Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bratton Host Press Conference to Discuss Crime Statistics

September 6, 2016

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lihHMvpUhws

Commissioner William Bratton, NYPD: Okay, good afternoon. This afternoon's crime conference briefing will discuss, very specifically, the month that has just passed, August. We will also take a look at the context of the summer months – June, July, and August in historical terms. And then, we will take a look at year-to-date.

I will be introducing the Mayor in just a moment. At the table with me, also, on my left, your right is Dermot Shea, Deputy Commissioner who will provide the overall crime briefing. Chief O'Neill, Chief of Department – Jim O'Neill will discuss a summary of the weekend events – the Labor Day weekend events in the City. Over to my right, your left we have [inaudible] at the table, Bob Boyce. Bob will discuss some arrests that have been made in reference – an arrest that's been made in reference to the J'Ouvert murders. He'll provide additional details on that as well as his [inaudible]; if you have questions on other crimes that a few of your readers or your viewers might be interested in. We also have, to Bob's left, Chief of Patrol, Carlos Gomez who's – this summer among his many activates in the various events that we're involved with – has been dealing with the issue of the off the road dirt bikes, ATVs as they are commonly referred to; something that we have had great success dealing with this summer. He will briefly provide an update on that; and then, Ben Tucker, our First Deputy Commissioner.

This is my last formal press briefing around the issue of crime summary. It is a practice that we began, as you're aware, within several months of assuming this position when Mayor de Blasio appointed me in 2014. It is part of the increasing efforts to have more transparency around this very particular issue. And I thank the Mayor for his attendance at many of these events. Additionally, what we have tried to do with these crime briefings is expose you to the larger leadership team of the Department that you have now all become very familiar with – most of whom are at this table to press upon you the depth of talents, skills, and capabilities of this organization that are reflective in these briefings.

[Inaudible] is indicated in the press release, I believe, that many of you already received that 1994, when I first became Commissioner, was at that time the safest summer that the Department had experienced in modern times. And as I am leaving the stage, as Dermot Shea will be reflecting, summer 2016 is the safest in the last 20-some-odd years. So, I am leaving as I began; with very good crime numbers and it is something that I hope that, as we go forward, there's an appreciation that what we tried to do with these crime briefings is [inaudible] upon you; that from time to time there will be a spike in certain crimes, but that we in the Department are very good at precision policing – focusing on those spikes very quickly as they emerge – the two, three, four incidents before they are 20 or 30 and then trying to press upon you in the media as you attempt to tell the story of crime in the City that you understand that you have to look at the larger picture and not just the immediate spike or incident because it is in the longer term; whether it is the 30 days that we report normally, or in this case the 90 days of the summer or the first nine months of this year. That's where you actually get the clearer picture of is crime up or is it down. I'm pleased to report that during the Mayor and I – our time together – with this leadership team, that crime over these three years has continued to go down; something that was very much in doubt back in 2013. And it's my projection that as I step from the stage and the Mayor appoints Jim O'Neill as my successor that I think you will see a continued prioritization, focus, and similar results going forward.

With that, it is my privilege to introduce Mayor de Blasio at our last crime conference together.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you.

Commissioner Bratton: Thank you for the opportunity.

Mayor: Well, I'm so glad you said yes. And I congratulate you Commissioner Bratton for all that you achieved in your second tour of duty as commissioner with this police force. And I really want to tell you it's been an honor to serve with you for 32 months now – 32 months we've been able to provide these briefings. And it is extraordinary what the Commissioner and this leadership team and the men and women of the NYPD have achieved over these 32 months. But what I want to emphasize is we have to put Commissioner Bratton's work in lifetime context. So, I want to give you a statistic that he hasn't shared with you, but I think it's important to understand. Around the time before Commissioner Bratton took over his first time – and a lot of you remember this – New York City had some years in the early 90s over 2,000 murders a year. It's because of what Commissioner Bratton put in place and so many other great leaders of this Department put in place; creating CompStat and precision policing and a whole new approach. From 1994 to the present so much has changed. And this progress has been sustained. Look around the country, we see some very painful situations in other cities. This City has the blessing because of this hard work that was done of being able to say for 22 straight years we've been moving in the right direction – always, always more work to do, never a question about that, but for 22 years moving in the right direction. So, this is a way of giving you the ultimate statistic; that if Commissioner Bratton and Jack Maple and so many other good people had not created CompStat, had not put us on the pathway of precision policing, had not made the changes to make this police force so much more effective; if we God forbid had stayed around that kind of level of homicides, literally, 29,000 more New Yorkers would have been lost to us in the intervening years. 29,000 people who I believe their lives were saved because of the changes that were made starting back in 1994. That's as many people as live in Red Hook, Brooklyn or Little Neck, Queens or Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan. So, it's clear that we have always challenges to focus on. There's always another problem we have to address, but it is also important sometimes to take stock of what progress was made and what innovation led to it. And Commissioner, I just want to thank you again. I will never tire of thanking you for all that you have done for this city.

Now, I want to thank all the leadership here today because in today's dynamic the numbers that we're about to go over with you are the result of their hard work and, again, the hard work of so many men and women in this police department. And precision policing is making the difference. So, here – you'll hear from Deputy Commissioner Dermott Shea the details – but here is the bottom line; summer of 2016, June through August, those three months were in fact the safest summer since we began keeping statistics. Overall index crimes, again, reminding you that's major violent crimes and robberies – overall index crimes saw a major drop of 5.6 percent compared to those three months last summer. In the same time frame, shootings down 3.5 percent, robberies down almost 10 percent compared to last summer. This means the people of this city are safer and, obviously, also, means our officers are safer, the more we succeed in combatting crime. We want to emphasize some of the extraordinary efforts that have been taken over these last months, particularly the gang takedowns, which have been at a record clip. Those gang takedowns not only take guns off the street, they take a lot of the people who do the most violence off the street. And that has been one of the great successes in recent months. But all that being true does not take away from a sense that we have a lot more work to do. I always talk about the fact that Bill Bratton doesn't rest on his laurels, doesn't even know to rest on his laurels and that has been a great example to all of us.

