Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Signs K2 Legislation into Law to Criminalize Sale and Production

October 20, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, this is an important day in ensuring our people are safer and fighting crime all over this city. I’m proud to sign laws that are going to save lives and improve the quality of life for New Yorkers. And the most important thing we’re focused on today is stemming the tide of K2 in our communities. 

We’re here today thanks to the leadership and dedication of the lead sponsor of this legislation, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and her fellow sponsors, Council Member Ruben Wills and Council Member Dan Garodnick. I want to thank them all for their leadership – they’ve been dogged in ensuring that we address this issue and address it quickly. 

I want to thank so many others who are with us – you’ll be hearing from a number of them in a moment – but I want to also thank our health commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, our NYPD Chief of Department Jimmy O’Neill. I want to thank Assistant Deputy Commissioner for the Civil Enforcement Unit of the NYPD, Robert Messner. I want to thank, of course, the commanding officer here at the 25th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Thomas Harnisch. I want to thank Deputy Commissioner John Miller for counter-terrorism and intelligence, and Sheriff Joseph Fucito of the Department of Finance. So thank you to all and to our friends at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Everyone together worked on addressing the K2 issue quickly and energetically. 

Let’s be clear – K2 is a poison. It is a poison that threatens public safety and public health, and it’s taken a toll on too many New Yorkers in too many communities already. It’s something we haven’t seen the likes of in the past, and it was crucial before this trend got any worse to act decisively. 

So we’re getting K2 off of our streets and out of the hands of New Yorkers before it causes more harm to our city.

East Harlem has sadly seen the worst of this situation. The 25th Precinct covers East 125th Street, which has really been hit hard by the plague of K2. And the officers in this precinct have been on the frontline of this battle, and they’ve done an extraordinary job fighting this new menace. 

We’ve also had tremendous support from local residents who wanted to be part of the solution and worked hand in hand with the NYPD to turn the tide. Too many families watched as victims were afflicted by this drug, and they saw the horrible impact it was making in their lives. They saw the ambulances coming to pick people up. And obviously the residents realized quickly this was something new and dangerous and it needed a vigorous response. So we’ve had great partnership with community residents in addressing this issue. 

We’re involved already in aggressive and targeted enforcement. Since July, the city has conducted five multi-agency inspection operations, seizing over 10,000 packages of K2 from sellers. And we’ve used our nuisance abatement laws against seven stores. So we’ve used the tools that we had, and on top of that, a tremendous operation last month – the NYPD Intelligence Unit working directly with the DEA to dismantle a citywide distribution ring. They seized $17.5 million dollars worth of K2 and the ingredients and the paraphernalia used related to K2. And it lead to indictment of ten individuals. 

So there’s been a very vigorous set of actions taken, but we knew we needed stronger laws to do more. So today we take the next step.

These laws do not punish the individuals that are held hostage and held in the grip of this toxic drug. We understand that some of the people who use this drug are amongst the most vulnerable in our city, and often include those who are dealing with mental health issues already. So the law doesn’t focus on attacking the victim. It focuses on criminalizing the process that brings this poison into people’s hands. 

In 60 days, when this law takes effect, if you manufacture K2, if you possess K2 with the intent to sell it, or if you sell K2, you are now going to come up against the greatest police force in the world that’s now going to be empowered by these new laws to act more aggressively. 

Selling K2 will be misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a possible fine of $5,000, as well as civil penalties of up to $50,000. And the laws further make the sale cause to suspend or revoke a business’ license to sell cigarettes. So this law will give us an additional power to go at the economic core of a lot of businesses if they, in fact, engage in this heinous action – and threatens the ability of many of these stores to stay open. If they engage in selling K2, we will go at their livelihood and we will shut them down. Finally, the legislation allows sealing and closing orders to be issued against stores that repeatedly sell K2, so very aggressive measures to deal with the economic realities behind K2.

These laws together send a clear message to anyone who sells this poison – we will find you and we will stop you. And our message to anyone who uses the drug and needs help is we are here to help you. Help is available, treatment is available so people can get out of the clutches of this awful drug.

It’s an important day today, but we know it is a beginning. There will be a lot of work to implement these laws, and a lot of our ongoing efforts to educate New Yorkers about the risks and to get people who need treatment to the treatment to they deserve. 

We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and we’re also doing it out of our deep respect for community residents who have had to deal with this scourge in their neighborhoods – one of them I want to mention – Efrem Boone who is here today. Efrem, where are you? Stand up for a moment so everyone can see you. I want to thank Efrem who’s been a great community activist.

