Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Tisch Announces Safest Year Ever for Gun Violence with Fewest Shooting Incidents and Shooting Victims in Recorded History
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a privilege to be here with you at One Police Plaza and to be surrounded by so many committed public servants here in the NYPD. I want to thank Commissioner Tisch for her leadership and Governor Hochul for her steadfast partnership with the City. I will not repeat the incredible statistics that the commissioner just shared, but I do want to echo the human story that they tell. Because as impressive as these numbers are, we know that they capture something tangible. The lives New Yorkers live. The ways that our neighbors interact with our city. And the countless hours of unseen hard work by the men and women in this room and beyond it that have delivered this progress. When we say that murder went down by over 20 percent from last year, that is anything but abstract. Each of those percentage points adds up to dining room tables without an empty seat. Lives free from the dark cloud of grief. Children that grow up with a parent at home. When we talk about the safest year on subways absent the pandemic years since 2009, we are talking about a City that is and feels safe to explore. Where a young New Yorker from Inwood isn't afraid to ride a train to meet her friends in Flushing. Where a senior citizen on the Upper West Side isn't reluctant to get on the subway to see a grandchild in Bushwick. These numbers, whether they represent fewer robberies or fewer victims of gun violence, mean a more vibrant, joyful city. It's measured in restaurants and bodegas that keep their doors open later, families that don't hurry home as soon as the light begins to fade from the sky. But make no mistake, none of this arrives by accident. Each of these markers of achievement is a testament to a Police Department that cares about this city and works with this city to remake this city. Thank you to those who are here at One Police Plaza and to those across our five boroughs for the work that you all do in making today possible. As we lead together, I want to see these numbers continue to drop, to continue to nurture the partnership between the NYPD and the communities across the city, and to empower our police force to focus on the serious crimes that they signed up to tackle. We are going to mend the frayed social safety net that fails so many of our neighbors, tackle the mental health crisis that causes so much pain, and continue to deliver public safety across our five boroughs. I want to say thank you again to everyone who worked so hard to bring us this day, and thank you for all of the work we will continue to do to lead together over the years to come. And with that, I will pass it over to our partner, our governor, Kathy Hochul.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And I will add that there is much that these statistics cover, the incredible work that we've spoken about today. And I will also tell you that as the Mayor of this City, in just the last two days, I have been on site for two, five-alarm fires: one in the Bronx and one in Queens. And I also know that the work of the NYPD extends to being first responders in those moments as well, in ensuring that we are taking care of New Yorkers and delivering public safety in a wide variety of ways. So these are numbers and accomplishments to be celebrated, and as the commissioner said, they're also ones to be built on, because we will not rest until we make this the safest city it can be.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Look, I think as the commissioner said, the two of us are in constant communication and what New Yorkers deserve and what we are fully aligned on is the fact that we need to see genuine public safety across the city and that is something that is felt when New Yorkers can walk through their neighborhood without fear or without concern. That is something that is felt when they see a City government that is addressing the fundamental concerns that actually underpins the misdemeanors and the minor crimes that we're speaking of and that is going to be the focus not only of myself but also of my entire city government.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Just to the commissioner's point, we tend to tell young people in the city what they shouldn't do, and we have much less to say on what they should do. I think the commissioner's exactly right in terms of the whole-of-government approach that's required to also provide services, programming, and opportunities for young people across the City, and I look forward to having those conversations and delivering on that for the young people of the City. Thank you. You know, I will say, I made the decision to retain Police Commissioner Tisch because of the work that she was doing. And that was work that could be measured in statistics of the kind that we have shared today, and also in the manner in which she tackled the crisis at hand at the upper echelon of the department that she was inheriting. And what we are seeing are the fruits of that work, and I look forward to continue building upon that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think these numbers showcase a police commissioner, an executive team, and a department that are delivering for New Yorkers. And also, as the commissioner has said, as well as the governor has said, we cannot rest on these results. We have to build on these results. And I appreciate the commissioner and I's shared focus on doing so. And the fact that the creation of the Department of Community Safety is one that will also help to alleviate some of the immense, ever-growing burdens we are putting on this department. I think the commissioner remarked upon the number of 311 calls that have increased over the years. In an annual year, the department is facing 200,000 calls on mental health crises alone. So there is no question of what the department needs to continue to do. And also I can tell you that as a New Yorker, I know there are more important things than for a police officer to be asked by a tourist in Times Square which train is working, which exit they can use, which elevator is functioning. That means that there are opportunities for us to supplement this work and to ensure that we actually empower officers to do the work that they signed up for. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So this is work that is ongoing within our administration. The focus is on building this Department of Community Safety. And to be very clear, it is about supplementing, as opposed to supplanting, the work that the NYPD does. What we are seeing right now is that there are far too many New Yorkers who are– whether experiencing the homelessness crisis or the mental health crisis, who are not being connected to the services that they need. This is an opportunity for us to build upon the incredible work that the NYPD has done as we've just spoken about. And start to deliver for those very New Yorkers.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source There would be coordination between the NYPD and the Department of Community Safety, as there would be as part of a whole of government approach. The Department of Community Safety would report through the first deputy mayor. This will be work that will be critical in tackling so many of the different issues we see in our city. We've spoken about the mental health crisis, we've spoken about homelessness. Part of this is also tackling the silos that have existed within city government. We have a number of different initiatives, a number of different departments that are tasked with doing very similar things, but they're operating in isolation. So even when we are thinking about the incredible work that is being done on tackling gun violence, the importance of actually cohering the crisis management system, for example, within a larger framework that is tackling these kinds of issues, that's going to be critical, and that is something that we are looking forward to. Yes. Just to be very clear, the executive order that we issued was a direction to the police commissioner and the Law Department to review a number of the very things that they had been tasked with prior, and then to present that review to myself.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And I will just add one thing to what the governor said, which is that I remember when the governor became the governor of our state, one of the first acts that she took was to actually get the money out of ERAP [Emergency Rental Assistance Program] and into New Yorkers' households across the state. And to me, it was an example of what it can look like when the focus is on the work, the focus is on the results, the focus is not instead on continuing that legacy of conflict between City Hall and Albany. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Tisch Announces Safest Year Ever for Gun Violence with Fewest Shooting Incidents and Shooting Victims in Recorded History.