We know there's a lot more work to do. We, literally, do not accept a single homicide, a single shooting as acceptable. And therefore we've got our work cut out for us going forward to continue this progress to make sure all our neighbors are safe, to make sure people feel safe. We are painfully reminded of that responsibility in the events of this weekend – very, very powerful plan was put in place, tremendous preparations with the community and by the NYPD. As you've heard, ultimately twice as many police officers that we used previously at the J'Ouvert event, light towers in place. A lot of the right things were done in advance including targeting gangs and getting additional guns off the street, but we have more to do. Even with the right steps being taken there is more we have to do. And we have to find new ways and additional ways to address this situation.

So, we can be proud of the successes while continuing to understand our obligations and the need for further innovation. As we look forward to the leadership of Jimmy O'Neill and the deepening of the neighborhood policing program that spirit of innovation will continue and will deepen and that is what will take us forward.

A few words in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I'd like to turn to Dermot Shea to go over the details of the numbers for August and for this summer.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea, NYPD: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, when we take a look at the summer of 2016, and again, as the Mayor said, we're talking about June, July, and August ending on August 31st, what we saw was a – lowest in terms of overall index crime for those summer months that we have ever seen in the CompStat era – down about 5.6 percent.

Briefly – lowest shooting incidents for summer, three months; lowest robberies, burglaries, and stolen vehicles. We recorded for those three months 100 homicides in New York City. And that was not the lowest we've seen. But it's interesting the range that we have come down to. The last three years are the lowest three summers on record now in terms of homicides. And it's fluctuated between 92, to 96, to this year the level of 100. So the last three years are the three lowest that we have on record.

Where does that bring us today now, eight months into the year? We sit about two percent down in overall index crime. Again, that's the lowest in the CompStat era. Murders, at the end of August, we were down ten, compared to the same period last year. That's a decrease of over four percent. That's tied for the second fewest murders recorded in the first eight months of any year. And that's behind 2014. Shooting incidents at the end of August, for the first eight months, we were down 108 shooting incidents. It's almost a 14 percent decrease. Again, the lowest in the CompStat era. So the trending, the overall trending – whether you're looking at summer months, we'll talk about the month of August in a minute, or the first eight months – all continues to go down across broad categories.

For the first eight months of the year, unprecedented levels continue in burglaries, robberies, and stolen cars – levels that we've never seen before. Robbery down six percent this year. Burglary down over 12 percent, and stolen cars almost 11 percent reduction this year alone. Transit crime, something that we've talked about earlier, is now down system wide over the entire New York City for the first eight months, and it's down 1.7 percent.

I'll spend a moment on housing crime. Housing crime is up this year. It's up 6.6 percent in overall index crime. It comes out to just under 200 crimes citywide. What we're seeing in housing is what we've said before – behind closed doors, something that we are by no means willing to accept, but it's proving stubborn to knock that crime down. Domestic crime is about one-third of overall crime in housing. But just some good news on housing – the shooting incident level that we have seen this year occurring on Housing Authority property, we have never seen a lower shooting incident number since we've recorded shooting incidences – never lower; tied with 2013 with the 130 incidents where we're currently at at the end of August. So that's something to be very proud of. Similar when you look at homicides – if you look at the CompStat sheet, we've recorded 36 at the end of August – 36 homicides on housing property. 33 of them occurred actually this year, with three occurring in prior years. We've never had fewer than 33 homicides occurring on housing. So there are always spots that we are concentrating on. But these are, within housing, some things that we're particularly proud of. The violence associated – unprecedented record lows.

For the month of August now – we'll start quoting some statistics, and some of them are playing behind me on the screens. When you look at the summer of 2016, we had less crime in one month – excuse me in the summer of 2016 – 27,000 index crimes than we would have in the entire summer in 1995. When you take into account population, 8.5 million; when you take into account tourism; and then you start looking at these numbers – that we have less crime now in one month than we had in an entire summer years ago – pretty staggering statistics.

For the month of August – overall index crime down over nine percent. All index crime categories – all seven majors were down. Every borough of New York City was down in overall crime in August.

What we did see is a fluctuation in the shooting incident level in the month of August – 145 shooting incidents recorded. That's up from 122 in August of 2015. When you look at the increase, which is over 18 percent, extremely, extremely – in a couple precincts. And I'm talking about three in particular in Brooklyn, which when I caught this statistic, it made me sit back for a second. 6-7 Precinct, 7-5 Precinct, 7-3 Precinct – three precincts out of 77 accounted for 21 percent of all of the shootings in August. And we know that the shootings that occur in those precincts, and then you start looking at individual blocks – 99 percent of the precincts are in very good shape – just localized conditions that are driving violence in this particular month. And you can rest assured that those conditions, which the Mayor alluded to – driven by gangs – is already being dealt with. So ten precincts in New York City in August accounted for 50 percent of the shootings. Three precincts accounted for 21 percent. So very localized, very painted into particular individuals – individuals involved in gangs. You can just look at some of the incidents this weekend, and it will show you exactly we are talking about.

So overall, very solid statistics – an increase in August shootings and that ends ten months in a row, under 100 shootings. So we are very eager in September to get right back to that.

