization of our city. You managed to do it in a very diplomatic fashion, so I commend you. I want to thank you for the way you framed this discussion because I think you’ve gotten to the heart of the matter – to focus on our strengths, and that our true strengths are strengths of inclusion, and of serving people and reaching people. I want to speak about that for just a few minutes, but it’s something that we in New York City value intensely as our ideal [inaudible] of what an inclusive society can achieve – how we’ve overcome so many issues of the past by evermore inclusive approach.

I want to thank you all of you for being a part of this discussion. I want to welcome you as mayor of New York City. This is a time of year where we’re honored to host the United Nations, and host leaders from around the world, and to recognize the power that these gatherings bring and I want to say to my fellow mayors. We are in the vanguard of change around the world as the High Commissioner indicated. And we should hold ourselves to a high standard. We’re able to do things locally that in many ways can set the pace for our national governments, and for the international community.

So, really, there should be nowhere better at inclusion and understanding diversity and openness, no part of our world should be better at that than our cities. So we have a special obligation to achieve those ideals and to show our people that we’re relentlessly working on them.

I want to thank, as well someone key to this process – Sasha Havlicek, the CEO for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. She’s been a key player, really Strong Cities Network to life, thank you Sasha, for your [inaudible] leadership. We thank you for all you’ve done to bring today together.

Now, this city never could have achieved all it has achieved without a tremendous diversity, and acknowledgement and respect for diversity. Say, if New York City has had a secret formula, it is in that this [inaudible] very origins as the city of today, it has been a place that rewarded inclusion of people from all over the world, are way that wasn’t true in many other places. Something about being an open city, an inclusive city, actually grew the most positive energies of people from all over the world and allowed us to be what we are.

So, we don’t see diversity as a negative, or something to manage or overcome. We see diversity as a prerequisite to success, and we see it as a vital part of a working democracy. This is, I think, therefore, a fitting place to talk about the launch of the Strong Cities Network, and what it can be, and what it can achieve. This network is different; it is unlike any other effort that we’ve seen before to counter violent extremism because it recognizes the tools the High Commissioner spoke of, recognizes some of the most powerful impediments to violence are some of the most human, and grassroots dynamics within our reach – that creation of an atmosphere and a reality that they’re calling respect and inclusion. And that that formula is powerful in all parts of the world. This network recognizes that the first and most sacred calling of government is to protect our people, to protect their lives and well-being. And that to do that, we have to redouble our focus on those things that [inaudible] us the most – our respect for human rights, our respect for civil liberties, and our focus on learning from that which works, not [inaudible] all our ideas that are not put into practice, but from trying things on the ground at the grassroots, and learning together what actually works, what moves hearts and minds, what brings people closer together.

These are principles we can act on through the Strong Cities Network. I think so many of us, through the work we have done in our cities, we understand something fundamental – the most powerful way to counter violent extremism is to go to the core. The core is intolerance. When we address intolerance, when we undermine intolerance, in the process, we undermine extremism and violence. And so our job is to do something that we talk about in our foundational documents in the United States, that is to create a more perfect union – one of the most beautiful and powerful phrases in our first documents – this speaks to something broader. I think we all experience and understand creating that more perfect union, creating that city that everyone feels they belong in, that everyone sees opportunity through.

That sense of social cohesion comes from the facts on the ground, not just our words but our deeds and the way we govern – the way govern and show people that everyone has opportunity and meaning in the society. That is the pathway to cohesion – creating an atmosphere of respect and cohesion. We all have seen what happens when parts of our cities, parts of our populations don’t feel respected and they don’t see overt and consistent signs of respect. When there aren’t those lines of communication, people know. We all understand our constituents. We’ve all lived close to the people of our communities. People know when they’re being heard, and they know when they’re being excluded.

If we create an atmosphere of true respect and communication, it will cross religious lines, and cultural lines, and racial lines, and all other lines, and it will be [inaudible]. And that, in its very being, will help us to address discrimination and bigotry – those elements of our society that stand in the way of understanding. Our people will know if they’re truly included, if they feel they’re truly a part of the fabric of our cities and our nation.

Now, we know in the work of protecting people, law enforcement plays a crucial role. But I see an incredible opportunity in the Strong Cities Network that is going far beyond the work of law enforcement, going to some of the things that all of us know we can do better – the nurturing of our youth – in particular, youth leadership – positive leadership that can help to move other youth towards positive outcomes in our society; improving education; improving your economic opportunities; and of course, social and health services – the things that show people they’re cared for, the things that show people that there really is a future for them.
We grapple with these issues here in New York City. We are blessed as a city. We are strong in many, many ways, but we’ve had our share of problems. And we’ve had divisions over the decades that we’ve had to constantly stare in the face of and overcome. Even in recent years, we’ve had to make policy changes to address some of the pain and some of the separation of the past. That’s why, in terms of our approach to policing, we ended a policy that was broken and we ended the practice of stop and frisk, which was creating a rift between our police and our communities. We closed down a unit of our police force that had been known as the demographics unit. It was widely seen to focus particularly on our Muslim-American communities. It had become a wedge that didn’t need to be there. 

