Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds Security Briefing Ahead of Anticipated Weekend Protests with NYPD Commissioner Tisch

June 13, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Good afternoon. We wanted to really just come and give an update and briefing on our teams. We have been coordinating with our federal partners, and both internally, Deputy Commissioner Weiner and her team, intelligence, have gathered as much information as possible. And the police commissioner and the chief of department are coordinating what's taking place on the ground. And I really want to come in and thank them for the job they are doing.

We know there's a lot happening, and we have to balance the ability to peacefully protest with maintaining law and order in the city. Before we start the process of discussing the preparation for tomorrow's planned protest, I want to address the situation, the ongoing situation in Israel and Iran.

As we have a large population of both Israeli and Persian diaspora in our city, we expect that conflict is likely to affect protests across the five boroughs. And out of abundance of caution, last night we immediately increased security at houses of worship and at Israeli diplomatic sites. And Police Commissioner Tisch and I are coordinating with our federal partners as we continue to monitor the situation.

We are praying for peace in the region, and we're preparing for safety in our city. New York City is going to continue to remain the safest big city in America, and we'll do whatever it takes to keep New Yorkers safe. Every one of you should be able to go to your house of worship, your jobs, your schools, employment, and without any form of unnecessary disruption. And a countless number of millions of people who visit our city for tourist attractions and restaurants, that is what makes our city great, and we want to make sure they feel and they are safe.

And New York City is also the greatest democracy on the globe, and part of our great democracy is the ability to peacefully protest. So as they have done the past few days, tomorrow many New Yorkers will be making their voices heard on our streets through peaceful protests. All week, we have seen the professionalism of the NYPD and our partners in law enforcement, and we expect a large number of New Yorkers to be out on our streets, and the 34,000 members of the New York City Police Department, led by our team, will be protecting everyone.

We want to keep all New Yorkers safe, whether you are protesting or going about your everyday life. And we're saying to loved ones and family members, please know where your family members are and ensure that they're not part of any disruption that's taking place. And while we always respect and protect the right to peacefully protest, there would be zero tolerance for crime, blocking traffic, graffiti, or disorderly behavior.

New Yorkers may have different emotions right now, and they have a right to express that, but we want to be clear, you do not have a right to engage in violence and lawlessness. Any escalation of protests that turn violent or result in property damage is unacceptable, and it won't be tolerated if it is attempted in our city. So do not come tomorrow to bring about any cause of problems. New Yorkers should be able to express their concerns without violence or spewing hate.

And we're going to be safeguarding many of the events, including the protests, and it's our imperative to ensure we move around the city in a peaceful way. This city is well trained through our law enforcement communities, and we're able to have some form of major event, and at the same time, continue our daily lives. And as I said Monday, in the face of conflict and division, we must choose peace and compassion over anger and retaliation in this city.

And again, I want to thank the Police Department, our other law enforcement community, and the men and women who are doing this job every day. It's challenging to be on the front line during protests and maintain your professionalism, but you're seeing it every day.

And we are clear, there are a body of people who are here just to create chaos, and it takes a great deal of discipline not to be hooked with the chaos that they are attempting to take, and that's what these men and women are doing every day, and we will continue to do it. I want to turn it over to the police commissioner, Commissioner Tisch.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Thank you, Mayor Adams. At the beginning of this week, the mayor and I stood before you and articulated fundamental commitments that guide the NYPD's work every day. We protect the right to peacefully assemble, the right to speak freely, the right to protest. And we have no tolerance, none, for violence or vandalism or lawlessness.

This past week, the men and women of the NYPD lived those commitments. They facilitated the demonstrations of thousands of peaceful protesters across our city day and night. When individuals among the protesters committed crimes, we swiftly arrested them. That is what your Police Department has done, and that is what we will continue to do. Tomorrow will be no different.

It will be a nationwide day of protest, and we expect to see large crowds protesting across the city. The NYPD is prepared. Thousands of officers will be available to safeguard these protests. We have planned around the clock to ensure that those officers are deployed to the right places at the right times. Our executives will be monitoring the protests throughout the day and will be ready to move resources as needed at a moment's notice.

Our Joint Operations Center will be activated starting on Saturday morning, where we will work in close coordination with the FBI and other state, local, and federal partners. I have been personally speaking with federal law enforcement leadership over the course of the last week, and I will continue to do so. So, for those who seek to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights tomorrow, we are ready to help you do just that.

For those who intend to commit crimes tomorrow, we are coming here – excuse me. For those who intend to commit crimes tomorrow, who are coming here to incite violence, to cause property damage, to attack our cops, you will be met with the full strength and determination of the greatest police department in the world.