Commissioner Bratton: Thank you, Dermot.

Chief Bob Shea will give you an update on investigations into the events occurring during the J'Ouvert festival. I'd like to compliment him and his detectives for their very quick resolution of one of those matters, which we will now update on you on. The second one – we know have a much clearer picture of what we believe occurred resulting in the death – that second death at that event. Bob.

Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. I just want to bring your attention to the homicide of Tiarah Poyau, the young lady shot at the J'Ouvert festival on Empire Boulevard. At about four o'clock in the morning, she's walking with some friends – three other girlfriends. She's somewhat separated because of the crowd about 20 feet away, in between different groups walking. Those three friends hear a shot go out and they see their friend fall, at which point they go over and render aid.

Nobody around can tell us exactly who did this. We recovered a nine millimeter shell casing from that scene and we set up a crime scene. This young lady is just a stellar person – student at St. John's, no issues in her life whatsoever, and none before either.

So, fast forward to – that's about 4:15 am. At eight o'clock in the morning a male named Reginald Moise is arrested for [inaudible] at Parkside and Murray Place. He's driving on three wheels, he's apparently intoxicated, and he crashes into three cars. He's arrested.

Now, he's important because at 11:20 am someone wakes up. He makes a phone call directly after the shooting – excuse me – and tells a friend of his, "Would you mind if I put my gun into your apartment," which is at 480 Montgomery Street. She says yes. He goes over there.

At this point, he fires two rounds into the wall. And then he breaks a window – I'm sorry a mirror and he cuts his hand, and there's blood on the mirror. He then leaves, and gets into a car, and gets arrested at eight o'clock in the morning.

We start putting things together. We got to the scene where the shots were fired – now, that's not called until about 11 o'clock in the afternoon – shots fired call. So, we go over there. On the scene, we find an aluminum jacketed nine millimeter. That's this round right here. It's not particularly common but we've seen them before. This aluminum jacketed nine millimeter is also at the crime scene on Empire Boulevard. We start to get suspicious – could this be our guy?

We then, at this point during the day, send it down to the lab, and they make the comparison, and they make this is the same gun. He leaves the Glock nine millimeter there. We have it in our custody as well. Right now we're checking it for fibers and DNA.

So, he's arrested for the [inaudible]. When we pulled him out of the car, his hand his cut up and it's tied off with a Caribbean flag. It all starts to fit together.

We then talk to his friends, and they tell – one of the individuals he spoke to said, "I think I shot somebody on the parade grounds," and "I didn't know the gun was loaded." We then begin to speak to him in the 7-1 detective squad where he goes on to state that he thinks he shot somebody, "The gun went off, I thought it was loaded, I'm not sure." And then he requested an attorney.

So, right now, he's being charged with Murder 2 – depraved indifference – for shooting Tiarah Poyau. And that's where we are with the case right now. We still have a long way to go. We have more ballistic evidence to check. We have more blood evidence to check. But we believe this is the individual going forward.

The other shooting at the scene – the other homicide of Tyreke Borel – we don't know a lot about this yet. We're still peeling this back as we go forward. He went there with someone. Those people he went with left him there. He was shot one time with a small caliber weapon in the chest. The autopsy is going on right now. We'll find out exactly where he was hit but it was either by a .25-caliber or a .380. Those shell casings were found at the scene.

So, right now, no one's with him. He gets shot. He walks over to a bench and he actually goes into unconsciousness. He's taken to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, they realized when they see the bullet wound. They did not know at that point he was shot. They thought he was either intoxicated or suffering from an overdose.

So, we have a lot more work to go with that. Right now, we don't have a lot to tell you on it about it. We looked at his Facebook. We're going into different things. We'll talk to his mom – very upsetting situation. Find out who he went to the event with.

The other thing I have for you today – on Saturday, we made an arrest in the stabbing homicide of Nazma Khanam. She's the Bangladeshi female. You'll see to my hard left – if you remember we put out a video of that individual who we liked on Normal Road in the 107 Precinct. Detectives – this happened Wednesday at nine o'clock in the evening. We went back to that scene – kept going back, kept canvassing. On one of our videos, we saw a woman walking a dog. We hadn't talked to her yet. So, we finally contacted her. She lived on Normal Road.

When going back there, Detectives Kevin Granger and Anthony Bonia pulled up to the scene, put the young lady in the car, was ready to drive back, when they see this fellow walking by. And that's him in the middle in the yellow shirt. And you can see the striking look he had. He also had a pair of white Adidas on too, which also called to their attention.

They immediately asked the young lady to go home, and they engaged him in conversation. He agreed to go back to the 107 Precinct, where at which time we started interviewing him. Sometime Saturday evening, he admits – we show him a picture of him in the video, that person in the video on your right – he says, "That's not me." An hour later, we bring another detective and he admits to that detective – Detective – I'll get you his name in a minute – Munoz, I believe – says, "Yea, that's me. That's me in the picture." An hour later he admits to robbing this woman – walking up out his house. Now, he lives right there.

It was a strange crime scene because we didn't see a lot of people running away. It was nine o'clock at night. Not a lot was going on, so, we were a little surprised. So we looked – you know, he started giving us information. He says, she was carrying a bag – "I wanted to take the bag from her. I wanted the property." He stabbed her one time in the chest, killing her. And then he ran away. He then came back around and went back into his house, which is right there. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment on the block on Normal Road. So, everything he gave us in that interview, which is on videotape, rang through from the physical evidence we picked up.

We believe he is our person. We believe [inaudible] was a robbery. He works as a busboy or a messenger in an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. No other prior incidents with him at all – either criminal or emotional. He got into this country about a year ago from Colombia. And that's where we stand with the case right now.