[Applause]

He’s seen the horrors of K2 in his community. He’s literally seen them right outside his door. And he stood up and worked with the police and with community leaders to make a change. And I want to just give you a simple quote that Efrem said, which is really encouraging, because, Efrem, you saw this scourge develop, and then you saw the intensity of the response. As you said, quote, “Now, every time I turn around, the police run in and bust a store again. When people see that, that’s a sign that the city is working. Everyone’s working together. These bills are change. It will send a strong message, and that’s what we need.” So, Efrem, we thank you for being at the frontline fighting this menace, and we’re going to help you and help the police to get the job done and to end this scourge.

Let me say a few words in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I want to bring forward the speaker. She’s been an extraordinary voice and leader in this effort, and she really bought to all of our attention the depth of the problem based on what she was seeing in her district, and the fact that we had to add to the tools that we needed to fight this scourge. 

The working group that we put together to address issues in East Harlem quickly identified the need for additional legal strength that would add to the work of the NYPD and the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Health. I want to thank the speaker for her leadership and for her commitment to addressing this issue in her district, but also in all five boroughs. Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito – 

[…]

Mayor:  Okay, I want to take questions on the legislation and on fighting K2, and then on other police matters, then we’ll take off-topic questions, Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, a few minutes before you started this press conference Governor Cuomo announced a [inaudible] focusing on this particularly and also prescription drug abuse. Is the announcement also coordinated with your office?

Mayor: I think it’s – I just heard it about it now. I think it’s a great initiative. So – it wasn’t coordinated as far as I know, but I think it’s certainly kindred and welcome.

Question: You didn’t see a problem that it wasn’t?

Mayor: Again, I think it contributes – it contributes to the same goal so I think it’s good.

What else?

Question: Deputy Commissioner Miller, a question.

Mayor: Indeed.

Deputy Commissioner John Miller, Counterterrorism and Intelligence, NYPD:  Yes, Mary.

Question: Commissioner, we’ve been reporting on this for several months and there were concerns raised last year – raised around the country with the money, where it was going – millions that were being wired overseas. Last week, the DEA did raids and it nailed facilities, and acknowledged that the money was often going to countries of concern in the Middle East. Are you concerned that K2 sales and the other synthetic cannabinoids sales are financing terrorism?

Deputy Commissioner Miller: Yes, we’re concerned with the question, but we don’t know the answer. One of the origins of this case within the intelligence bureau of the NYPD stem from the idea that – that hundreds of millions of dollars associated with K2 was traveling out of the United States to a number of countries, but largely among them Yemen. And when you look at the situation in Yemen between the Hutu rebels, Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula and other factors there you would have to ask where the money is going and what’s it going to finance. And that is not part of the narcotics conspiracy case that was brought here in the southern district of New York, but it is one of the intelligence gaps surrounding this issue.

Mayor: Okay, any – first again, K2 questions first then we’ll do [inaudible] then we’ll sign the bill, then we’ll come back and do off-topic.

Question:  Some people could be arrested or a store’s – bodega owner that are selling it. But how much do they need to have for you to consider them selling it? We know with the marijuana it’s been 25 grams or less. If you have that you’re not considered to be selling it. Somebody has what five packets, 20 packets, 500 packets?

Mayor:  He wants to speak to the specifics of the standard. Who’s got it?

Assistant Deputy Commissioner Rob Messner, Civil Enforcement Unit, NYPD:  I am the Assistant Deputy Commissioner Rob Messner of the NYPD Civil Enforcement Unit. So the statute – the new law criminalizes K2 in any amount, but it also contains a presumption that if a person possesses nine packages of K2 that – that presumption says they are possessing it with intent to sell.

Mayor: Okay, other questions?

Questions on K2?

Yes Sir.

Question: For Commissioner Bratton or Commissioner Miller – there was concern and there [inaudible] K2 is originating in China in labs there. I don’t know how organized it is. What is your sense of it now [inaudible]?

Commissioner William Bratton, NYPD: China has been and continues to be the principal source of the chemicals that are used in the creation of K2. It’s a combination of chemicals that are mixed in all types of different formulas usually trying to stay one step ahead of existing laws. By changing the makeup, they basically step outside the scope of the law. The feds were able to address that with their [inaudible] rules. And then the manufacture of the K2 is usually done here in the United States where it’s sprayed on leaves that look like marijuana – thus the name synthetic marijuana. But the source as far as I know – the only source of the chemicals used in this is China – John, unless you have more recent intelligence than I do.

Deputy Commissioner Miller: That’s correct.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, has the city been able to determine how many deaths if any have been attributed to K2?

Mayor: Let’s see if our health commissioner will take that – Mary Bassett.