And for those of you peacefully protesting, who see others engaged in unlawful activity, my message is clear. Do not join them. Do not turn your exercise of cherished First Amendment rights into criminal conduct. Because my orders are clear. If individuals at the protests tomorrow are committing crimes, they will be arrested. And those orders are going to be followed. I want to reassure New Yorkers that even as we devote tremendous resources to the protests tomorrow, we remain focused on what is happening in every precinct.

Normal department operations will not be impacted. Our summer violence reduction zone officers will stay on post. Our local-level patrol and investigations will not be interrupted. We are also closely tracking what is happening overseas. In light of Israel's attack on Iran last night, we are deploying additional resources to a wide range of religious, cultural, and diplomatic institutions across this city. As always, these deployments are highly coordinated, they are dynamic, and adaptable.

Due to the confluence of events in the city, across the country, and around the world, we are in a heightened threat environment, and the NYPD is responding accordingly. Our intelligence team, working shoulder-to-shoulder with our federal partners, has tremendous experience contending with threats from the Iranian government and its proxies, and is bringing that expertise to bear to ensure the safety and the security of our city.

I want to express my gratitude to every officer who has worked throughout the week and will continue to work this weekend. I want the people of New York City to know that the men and women of the NYPD, who provide safety and security at these protests, have withstood verbal attacks, and in some instances, physical attacks. And through it all, they have maintained their professionalism, their resolve, their discipline, and exercised incredible restraint. Our city owes a debt of gratitude to them and to their families.

Let me be clear, attacking our officers or police property will not be tolerated and will be met with a swift and decisive response. We are responsible for enforcing the law and protecting the people of New York City, and we will never abdicate that responsibility. Thank you.

Question: Has there been any communication with the Trump administration about potential [inaudible]?

Mayor Adams: We have made it clear to the federal government that, in just three simple words, we got this.

Question: The other night at a protest late Tuesday, there appeared to be federal officers there, possibly deploying some type of gas onto the protesters there. What do you know about what happened there, and do you anticipate federal officers engaging in any protests tomorrow?

Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Police Department: So we have been coordinating extensively with our federal partners. As the mayor just said, as the commissioner just said, we got this. We've got hundreds of specially trained officers who are experts at disorder control, who know how to do this very well. And we have been dealing with protests for certainly years, months.

This is no different. The causes change, but the response is the same. And so that coordination, which is ongoing, and that communication, we are quite confident that we are able to police these independently and quite effectively.

Question: What happened the other night was that [inaudible].

Police Commissioner Tisch: The canister.

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: So obviously everybody was on the scene together. Federal agencies who are responsible for the force protection of their own personnel involved in that particular incident having an interaction with protesters.

So our message has been very clear, our communication with federal partners has been very clear, that we are there to help police the protests so that the federal government can do what it needs to do while we are keeping the public safe.

Question: Yeah, I'm Mia Clark from NY1. Could you just elaborate on the extra security at religious institutions, including Jewish ones? How many extra officers are patrolling these institutions around the city?

Police Commissioner Tisch: Yep. Starting last night, we deployed a lot of extra officers to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across the city. That heightened deployment has continued into the day, and it will continue for the next several days as long as it's necessary. As always, we don't give out specific numbers, but it is occurring across every borough of the city.

Question: This question is for the mayor, for the commissioner, or for Ms.Weiner. I know you mentioned it earlier, Mayor Adams, that there are outsiders here. You mentioned earlier this evening that there's outside agitators. If you saw news last year, I know, with the Columbia protests, do you have any evidence that you can show us to prove that there is a concentrated outside agitator threat [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: You said last year there was no large amount. That's the biggest mistake we make when we try to define the situation. There were outside agitators on the Columbia campus when, at the time, Assistant Commissioner Daughtry and Chief Chell was there. There were individuals who were part of taking over the Hamilton Hall that did not attend the school. Some of them were professionals.

Folks, when you have 5,000 people on the street, all you need is 20 to be an outside agitator. You don't need 4,999. You have a small number of people that are professionals. We saw it during the Black Lives Matter situation when I met with former Mayor Bill de Blasio. They were training people to have glass bottles filled with ice, bricks, knapsacks, all of the tools that were used to aggravate. And so get out of your mind that an outside agitator must be the numerical majority of the people who are participating.

Outside agitators go in, they rile up the crowd, they start throwing items at the police, they start doing things to get the police aggravated. They use firebombs to burn cars. We saw that during the BLM movement. That's what an outside agitator is. So whoever is saying there are no outside agitators coming in and they're professionals, Antifa and others, they just don't understand policing.

You're not the majority. That's not your goal. You're not going there to be the majority. You're going there to hijack a movement so that you can aggravate and create disorder in the city. That's what an outside agitator. They were there on Columbia, and they're there at many of our marches. And so if you want to write a story about how there are no outside agitators, feel free to do that. We're going to protect the people of this city based on intelligence, not rumors.