We believe it to be true – believe this to be our person. And that's what I have.

Commissioner Bratton: Chief O'Neill is going to give you a couple of quick summaries, and then Chief Gomez will give a summary of the activity relative to the ATV-dirt bikes issue over the summer.

Chief of Department James O'Neill, NYPD: Good afternoon, everybody. So, just to keep in mind to what Dermot spoke about, about the summer crime stats – just keep in mind that we didn't have a Summer All Out this year. We had a limited all-out. We transferred about 200 permanently out of their administrative responsibility back into operational commands. And we didn't have that Summer Violence Reduction [inaudible] that we had in 2015. So, all that good work was done at a reduced cost.

Just to put in perspective this past weekend – and I'm going to go into a little bit of what happened in J'ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade. But I also – I just want to give you some comparative statistics here.

Shooting incidents over Labor Day – we looked back to 2003 – there was a high of 40 back in 2011. The year before that was a very good year, we had 12. This year we had 21. So, there was a high of 40 shooting incidents back in '11. We had 21 shooting incidents over this past weekend.

We took the same look with homicides. There was a high of 10 in 2005. This past weekend we had seven. We also had four last year and seven in 2014.

So, just looking at J'Ouvert – the parade commenced at 344-hours. The last float was off the route at 0950-hours. And we estimated the crowd size to 250,000. And with that we had 11 felony arrests, four misdemeanor arrests, and 32 C-summonses – criminal court summonses.

Just some notable arrests – at ten after ten on September 4th, which would be Sunday night, we had an 18-year-old male was smoking a marijuana cigarette at Carrol and Utica. And upon apprehension, SRG recovered a loaded firearm from him.

And in that 1205-hours, that would be Monday morning, you had a 17-year-old male was recognized by SRG for a previous shooting from a wanted poster. They went and they apprehended him but before they apprehended him, they saw him pass a loaded .22 Berretta pistol to a 16-year-old female. So, we recovered that firearm from the female also.

And at 4:30 am, we had a 16-year-old male and a 21-year-old male were, again, observed smoking a lit marijuana cigarette by SRG. Upon apprehension, we recovered a Smith and Wesson nine millimeter handgun and a .40 caliber handgun from both of those people.

And at 623-hours, we had a male 17-year-old apprehended by the [inaudible] crime units at 1369 Union Street after a foot pursuit and we recovered another firearm.

So, looking at the West Indian Day Parade – the parade started at 1150 hours. The last float was off the route at 8:14 pm. We estimated that crowd size to be about 1.1 million.

The activity was seven felony arrests, ten misdemeanors, and 24 criminal court summonses with no notable incidents during the parade.

Commissioner Bratton: Thank you Jimmy. Carlos, can you [inaudible]?

NYPD Chief of Patrol, Carlos Gomez: To demonstrate the department's commitment for Vision Zero, we put a greater emphasis this year on ATV dirt bike and motorcycle enforcements, especially in the summer months when that behavior increases. And I think the results are positive, our references have resonated throughout the City. And these initiatives that we do are not geared towards legit motorcycle clubs. Individuals [inaudible] rides throughout the city are obeying all the traffic laws, they are geared towards the reckless driving of motorcycles ATVs and dirt bikes, which ATVs and dirt bikes are illegal to operate here in the City. Seizures—this year are up 52 percent over the same period last year. We have seized 1,531 motorcycles, dirt bikes and ATVs. Most of those are up in the Bronx and Manhattan north, which also are two of the boroughs we get most of the complaints from, the communities as well as the 9-1-1 complaints. And speaking of the 9-1-1 calls this summer, the last month in August, those 9-1-1 calls were down 30 percent, which kind of demonstrates there is less of these motorcycles and ATVs in the street. I also have statistics for ATV collisions and those are down 65 percent – 21 versus 60, so that tells me that our efforts are really, really paid off. Less of these vehicles are on the streets and that translates into less individuals getting injured by these.

Motorcycle collisions are also down 2 percent this year versus last year. And we utilize social media to demonstrate our success. If you check every precinct in the City you will see photos of these seizures and it serves two purposes. It tells the community that we listen to their complaints and we are doing something about it. But, it also acts as deterrence to those that want to partake in this behavior and this will continue. This will continue – not just in the summer, in the fall and in the winter. We get some mild weekends in the winter and then we see these motorcycles hit the streets again. And I still encourage those to call 9-1-1. Even though we may not prevent every incident, that provides us with intelligence— it gives us a pattern and we use that intelligence to deploy. Thank you.

Question: Chief O'Neill, can you describe the crime statistics in precincts that have neighborhood policing?

Chief O'Neill: I will get back to you with specifics on how we are doing in each precinct. We are up to 26 and we are going over 50 percent once we hit October. I will get back to you with individual precincts.

Question: Chief, in that same regards when precincts cover the parade route, are they NCO precincts yet?

Chief O'Neill: Yes, the 7-1 and the 7-7 are.

Question: The planning that went into [inaudible] ?

Chief O'Neill: Sure. The NCOs were involved in that but most of that we did through Bob's people with the gang takedown. He had a very large takedown in recovering a number of guns and then just deploying our resources into the 7-1 and the 7-7 leading up to the parade.

Question: Was there any change in [inaudible] summons directive in regards to public urination, open containers, has the criminal justice reform act created simpler penalties for those and were there any civil penalties dished out as opposed to criminal?

Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters, Lawrence Byrd: That legislation is being enacted, the summonses are not in arbitration yet so we are not able to use them. We will start using them in the next six to eight months. They have to printed and we have to train the officers but they weren't available yet for this weekend.
Question: Back to J'Ouvert, the Mayor and the Commissioner, when you talk about the resources that were put there, doubling the amount of officers, the lights etc. it seems like a lot. What else could possibly be done year in year out – we see these shootings happening again?

Mayor: Well, I think there's more to be done and we are going to do a very clear after action review to find out what we can do better. But I remind you the second part of Chief O'Neill's presentation about the parade. Not many years ago in this town, the parade was very problematic. The parade itself on Labor Day and there were many violent activities that were part of it. NYPD systematically figured out over years how to change that. And as you heard, this year the parade went well. That was true in years past, also that same process had to be gone through with the St. Patrick's parade, with the Puerto Rican parade, we had long problematic histories for years and the NYPD had to figure out a strategy that would breakthrough and then keep it that way. It succeeded in all three of those cases. We have to do the same now with J'Ouvert. So we are going to look at all options. J'Ouvert will continue. It's an event that is very important to the community and about a quarter million people came. But we are going to look at every conceivable way to make it safer.

Question: Some of those options [inaudible] –

Mayor: I respect the question but I don't think it's time to theorize about that. There is going to be a very specific after action review and then we are going to come forward with an updated plan.

Question: You said yesterday that all options were on the table. Now you are saying that J'Ouvert will continue so the option that is off the table is not open?

Mayor: Yes and I think it was very clear yesterday that we were not including the option of ending something which has gone on for decades and decades. We have to find out a way to make it safer, just like as I said three very large parades had a long history of disorder and violence. Each one of them was brought under control. We will do the same here with J'Ouvert.

Question: In particular the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Puerto Rican Day Parade, most of these incidents around those over the years, involved disorderly conduct, quality of life issues. There were very few killings. I only remember one related to the St. Patrick's Day Parade – a very different order of incident—much more violent here. No incidents – year after year of murders.

Mayor: There is a different view—let's have some of the experts speak first.

Commissioner Bratton: The nature of some of the violence that's associated with J'Ouvert is different than the levels of violence that other events that the Mayor has mentioned – the many, many large scale events that we have policed over the years. That—the process after the events last year was to engage everybody who was involved in J'Ouvert – the organizers, community, religious leaders, business leaders, the political establishment in the various community groups to all come together because the policing of these events is a shared responsibility. Police cannot do these parades on our own. We rely a lot on the communities self-policing many of the activities at these events. And, so that's what we attempted to do this year. One: the permitting of the parades; bring some structure to it. Two: the idea of shared responsibility – going forward as the Mayor has indicated. We will do a review as we do with all of these events from within a police perspective. Take that perspective into the larger discussions that will now begin to be held, similar to what went on last year where the Borough President Adams and the City Council members Jumaane Williams and others who represent that area will help to lead that discussion. Going forward, we can't speak – I certainly can't. I won't be here but with Chief O'Neill coming in as Commissioner in other positions to address what changes may occur. We will still be involved very extensive discussions around the event.

Question: Mr. Mayor, what pushback or pressure if any, did you hear this morning. You said today that you would not be cancelling [Inaudible]?

Mayor: No, I thought it was clear Melissa and I'm happy to clarify. We talked about, yesterday, all the things that had been done to prepare and I think they were very, very important efforts. As you heard in the analysis that Chief O'Neill gave a number of guns were gotten off the street, a number of gang members were apprehended in advance, etc. Those are the kinds of things we want to do going forward unquestionably, but we still have more to do. So I was speaking in the context of an event that has obviously been around for decades and we have to fix and we have to do more to address and we will.

Question: Chief Boyce – pending matter with Karina Vetrano's homicide – after you put out the sketch after you focused on the northern area of the park in Howard Beach, what kind of level of intelligence and feedback have you gotten in terms of the sketch person. Still now, a month later are you still [inaudible] that this was a chance encounter that led to the death?

Chief Boyce: Yes Tony, we do still believe that this was a chance encounter. We are up to 122 tips that sketch provided a big increase in our tips, right now our active investigation is on 23 of those tips. So 122 – I think, we are in the 80s when we put out that and I think it did exactly what we wanted it to do. It was to engage more of the public calling in. So going forward with this, we still have our DNA sample. We are still trying to find that person and that's where we are with the case right now. We've then moved into East New York, Brooklyn and South Ozone Park and that's where we are right now because we don't see anybody leading through the Howard Beach 1-0-6 area. So we are still at that location. I must say that the same homicide team who solved this case over in 1-0-7 and also solved the imam case are now going back with all their resources to the Vetrano case.

Question: Mr. Mayor [inaudible] to keep or detect guns or other weapons – and some people are wondering whether you might want to go back to stop, question, and frisk during the period before J'Ouvert to try to send a message to people that it's not acceptable to carry weapons for that event?

Mayor: Well, Marcia – it's never acceptable to carry weapons in this city. And NYPD has been doing more and more to get guns off the streets. It's why the numbers of gun seizures are up substantially. So we're going to address a whole range of things that will make the event safer. But as I referred to it previously, I remember very vividly the amount of disorder and sometimes violence that we saw at other parades in the past. I saw it with my own eyes and we all remember how troubling those situations are. They had to be addressed one by one. And the NYPD found a way to do it. So we're going to do it again here. That's the bottom line. What we started with was a massive increase in police presence, the light towers, and the initiatives before J'Ouvert began – the gang takedowns, the gun seizures. We're going to go farther. But it wouldn't be a responsible conjecture on each and every possible proposal until we do a very formal review of what happened here.