Commissioner Mary Bassett, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:  There’s been one substantiated death attributed to K2 in the city. Of course, across the nation there have been more deaths reported, and we do have cases of people who have been in the intensive care unit. So there should be no question that this is dangerous stuff, and that it has [inaudible] health consequences, but so far just one death.

Question: Are you tracking it?

Commissioner Bassett: We are. We track emergency department visits, which are our principal way of identifying the occurrence and use of K2 in the city. It’s what enables us to identify this neighborhood as a place where there was a great deal of K2 originating because of emergency department visits, and it’s what we’re going to use going forward to see how well we do in removing this from the streets, and reducing emergency department visits.

Question: One last thing on that – do you have – by any chance, do you have the number of ER visits available?

Commissioner Bassett: Sure, we can make those available. They’ve been made available in various health alerts, which we use to alert the healthcare community that this is a problem. We’ve listed – we’ve released three of those, and those are all publicly available. 

Question: Dr. Bassett, if I can follow, how difficult is it when people go in? Because I understand when they go in, if they’re hallucinating or other issues, that some hospitals may not be up on, oh, this is an episode of K2 use. How difficult is it when you take all of these EMS-loads of folks to the hospitals and they’re using K2 and can’t figure out what’s going on with them?

Commissioner Bassett: You’re right that this can be extremely variable in its presentation. And – numbers of the speaker – Commissioner Bratton – have mentioned the composition of this product is very variable. You know, people, when they hear the word synthetic marijuana, I think they have an image of somebody in a white lab coat in a lab, making something up according to a protocol. It’s not like that. The thing you should think of is somebody in a t-shirt in a warehouse, hosing down leaves with some concoction that’s made up of chemicals that they bought on the internet that are called synthetic cannabinoids. So the symptoms can be very variable – from nausea, vomiting, lethargy, which is now quite common, to agitation, hallucinations. People actually aren’t often violent – and that’s why we alert healthcare providers with our health alerts that we send out to 25,000 email addresses, so that they’ll think of this when people come in to a hospital and ask the question. There’s no specific antidote. We have to treat people symptomatically, but we do want the healthcare provider community to be aware of it so that they identify it, and they report it to us, and they treat the patient. 

Mayor: Go ahead – deputy commissioner. 

Deputy Commissioner Miller: Just one other thing that we’ve been tracking is, in a snapshot that was taken ten days after the K2 takedown that involved Rob Messner’s people and the nuisance abatement – the seizure of all the material in the federal case – we saw a 28 percent decline in K2 related emergency room visits. So what we are hoping is, armed with this law and the ability to continue enforcement on the retail level of the sales network, that we can continue that decline. There is a separate answer to your question, which is there are deaths that may be categorized by the medical examiner as resulting from K2. But we’re seeing other deaths that would be categorized as other things. In late July, I was on the Hudson River at Pier 46 when a man smoked K2, jumped in the river, and drowned. He was recovered a short time later. The cause of death there would be drowning, but K2 is a significant contributing factor. This weekend, just up the street, we had a woman found dead. We interviewed the man who was with her. He said they spent the night drinking and smoking K2. We’re waiting on the cause of death there, but you’re going to have to understand that would be a contributing factor. So the numbers may be deceiving about the level of seriousness of the problem.

Mayor: Okay. On this topic. Yes. 

Question: With some of the youth, they think that smoking marijuana that they seem to have K2 symptoms. To what extent is this being sprayed on marijuana to give it an extra kick to that extent?

Mayor: Is that – Mary, do you want to speak to that?

Commissioner Bassett: I actually don’t know the answer to that question. You’re – I – you’re asking whether there’s sort of boosted marijuana out there, and I’m – I  don’t know. I don’t think any of us back here have seen it. The problem with K2 is that it’s cheap. It’s been too available, and it – that’s why the main public health approach to it is to reduce the availability, get it off the streets. And we know we can do that because we have been doing it – we’ve seen these declines citywide. But I don’t know about boosting marijuana. 

Mayor: Okay. Other questions on this – Rich?

Question: Mr. Mayor, for you or maybe the police commissioner, how would you characterize those who continue to sell this product now that the outcomes and the detrimental effects are well known?

Mayor: Yeah, I’d – look, it’s absolutely unacceptable. It’s immoral. Anyone who sells this product is endangering other people’s lives and they’re acting in a criminal manner and we’re going to get them. It’s as simple as that. And you know, it’s not – it’s not something people can explain away. There’s plenty of information now out there about how dangerous this is. And so any business that does this, we’re going to go at them using criminal charges, but we’re also going to go at them economically. 

Question: Mayor, what kind of effect do you think K2 is having on this city’s homeless population?