Two examples – one more associated with African-American and Latino communities, the other associated more with our Muslim-American communities – two examples of when government policies sadly and inadvertently created some distance between the people and their government, when in fact our mission is to constantly imbue in our people the sense that the government is at one with them. We’ve made those changes and we’ve seen already, just over the last two years, the positive effect of removing some of the negatives when you open up the possibility of greater closeness in the community.

We’ve done positive things too – new things that [inaudible] existence that we believe in inclusion and respect. We’ve started something we’re very proud of in the IDNYC program. It’s a municipal identification card for all people who live in New York City, and crucially important – it does not discriminate based on whether an individual who lives here happens to have documentation by our national government. We recognize there’s almost half-a-million people in New York City who are “undocumented.” But in the eyes of New York City, they’re our fellow New Yorkers. They’re just as important, just as worthy of respect as anyone else. They have a right to an identification card that opens up many doors for them. And so far in this city of 8.5 million people, just this year alone – over half-a-million people have signed up for such an identification card because it means something to them to feel included. It’s not just a practical measure, it has that virtue as well. But it’s powerfully an example of belonging.

We also took a step – a simple but [inaudible] extraordinarily powerful step because some of our communities – and again, this shows the breadth of the thinking we can bring to the Strong Cities Network – some of our communities felt excluded because their children were not able to practice their religion fully and see their religious holidays recognized by our school system. And so, because we have a very large Asian-American community that’s represented in our school system, and a very large Muslim-American community that’s represented in our school system, as a matter of law, we changed our school calendar and recognized the two Eid holidays in the Muslim calendar and the Asian Lunar New Year holiday. An official act, which all of our school children take a day off from school the same way they would for Christian or Jewish holidays, sent a powerful message of inclusion and a very practical impact for people’s lives as well.

We know that our efforts to combat extremism must be seen as universal. Extremism – and I say this ironically, but it’s a true statement – extremism doesn’t discriminate. It comes in many forms. It comes from many different backgrounds and ideologies. Our mission should be to address extremism in all of its forms so that the possibility of reaching people at the grassroots is an antidote across all those communities and those forums. That sense of respect and inclusion works regardless of what type of extremism we’re addressing.

You know, today’s a day many people are focused on particular issues in this country. So, it’s pertinent to say in 1994, people were lost – lives were lost in the bombing of a Planned Parenthood facility in Massachusetts. That was one form of extremism. We saw a very powerful and tragic incident in [inaudible] recently where children were slaughtered in another form an extremism. We all felt deeply around the world – the tragedy in Paris after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. And in a different way in this country, not so long ago – and something we still feel the pain of – the shootings in Charleston, South Carolina in a house of worship. Each of these forms of extremism were different, but they have so much in common that we need to address, and we will. And we know that for those who suffer as a result of extremism, they don’t parse and focus on the definition of what type of extremism took away their loved one, or their family member, or split their community apart. To them, there’s a sad [inaudible] that any violent extremism had the same result in their lives.

The Strong Cities Network will be a message to all families who have lost loved ones because of extremism that something is being done in a new and powerful way. We will be vigilant against all forms of violent extremism, whether it’s based in religious, or racial, or nationalistic, or ideological intolerance. That will be a power of this network. We will focus always where the need is greatest, and that sense of universality will strengthen this effort in so many ways.

Each of our cities faces different realities, and being in this network certainly allows for us to have the flexibility to address our realities and needs. At the same, we’re going to work for each other, be strengthened by each other. In the end, we know a lot about what it takes to build trust with our communities at the local level. We know how important it is to be honest about what’s standing in the way of that trust. But that very discussion of saying why – why are some of our people not feeling – why do they not feel connected? What are we missing? That is part of reaching a solution. We’re all interested in protecting our people while embracing all of our people, all of our communities, all of our neighborhoods – bringing government closer to the grassroots – it’s one of the best ways we can protect our people.

With that, I very much look forward to working with all of you in common cause. And I think this is the kind of effort that will lead to a safer and more just world. And now, it’s my profound pleasure and honor to introduce the next speaker. I have to say, as an American, I could not be more proud of our attorney general. What she’s done throughout her life has been dedicated to the protection of people of all kinds, of all backgrounds equally. And if you look at her work, she has devoted herself to the fight against inequality in so many ways, and upheld the most noble traditions of the justice department. All of you know the history of this nation over the last half-century, in particular of the justice department. [inaudible] of recognizing the discrimination we had to overcome, the intolerance we had to overcome in our nation. Well, now we have an attorney general who epitomizes that fight and has been so effective within it. It’s my honor to introduce the attorney general of the United States, Loretta Lynch.

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