Question: Chief Boyce, can you tell us more about the arrest of Reginald Moise? How do you spell his last name? How is he – what was he doing [inaudible]?

Chief Boyce: His last – his name is Reginald Moise – M - o - i - s - e. He's a 20-year-old male. He lives on Flatbush Avenue. He has continued – most of his arrests are sealed. He has five prior to the DWI, and they're all sealed. So we won't get too much further into that. He makes statements to two people and implicates himself. And he makes statements to my detectives as well that he may have shot somebody – excuse me, that he did not know the gun was loaded. And he makes a concerted effort to get rid of the gun directly thereafter, which is leaving it at that friend's apartment.

Question: Chief, and maybe the Commissioner wants to weigh in too – what is going on with these ice cream bandits? And what resources have you devoted to it? And do you treat this as a serious epidemic?

Chief Boyce: We treat every crime as a serious problem. I don't know if epidemic [inaudible]. But it's a pattern run by the Grand Larceny Division. Right now, what they're doing is taking ice cream from one vendor, and stealing it, and then selling it to another for a profit. That's what's going on with this case. We have two separate patterns with it.

Question: Commissioner, do you have any thoughts on this? Have you spoken to Mr. Catsimatidis?

Commissioner Bratton: Well actually, I'm intrigued that Steve Davis came up with a recommendation that we assign our cold case squad to it. So, as a last resort, if the other efforts don't work, maybe put the cold case squad on it.

Question: Can someone talk about the 88 percent increase in murders on Staten Island? Is there any concern about that pattern and why that might be happening?

Commissioner Bratton: A lot of them of are domestic violence-related. But Bob, do you have more specifics for [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: Yes, I don't think too many of those crimes are open right now. Most of them are domestic. We did see in the uptick in the [inaudible] I believe it is. So, most of them are solved right now. I have a great detective unit out there. It's one of those things that are hard to explain. It's just an uptick. If you remember two years ago – I'm sorry last year – there was an uptick in robberies that were creating homicides there. We haven't that this year. We've seen domestic being the driver over there.

Question: So is it, as it's a small area – it's like a fluke – every year there might be one thing driving it?

Chief Boyce: I wouldn't call it a fluke. I just [inaudible] – there's different things that happened. We had three persons stabbed in one location in the homeless shelter. So, it's just one of those things that happened from time to time. It's one specific motive that makes no sense why it's all happening there.

Question: On 50-a – when we were talking about mayoral control or 421-a, you lobbied, you gathered folks who were supporters, you held events. When we were talking about terrorism funding, Commissioner Bratton had a delegation out. Are you planning on holding events to try to get Albany to make 50-a allow for disciplinary matters to be [inaudible]?

Mayor: I'd like to see the law changed, and I'll work with others who feel the same way to figure out what the right strategy is to achieve that.

Question: And how are you going to that?

Mayor: Again, we have to talk that through. Albany legislative session doesn't begin until January, and obviously, as you know, the vast majority of work is done in June. But I'd like to figure a way to get that changed.

Question: Are events on the table, or?

Mayor: I want to figure out whatever is going to work.

Question: Mr. Mayor, regarding your promise to hold police officers more accountable, specifically with the [inaudible] on Staten Island. How do you respond to claims that the City is interpreting the law that keeps it from policing the officers [inaudible]?

Mayor: My understanding – I am not a lawyer – but my understanding across the board from the lawyers both here at the Police Department and in the Law Department is that the State law is clear. And it's our obligation to follow State law, as in all matters. But if we think State law should be changed, we can work to change it. And I think a lot of people around the state would agree with that change.

Question: [Inaudible] didn't have that law in the way right now, would you be in favor of releasing [inaudible]?

Mayor: Again, I think the law should be changed so that we can release those kinds of documents.

Question: Mayor, just going back to J'Ouvert – you've cited these other parades as examples from the past. But one of the key differences here is that J'Ouvert is something that happens in the nighttime. It's running through neighborhoods that you have all discussed are having some real issues with gang violence and gun violence. Doesn't that make it a significantly different question than these parades?

Mayor: Well each one is different – there's no two ways about that. Each parade had a different history and different tradition. But what united those three parades I mentioned – St. Patrick's, Puerto Rican Parade, and the Caribbean Parade itself on Labor Day – is they all had a history of disorder and violence, and they all had to be brought under control, one by one. And the NYPD succeeded in doing that. We're going to do that here too. I agree with you – being at night is a different reality.

I think it's important – just one quick point – I think it's important for people to recognize – this event grew over decades organically in the community. I think this is the time – this year was the time the NYPD applied the most systematic strategy, and obviously the most troop strength to addressing it. And we're going to keep doing that. So, I think there's more that we can and will do. The first thing to do is to get an after action report and a sit down, both NYPD and community members, and figure out the next steps.

Unknown: There's two more on police – Juliet.

Question: Yes – on J'Ouvert for the Mayor and the Police Commissioner – would you be considering a curfew at all for J'Ouvert activities? And also, how do you put police or patrol private parties, or social club parties, or barbeques, where a lot of the drinking and socializing [inaudible]?

Mayor: I'll start and turn to the Commissioner. Again, you're hitting the core of the problem. This is part of a larger tradition in a lot of communities. It goes back to their homelands. People are going to be celebrating. Our job is to control that and make it safe. But I don't think anyone can have the illusion that if we said tomorrow there is no J'Ouvert that J'Ouvert is going to go away. It's part of people's lives just like so many other celebrations of different heritages. Our job is to make it safe and make the changes we have to. But we're going to be very systematic in not addressing one theory or another, or one option or another until we go through a thorough review.