Mayor: Well, again, the information is limited because this is a new trend, but we have seen in this area, in East Harlem, a real negative impact on the homeless. And it’s cheap and too available, and too many people who had other kinds of problems started reaching out to K2 and only made their lives much, much worse. And so, you know, we want to get this at the root. We want to get it early, as Commissioner Bratton said, before the situation got out of control. But the goal, as with everything we are doing in terms of homeless folks, is to try and figure out what will get them on the right path. So if these were folks who already are susceptible to a drug habit, we want to get them the treatment to get them away from that kind of problem. 

Question: Just a quick follow-up question, the state ban isn’t as strong as the city. Are you hopeful that the state will follow the city’s lead?

Mayor: Well, absolutely. We want the strongest tools available to law enforcement. So we think what we have here is going to help us immensely, but the more the better. 

Question: [inaudible] mentioned that 125th and Lex was the epidemic. The folks who live and work in that area, I’m sure they want to know what made their neighborhood such a hotbed for K2?

Mayor: You know, I don’t think we – again, this is a new phenomenon – I don’t think we have all the analysis here. I think what we know – and thanks, again, largely to the leadership of Speaker Mark-Viverito – is we identified the problem and then put a series of actions into place very quickly to address it. And now these laws will give us many more tools. So the bottom line is when we find a new issue or a new problem, it’s our job to act quickly. And I think this will turn the tide. 

Yeah?

Question: I understand the fines against the businesses selling the K2, but what I found of the story that the Daily News did was that a lot of people were buying it from their peers on the street out of plastic bags, just handing them [inaudible] and since the bust in the Bronx, the price is doubling on the street. What would you do regarding the people on the streets selling K2?

Mayor: Let’s let our – who would like [inaudible]

Unknown: Well, this new law does criminalize sale of K2 in any venue. It doesn’t have to just be in a store. So, someone who is selling K2 on the street would also be in violation of this law and would therefore be arrested and prosecuted.

Mayor: Simple and straightforward. Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, I know that you’re not pardoning the people who use K2, but obviously if there was no demand people wouldn’t be selling it. Is there going to be an effort to convince people – some of them homeless – not to use K2?

Mayor: Absolutely, in terms of both public education campaigns in general that will reach everyone, but also the outreach work that the Department of Homeless Services does is explicitly to tell people about things that might be dangerous to their health and to encourage them to get the help they need – for example, drug treatment or mental health service. So, it’s very much a part of what we do – is to try and get people away from negative influences and to a better path. Okay, any other police-oriented questions? Go ahead.

Question: You mentioned that you had a lot of help from the community in this effort. I was wondering if there was a lot of contact with the bodega owners and how would you qualify their relationship with [inaudible]

Commissioner Julie Menin, Department of Consumer Affairs: Yes, absolutely. Now that these new laws will be going into effect shortly, we are going to be reaching out to every bodega owner. As I mentioned, DCA licenses 9,000 establishments that sell cigarettes, and so we’re going to be reaching out to the bodega community to talk to them. In addition, the public awareness campaign, as I mentioned, is targeted to sellers, to users, to potential users. One of the big messages we want to get across is that K2 is dangerous, that the claims that are being made are fraudulent – it is marketed as one thing, but it is really something entirely different. And so, we really need to hammer home that message very, very clearly, and that’s what our public awareness campaign will do.

Question: I have a question for Commissioner Bratton. You’re part of a national group leading police officials and prosecutors who are preparing to say that the rate of mass incarceration in the country is now unsustainable, and you’re hoping to seek reforms to address that. I wanted to ask you, you know, why now? Was there a tipping point in your thinking that prompted you to take that position?

Commissioner Bratton: There’s nothing new about my thinking on this. Back in 1995, I talked about when we began to significantly increase the arrests in the city for both the serious crime that was afflicting the city, but also the quality of life that was a much bigger problem back then. I described this bell curve that to control behavior – the change behavior, you’re going to have to control it. In New York City for 25 years [inaudible] control the behavior of its citizens to obey the law, serious and minor. We corrected that, first with fare evasion in the subway – basically, issues around quality of life issues in the subway, and in the streets with the squeegee pests, and many of the other issues that were so troubling – prostitution, sale of narcotics on the streets. We predicted there would be a bell curve, and that bell curve has in fact happened. If you look back at ’95-’96, Rikers had about 22,000 people a day on daily population. Rikers right now probably has almost as many corrections officers as it does inmates – about 10,000. State prison – since we’re the primary [inaudible] in this state, that 40 percent decline is primarily because of the reduced amount of crime and reduced amount of arrests necessary to control that crime. So, the national movement is something I’m very supportive of because we’ve been talking about it for 20 years, and this state has been leading the way – this state and city – for a number of years on that effort. And it has been ahead of the curve on understanding that you can’t rush your way out of the problem. So, I’m a strong advocate of a rush where appropriate, but, under the law, we’re given great tools to work with – arrests and initial citation – and that’s the approach we’ve been taking and the approach we’ll continue to take.