Question: [Inaudible] eliminate the activity [inaudible]?

Commissioner Bratton: Chief Powers, who is the commanding officer for that borough, as well as Brooklyn North – on holiday weekends and in particular this holiday weekend, there's very, very significant enforcement of the barbeques, parties you're referencing. That – you know reporting those numbers. But they shut a lot of those down during the course of the weekend when they do get out of hand, out of control, with calls coming in for 3-1-1, 9-1-1. Large part of what we talk about – the importance of quality of life, broken windows enforcement – that's people calling, complaining about those parties going to three, four o'clock in the morning, where we do shut down a lot of them. But you're point is well taken that this event – because it occurs in the neighborhood where many of the participants actually live, there's a lot of related activities – house parties, etcetera that are part of the celebration. And it compounds the policing issues, but doesn't necessarily make it impossible to police.

Unknown: In the back, and then up further, and we have to move on from police. Okay?

Question: Information on the shooting in Williamsburg?

Chief Boyce: Sure. Last night there was a shooting – it was a homicide of that individual. He was walking out of a building. We have it on video down the street that an individual was walking out with two others. When they got into the street, two of the three individuals began to fight – fisticuffs, back and forth – at which point, we see our victim here start to run. Again, grainy video, we're still going forward with it. We then see a male who produces a firearm and shoots him in the back. Victim's name is Jesus Pimentel. Right now, we're trying to pull other video to see if we can find out more about these two individuals that we're looking for – one being the shooter. But this happens on North Sixth Street – normally not a problematic neighborhood in this city. So we'll go forward from there. He is from Jackson Avenue up in the Bronx – Pimentel. So we're trying to figure out why he was there and exactly what started the fight that led to his – to the shooting.

Unknown: Last on police [inaudible]

Question: For the Mayor – Mr. Mayor, you say that J'Ouvert has this decade-long tradition, but world historians, people in the community, all agree that until recently, it was just small groups of people doing – they're painting themselves and running around – not a quarter of a million people engaged in all kinds of [inaudible]. So it doesn't seem reasonable to place J'Ouvert in the same category even as the West Indian Day Parade, much less the St. Patrick's Parade or the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which have much longer histories. What is the [inaudible] –

Mayor: I don't know every nuance of the history. We're going to look at everything when we look at our after-action review. We're going to talk to community members. But again, let's consistent – that if people are going to be out celebrating, we have to find a way to keep it safe. We're not ever going to turn our back on safety problems. We have to address them head on. And from my point of view, it's quite clear, there's a large celebration happening, we took a lot of measures this year, and we have to take more.

We're going to do off-topic. So, let us turn to other topics.

[…]

Mayor: Alright. We are going to off-topic. Yes, sir.

Question: Yes. Last week on the radio, you congratulated a grocery store owner who said that he employs illegal immigrants. You said thank you for [inaudible] –

Mayor: Well, that's not exactly what I said, but continue.

Question: But I mean he's admitting to violating federal law. Are there other instances of federal –

Mayor: What I said to him was – he was being honest about something that now we have almost 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. And it was very clear in that broadcast – this is just a joke [inaudible] have 12 million people in the country – and acts like our current legal system is actually functioning when it comes to this matter. This is the biggest don't ask, don't tell in history. And a lot of the corporate sector's a part of it and both political parties have been a part of it. Let's be real. And it's gone on, now for decades and decades.

So, I just was saying to him, I appreciated that he was honest about it and I appreciated that he was saying, "I've got people working for me, they're good people, they're hard working people. They're just trying to provide for their families." And he was understanding them as human beings. That's what I was expressing my appreciation for.

Question: But at the same time [inaudible] who do that are cheating the public because they're not paying FICA, they're employees aren't paying –

Mayor: Huge changes that are needed in our laws, that – do you think, do you think if any individual employers changed their behavior it's going to change the reality of 12 million people? We've got to fix the laws. That's why we need comprehensive immigration law.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: That's all I got for you.

Go ahead.

Question: So, last week I asked you about shelter beds on Staten Island. I later found that one of three homeless shelters that were actually on Staten Island – only three [inaudible] the end of June. And [inaudible] spoke to the provider on Staten Island, and she said another 50 beds were lost from churches on Staten Island over the last year. So, that leaves very few beds for a lot of homeless people on Staten Island. And given the political fight that you have to wage to get any more beds, why would allow a homeless shelter to close? And where do you go from –

Mayor: If it wasn't working well enough, as we've said, we'll close shelters that aren't working. That doesn't mean that there won't be situations where we can't reopen them in some cases. But we're not going to keep a shelter going that isn't working. And you know, obviously, we moved out of the hotels. So, we now – we said it – I had the town hall meeting in Councilman Matteo's district, and I said, we have to open up shelter capacity on Staten Island for Staten Islanders. And this is the shape of what we want to create now going forward with the shelter system.

You know – you know all the big strokes. We want to get out of hotels. We want to get out of clusters. We want to reduce the size of the shelter system over time. But while we need a shelter system, it should be to the maximum extent possible that a shelter serves people from the surrounding community. There's lots of Staten Islanders who need shelter and have to go off the island to get it. And there's lots of people from various communities that should be sheltered the maximum extent possible in the community they come from.

So, we're reorienting the whole shelter situation in that vision, again, trying to stay out of hotels and clusters. So, we're going to work with the leadership on Staten Island to find an appropriate setting. And obviously, we're going to work particularly with houses of worship.

Question: So, you do think that you are going to open up a shelter or some sort of –

Mayor: Yes, I've said that back at the town hall meeting with Councilman Matteo. We have to create shelter capacity on Staten Island for Staten Islanders, and we have to do in a way that allows up to stay out of hotels.