Question: Is decriminalizing some of those minor offenses a way toward reducing the incarceration rate?

Commissioner Bratton: Certainly. We have seen that in terms of marijuana enforcement in this city – something that the mayor, the speaker, myself have been strongly engaged in over these last several years – the idea that the possession of marijuana is such that we could deal with that without making an arrest. You smoke it in the street, you’re still subject to arrest, but officers have the discretion to basically do something other than arrest for dealing with that. So, again, this is not a new posture in this city. It’s been something that has been practiced going back to when I first came here 25 years ago – that we’re using the range of tools. And so this issue here, its strength is that it provides a range of tools to the police officers. It focuses on the core of the problem – no selling and making the drug – while at the same time still giving us tools to deal with those who use it or abuse it in a way that it requires a police intervention.

Mayor: Marcia. 

Question: Mr. Mayor – actually, these are two questions – and the police commissioner – an update on two issues – one, the escaped prisoner in the 7-5, and apparently a body was found in a sewer drain on First Avenue and 33rd. 

Commissioner Bratton: On the issue of the body in the sewer drain, we have no details on that as we speak. We were only made aware of that just a few minutes before this press conference began. On the issue of the escaped prisoner, once again an embarrassment for the department, and something that we will deal with very severely as far as the officers involved. They’re an embarrassment to themselves in terms of their professional skills or lack of them in once again letting a prisoner escape in this city. And they will be dealt with very appropriately for that incompetence. I’ll let Chief O’Neill, who formerly headed up the warrant squad that was involved in this morning’s incident, speak to that.

James O’Neill, Chief of Detectives, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. Around 6 o’clock this morning, members of Brooklyn North Warrant Squad apprehended an individual – Gerald Brooks. As they brought him downstairs and put him into – put him into the van, he was able to push one of the detectives out of the way, and he escaped. But just let me say one thing about the warrant section – unfortunately, I know – I know the sergeant involved in this case. He is – he’s been in the warrant squad for a long time. He’s put hundreds of very dangerous people in jail. He heads up the Violent Felonies Squad. So what happened to him this morning and the two other investigators involved, I’m sure both of them – all three of them were absolutely embarrassed. We’re looking for Gerald Brooks. This picture will be available. He’s been locked up 54 times in the past, and he was currently wanted on five separate warrant cards. You want that again, Mary? Sure, no problem. Alright, you’ll get some more information from DCPI – his name – and the picture will go out electronically also. And as the commissioner said, all three of these – two investigators and the sergeant – know that they are facing severe disciplinary issues as a result of this. 

Question: [inaudible] 54 [inaudible]?

Chief O’Neill: It’s a lot of domestic violence. I’ve got it right here. Criminal [inaudible]. Aggravated unlicensed [inaudible]. Assaults. You name it, he’s got it. 

Question: [inaudible] walk through the circumstances surrounding his escape. He pushed one of the detectives or all three? I don’t know – whatever you can provide in terms of [inaudible]. 

Chief O’Neill: So they – as the warrant squad does, they get up very early in the morning. They go out the door at 4:30 in the morning. They made this apprehension around 5:45.  As they bring him down and go to put him into the car – this is what’s under investigation now – was one investigator with him or was two? Or was somebody on the other side of the car? The perp was able to push away from the investigator and was able to run down the street. They pursued him, but then they lost him. So –

Unknown: Handcuffed.

Chief O’Neill: Yeah, still handcuffed – rear handcuffed. 

Question: And he was [inaudible]?

Question: [inaudible] still wearing the cuffs?

Chief O’Neill: Hopefully he’s still wearing his cuffs. 

Question: And was he picked up at his residence?

Chief O’Neill: You know what? I don’t know if it was his residence, okay? He’s got numerous warrants on him. I think he’s got a warrant on him too. So this is – I mean, this is – this is what we talk about all the time. This is a guy that’s a problem. This is who I want the warrant squad to go out and get. But, you know, they need to hold onto him. And then, you know, out of all units in the police department, I know they’re all particularly embarrassed by this incident. 