Question: Two part question. One – Gwenn Carr, Eric Garner's mother said that you should be ashamed of yourself not producing Daniel Pantaleo's record. And then secondly – she sort of made the argument that when a person like her son gets killed, the police release the background information, if he had any arrests [inaudible] the same thing has been happening. Is that a fair comparison that the police disciplinary records aren't released but a victim of an alleged abuse is? Can you see where there's that frustration –

Mayor: I can understand the frustration but I don't think they're the same thing. And this is, again, about the law. A lot of times, when we're having these conversations, we can ask all we want about our opinions but the law is the law. And it's quite clear what the law says from our point of view, and we have to respect the law. That doesn't mean we can't change it. And I think, as I said, a few days back, I think there's going to be a lot of energy in Albany for that change especially given this moment in history. I think a lot of people will think that's a smart thing to do.

But I don't think it's the same thing as talking about the background of other people. You know public servants are governed by very specific laws.

Yes, sir.

Question: [Inaudible] statement about [inaudible] being ashamed of yourself.

Mayor: You know I'm never surprised when someone expresses their views and, obviously, she has deep emotions about what happened to her son, but I think we're doing things in a lawful manner. And I think we can change the State law.

Question: Last week, the Supreme Court Justice wrote that the Public Advocate had a right to sue the City on behalf of New Yorkers. How do you respond to that [inaudible]?

Mayor: Yeah, I think it is case by case. That's my understanding. It's not – that was not a blanket assessment. That was about that case. So, obviously, we felt differently. I don't know if there is an appeal plan or anything like that, but I think that was about that case.

Marcia?

Question: Just going back to J'Ouvert for a second. I wonder if the City should be giving out permits to events where violence is expected and also what your timeframe is for coming up with some kind of overall solution [inaudible]?

Mayor: We don't accept violence ever. Now, to the question, again, I remind you for decade's permits were given to the Puerto Rican parade, to the St. Patrick's parade, to the Caribbean parade on Labor Day and there was violence and people, bluntly, expected it.

Question: But there weren't shootings.

Mayor: Well, I'm not – that's not the whole truth. It was a lot of different things. But the bottom line is we don't accept any violence. We attempted an entirely different strategy this year, permitting for the first time and huge amounts of NYPD presence and all the other measures you've heard – didn't get us far enough. We have to do more. That effort is going to start immediately. And we're going to look at any – a number of changes because we don't accept any violence. So, it is literally – I don't want any stereotyping here. There's no such thing as us accepting any level of violence in this City.

Question: [Inaudible] Christmas that you're going to have some kind of solution or is it going to take longer than that?

Mayor: Well before Christmas we'll have a full analysis of what happened. So, in the next few months we'll have a full analysis of what happened; we'll have – I'm sure – initial ideas. But I don't want to give you a deadline yet because, literally, we're talking about an event that just happened. Soon we'll be able to say when we expect our review to be complete and what steps we're going to take.

Question: On the same topic, I wasn't there for your press conference yesterday, but I read the coverage of it, and it sounded like you were putting the idea of cancelling J'Ouvert on the table.

Mayor: Look, I thought it was clear and I am sorry if it wasn't, but what I was talking – the context of an ongoing event how we go about making it safer. I thought it was clear.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: No, it's, literally – this one is as simple as it could be. I haven't talked to anyone. I thought that was heard as what I was saying. If anyone didn't hear it that way, allow me to clarify.

Any other questions?

Question: [Inaudible] where did you come up with the figure 29,000 lives saved? How did you –

Mayor: Simply by saying if the murder rate had continued at the rates it was before Bill Bratton, Jack Maple and everyone else changed policing fundamentally – if we had stayed near that level that's how many lives more would have been lost. It's obviously a theoretical construct, but it's a measure of just how much this City has changed. And when you look, bluntly, at some other cities – and I feel very bad for them – where there numbers are high and in some cases even going up. It's a reminder of how far New York City has travelled.

Question: Mr. Mayor, back to J'Ouvert again. Is the overnight nature of the celebration a problem – do you think? And should the City look at the permitting in terms of the hours possibly?

Mayor: Well, that's – so to clarify the previous question. When I say all options are on the table that's a legitimate question, obviously; the hours and everything else about how it is put together. I think to will away a celebration involving a quarter-of-a-million people doesn't make sense. But to say, look, let's look at every possible way of going about it that could be safer and work with community leaders and community members on what makes sense from their point of view and what they believe is right in terms of their safety. So, we're going to look at a whole host of options, but it is too early to rule in or rule out any specific strategies.

Question: Do you have any concerns with the City giving money to the organization that put on this event? The fact that there is – City funds have gone to the J'Ouvert organization [inaudible].

Mayor: Well, I'm starting with this year, which is when we've put the full focus of the PD and this administration on this event and it was permitted. And obviously, there were extensive preparations. So, again, we have to determine where we are going to go forward, but anything we do is going to come with very, very serious rules and stipulations. We just don't accept violence. I think that is the whole – even though I understand a 100 percent why people are asking these questions, you have to put into context of the rest of the press conference to. We don't accept violence. We're going to continue to drive it down; we're going to continue to do these gang takedowns on a higher than ever level. We're going to continue to get guns off the streets on an unprecedented level. This is what we're doing as a police force – and neighborhood policing keys into all of this and will amplify all of this. So, the conversation we will have is how do have an event that is free of violence. What's it going to take? Because that is our goal. We do not accept – someone said to me the other day do you accept X level of shootings, no. We don't accept any violence whatsoever. It's as simple as that.

Thanks, everyone.