Question: One last thing, Commissioner Bratton, on the escaped prisoner issue – I remember the first prisoner who escaped in Harlem earlier this summer, one protocol that was put in place because he was a violent felon was to do the ankle shackles as well, the ankle cuffs. Is that something that you may be considering now in light of –

Commissioner Bratton: [inaudible] general circumstances – that if the cops were just paying attention to their responsibilities, a lot of this stuff would stop. The fact that these are officers who do this for a living and allowed it to happen, we will treat that very severely – the fact that they are experienced professionals and let it happen – that once again we’re now going to have to go look for this character. Sorry, I won’t tolerate it. I want to make that perfectly clear. They’re an embarrassment to themselves, to the unit, to this department, and they’re going to create a lot more work for this department as a result of their inefficiencies this morning. So we’re not going to tolerate it. I’m getting tired of it and as is the chief. The chief knows the officers involved because he headed this unit for many, many years, so you can believe it will be dealt with with significant consequences within the department once we determine the circumstances. I’m very concerned when somebody with a pair of handcuffs, handcuffed behind them, can flee from three of my officers and they can’t catch him. I’m sorry – there’s something wrong there when that’s happening, repeatedly, over and over again. 

Mayor: Okay. Just looking to get some other people in – go ahead. 

Question: The CCRB – this is for Commissioner Bratton – the CCRB [inaudible] more officers for making false statements. There was a perjury case last week – a high-profile one. Last year, the CCPC reported that two-thirds of officers who make false statements keep their jobs. What’s the department doing about false statements? And is it time to bring back the zero tolerance policy?

Commissioner Bratton: The department looks very closely at every individual case and makes [inaudible] decisions. I’m the final arbiter [inaudible] discipline of the CCRB department-initiated complaint. So in those issues, I make my decisions based on the totality of the circumstances. So I won’t speak to the issue other than that – that each of these incidents has their own set of circumstances. [inaudible] in general, it’s an area of concern, which is focused on by both the department and the CCRB, and one, as I indicate, we will deal with as they come across my desk and I have the totality of the circumstances in each incident. 

Mayor: Hold on, hold on – just let me say, everyone, we’re – we really have to get on to signing this bill. So I’ll do just a few more – Ross. 

Question: Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last week that there’s a chilling effect in terms of these videos being taken of police officers, coupled with the protests against police brutality – it’s making it hard – harder for police to do their jobs – and he was tying it to the rise of Chicago murder rate. I want to just get your reaction to those comments, and if the commissioner wants to react as well. 

Commissioner Bratton: Well, I think quite clearly one of the things we try to impart to our officers that cameras are everywhere, and further encouragement that they do their – perform their duties responsibly, professionally, and always within the law – never outside the law. And that on occasion, if – and one rare occasion, considering the overall number of arrests we make, if they are found to be going outside the law, that they will be dealt with appropriately. As to a chilling effect, that – I have not seen that based on the fact that crime is continuing to go down in this city. The arrest numbers that we’re making still seem to be of a magnitude and [inaudible] the stories that you report on the very aggressive parts of our officers to make arrests, go toward the danger, that that continues. So ultimately, it comes up to each officer’s individual set of circumstances. Are they more concerned? They certainly are. At the same, if they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, appropriately, then they should have no concern. 

Mayor: And I just – hold on a sec – just to say – I agree with everything the commissioner said, and I would add that, you know, with additional training, with clear use-of-force guidelines, these are the kinds of things that’ll help our officers to do their job well. And even if there are videos being taken, there’ll be nothing inappropriate to see. And on top of that, as the commissioner said, we see consistently good work by the NYPD, proven by the decrease in crime overall. And a good example that deserves more attention is the increase in gun arrests, which are up almost 7 percent year-to-date compared to last year. And that’s a great example of the effectiveness of the NYPD, even as the additional training is teaching officers a better way of doing things. 

Question: Talking about the video – and I’m not quite sure if you’ve seen it yet – but within the hour, a group from Sunset Park –

Mayor: This will be the last [inaudible], because we do have to get to bill signing. You ask your question, then we’ve got to go sign the bill. 

Commissioner Bratton: I’ll answer the question before he asks. You were informed before this press conference that inasmuch as that incident just occurred and we have not had the opportunity to view the video that you’re referencing, we would just ask the courtesy – let us take a look at it before you ask questions about it. Thank you.

Mayor: Alright. 

Question: Mayor or anybody else – 

Mayor: Haven’t seen it.

Commissioner Bratton: He hasn’t seen it. He hasn’t even heard about it. 

Mayor: That’s right. 

Mayor: Okay, I’m going to do some off-topic questions. Guys over there, just, here we go. Everybody ready? Marcia.

Question: Mr. Mayor, yesterday the police commissioner said that he’s going to have–

Mayor: Wait a sec Marcia, hold on one more second. Let’s get quiet over there please. Go ahead Marcia.

Question: Yesterday the police commissioner said that he would have zero-tolerance for homeless on the subways and subway platforms. I wonder if you agree with him, but also what steps has your administration taken to help the people who are homeless in the subways find shelter.

Mayor: I agree with Commissioner Bratton 100 percent. We have no tolerance for people using the subways as a place to sleep overnight. It’s not appropriate. In fact, we’re very proud of our efforts to change the situation. NYPD and Department of Homeless services have been working together – 773 chronically homeless individuals removed out of the subway system, and helped to housing or shelter over the last year. It’s a huge number of people - let’s be clear 773 people who were spending a lot of their time, most of their time in the subways – moved out to better alternatives. So, we’re going to continue that whenever we see someone in the subways who shouldn’t be there. We’ve also been continuing to deepen our outreach efforts to help people to get to the things they need – whether its shelter, safe havens, drug treatment, mental health services. So we’ve tripled out outreach staff over the last year so we can actually get people the help they need. I’m very proud of the fact that, unlike the practice of the past which tolerated a lot of these situations and tolerated the permanent homeless encampments, we’ve ended a lot of these problems that were profoundly unfair to the homeless and to people around them – to communities around them. But the trick is not just to end the encampment or move people out of the subway and call it a day, the important thing is to actually provide the services and help so that people end up in housing and end up in the treatment they need.

Question: Mr. Mayor –

Mayor: Hold on one second, go ahead, Michael.

Question: Mr. Mayor, were you disappointed that you were unable to visit the West Bank during your visit to Israel this past weekend?

Mayor: I think given the circumstances there, the way we handled it was correct. And I found the visit with the Israeli and Palestinian families – the Jewish and Arab families – at the Hand-in-Hand School very moving, and a glimpse of some hope amidst a very very tough situation, I mean it’s very – it was impossible to be there without feeling the pain that people are going through, the insecurity, the fear that people are feeling in Israel right now. But even in those moments, it’s crucial to look for any example of hope, and I think visiting that school was exactly the right thing to do. Yes –

Question: Mr. Mayor, you’ve attended a number of street-namings for officers that were killed in the line of duty during your administration. Yesterday, a street was named for Philip Cardillo outside the police academy, 43 years after he was killed in the line of duty, and at that time, in 1972, the mayor didn’t attend the funeral, the police commissioner didn’t attend, very politicized crime. The crime scene was mopped up-

Mayor: Yeah I know the history, so what’s your question please?

Question: So my question is do you have regrets about not going to the ceremony.

Mayor: I am very proud of the fact that my administration righted this wrong, so let’s – let’s look at the actual facts. For 40 years, Officer Cardillo was not given the appropriate respect and I was very proud to sign the bill that renamed the street after him. I was very proud of the decision that Commissioner Bratton brought to me saying that they were looking forward to naming a police boat after him, and I agreed wholeheartedly. So the fact is this administration righted that wrong, I don’t tend to go to street re-namings for officers, for officers named in the – excuse me – killed in the past. I respect their service intensely, that’s why I was part of the process of having the street re-named and the boat re-named after him but I focus my energy on going to the events that commemorate those that we’ve lost during my time in office. Yeah.

Question: Mr. Mayor, are you waiting until after the presidential forum that is scheduled for December in Iowa to offer an endorsement in the –

Mayor: I’m going to look at the situation and make a decision when I see fit. There’s not a particular ground rule on it.

Question: Other members of the Progressive Agenda signatories, like Congresswomen Yvette Clark, say that they’ve already seen enough and they are ready to endorse Hillary and already have –

Mayor: Well, if you look carefully at the folks who have signed on to the Progressive Agenda, there are a number of Hillary Clinton supporters, there are certainly a number of Bernie Sanders supporters, there’s a number of folks who haven’t endorsed any candidate. As I said, I am very pleased that Secretary Clinton made the decision she did on the trade issue, and I really look forward to sitting down with her and her team soon.

Question: Following up on the Agenda, on the Progressive Agenda –

Mayor: Hold on, hold on, I’ll be right with you. Erin?

Question: Yeah, another question about your Israel trip, we’ve seen in the past you’ve been very critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements on the two-state solution. After meeting with him, do you continue to have those views, that he is being counterproductive or have you come to see more eye-to-eye with him or have you –

Mayor: Look, what we focused our conversation on was the current security situation, and obviously any steps that could be taken to move forward. My criticism of the Prime Minister at that point was that he had changed his position from supporting a two-state solution to opposing it and then as you know in a short period of time he changed it back. So, his official position now again is that he supports a two-state solution and that is the appropriate position, from my point of view.

Question: Mr. Mayor, it’s just a few weeks away, this presidential forum in Iowa. The platform that’s published, do you anticipate any changes any additional policies added to it before then?

Mayor: It’s a coalition, so it’s certainly possible, but so far the coalition that we’ve gathered agrees with the 14 points that are part of the plan and think that they really are the core of what’s necessary to fight income inequality. So, the forum is December 6th, it’s six weeks or so away, and we think it’s important to draw more attention onto these issues. Look, the democratic debate – I want to give credit to the democratic candidates, they did talk about some of these crucial issues. It deserves a lot more focus, because issues of wages and benefits, progressive taxation, support for working families – these issues deserve a lot more attention, and they’re what’s on the mind of the American people. The Republican debate almost ignored all of those issues, so that’s why what we are talking about is a bipartisan forum where each candidate can come one at a time and actually have to answer the questions that are on the minds of everyday people.

Question: And, and just for critics who have complained about the fact that you are doing this in Iowa, that you are leaving New York again, that these are issues that are so important to New York City resident, what’s your response to those –

Mayor: I’ve said it many times, I’ll happily say it again. You know, when I ran for office I talked about fighting inequality. A lot of you asked a very pertinent question: can it all be done right here in New York City with the tools we have, and I said very clearly, “No, we need more.” We’re going to use every tool we have and – and the tools that this city government has are substantial, it – paid-sick leave policy, the living wage executive order, what we’re doing with affordable housing, what we’re doing with making huge, important programs like pre-k and afterschool available to families for free. All of those address income inequality in different ways – but the larger solutions to income inequality come through higher wages and benefits, which have to be mandated at the state or federal level, comes through progressive taxation so we can actually invest in things like mass-transit and infrastructure, put a lot more people back to work and improve the quality of life for people.

So many of these efforts cannot be done by us alone; we need the federal government to play a role. So then the natural question is what’s going to cause that change – the kinds of things we used to expect from Washington, D.C. – what’s going to bring that back? The only thing that’ll bring that back is a different public debate in this country, and I’m trying, as one of the leaders of urban American, to change the discussion, to get our candidates on all levels to talk about income inequality and what they’re willing to do about it. If we don’t have that conversation, nothing will change. If nothing changes, the people of New York City will suffer. That’s why it’s worth putting attention on where the actual decisions are made, and we all know, we all know that the first place that the future of our country will be decide is in Iowa, so that’s exactly the right place to have the conversation.

Question: Not to keep too -

Mayor: Hold on a sec-

Question: This summer when you called us into your office, you said you would call out Governor Cuomo if he messed with the city. With the exception of the MTA, you’ve been relatively quiet. How do we interpret you silence on the Governor?

Mayor: I’ll do exactly as I said. When I think it’s time to say that, either I think he did something that helped the city, as I think was the case with the MTA decision, or if I think something is being done that hurts the city, I’ll say that, and we’ll do that case-by-case.

Question: So he’s done nothing to hurt the –

Mayor: Again, we’re going to do it case by case.

Question: The conference you attended in Israel was sponsored by donors to the Campaign for One New York, and some of your events were attended by donors to your campaign. What – what would you say about the impression that money can buy one access to the mayor of the –

Mayor: The – it’s absolutely ridiculous. The Conference of Mayors from around the world has been held for 30 years or more, actually long before those individuals were involved. It was a natural point to come and talk about the issue that I originally came to talk about, which was anti-Semitism in the West, which as I talked about in the speech in Jerusalem is a growing problem, and I saw it firsthand in Paris back in January. Obviously the trip took on added meaning because of the security crisis in Israel. The community leaders who are there are major a major community leaders from the Jewish community, some of whom were there anyway because of other work they do. So, it just – I think people are fishing for something that isn’t there. I was proud to be there to work on the issues I care about.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you are slated to meet with former Mayor Bloomberg in a public event. Could you talk a little bit about like why now, why this event, and what the – how did this come about? Did you partially invite him to this?

Mayor: It’s obviously an important milestone for something he cared a lot about, the millionth tree. And look, we said this a lot in 2013, there are some real areas I disagree with Mayor Bloomberg on, some areas I agree with him on. And where I agree with him, I say we would try and continue the work he was doing and build upon it. When it came to environmental issues, I thought Mayor Bloomberg did some very very important things for this city and a very crucial part of that was, you know, making sure there was more open space and a better environment for our people. So, the Million Trees was a great initiative, something he has every right to be proud of, we are coming up on the ultimate goal and we thought it was appropriate to invite him to join. I was equally happy to stand with him at the Cornell-Technion groundbreaking on Roosevelt Island, which is another part of his legacy that I am very, very happy to build upon. So, you know it’s always going to be consistency with what we think is good for New York City and giving credit where credit is due, and he certainly deserves credit for that. Thanks everyone!