Question: I was just asking if you had any intelligence to share for this group.

Mayor Adams: No. Go to the next person.

Question: Just to push the needle forward on retraining and lessons learned from the BLM protests, talk about some of the training implemented in the NYPD as you guys prepare for tomorrow.

Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber, Legal Matters, Police Department: I'm Michael Gerber. I'm the deputy commissioner of Legal Matters. And, you know, following the Floyd protests, DOI did a detailed report focusing on policies and procedures. Made a number of recommendations. We adopted those recommendations.

So there are lots of pieces to that, but I think most critically was the adoption of department policy in the patrol guide, specifically about the policing of First Amendment activities, outlining responsibilities, outlining how we go about maximizing the exercise of First Amendment rights, while also maintaining public safety, enforcing the law. And then we train widely across the department on that, from people who are starting out as police officers to our executives. They all receive training on that new policy.

Question: [Inaudible] now has a First Amendment protest supervisor. What has that supervisor brought to the table? What is new now in how the police handle things? And why was the first supervisor, Chief Haywood, replaced after such a short time?

Deputy Commissioner Gerber: So there are a number of different pieces to that. So in the protest settlement, we are coming to the tail end of phase one. We have not yet started phase two. And in phase one, we have developed a variety of new policies and procedures and training that speak specifically to the terms of the protest settlement.

The FAA executive, the First Amendment activities executive, as per the settlement, is an executive in the chief of department's office, from the operational side. And that person has a variety of responsibilities under the protest settlement. Now, that person is not a lawyer. That person is not giving legal advice. That person is not the incident commander. But that person, among other things, is responsible – and really, this is going to kick in in phase two, so we're not there yet.

But in phase two, that person will be responsible for, first of all, a variety of administrative tasks and recordkeeping in terms of protests. And then connected to that, as part of DOI's oversight role, when they are reviewing particular protests. So that FAA executive will be responsible for making sure they have the records they need, but then also for interacting with them, for explaining to them what happened, getting feedback from them, and helping really lead the department in its interactions with DOI in its oversight function.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Police Commissioner Tisch: We, as always, do not comment on individual personal moves.

Questions: Just a couple of questions. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the deployment of officers in light of sending extra teams to religious institutions and the protests happening at the same time. How are those decisions going to be made? And obviously, you've mentioned the three or 34,000 officers that are going to be out there. But could you talk a little bit about rotating them, moving them, deploying them while all these things are happening?

The other question I had was, what's the search been like online in places like Telegram or in the dark web to sort of find out what some of these agitators who have been known to the department with either the Columbia protests or in other things, like what's being done to keep an eye on them or to sort of get ahead of what they might be doing or planning for these demonstrations?

Police Commissioner Tisch: Let me start with the first part. In terms of how we move our resources around, as I mentioned, we are activating our Joint Operations Center tomorrow morning. So the movements of resources in the department will all be controlled by the Joint Operations Center as it relates to the protest activity. And Chief Chell will be running the operations in the JOC tomorrow. Rebecca, do you want to speak to the second part?

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: Sure. So this is very fundamental to what our intelligence personnel do in coordination with their federal partners and partners around the world in the private sector. So this is something we deal with every day. There is, of course, a large public manifestation of both protest and, obviously, a lot of online calls for civil disobedience and other activity. But we are knee-deep in monitoring for threats of all sides, of all kinds around the world every day.

We are, unfortunately, have become quite accustomed to dealing with a bubbling up of conflict overseas and potential ramifications here in the city at the same time as we have a very different scenario playing out across the country, namely these protests that some of which have involved acts of civil disobedience and even violence.

So this is what we do every day. We have large teams. They're quite good at what they do. And we have wonderful partners. So we're confident we're going to be able to get through not just tomorrow, but whatever is on our horizon.

Mayor Adams: And we should, you know, we want to be clear and want to keep in mind. We have 8.5 million people in New York City. We have a protest of 5,000, 10,000. The loudest, they are not the numerical majority. We saw a video that went viral of a woman who was just trying to get to work. And the level of disrespect that was being shown to her, it impacts 8.5 million people.

When you block traffic, that emergency vehicle can't respond to the heart attack. When you decide that you're going to burn police vehicles, you are showing a level of display and disorder. When you break windows of shops and glass, people work inside there to provide for their family. That's what we're going to balance.

And we're not going to romanticize what disorder does to a city. You see it being played out across this country. We can't allow it to happen here. That is our job. Our job is to allow that mother to go to her job. Our job is to allow family members to pick up their loved ones from school. Our job is to make sure emergency vehicles can get to where they have to go to provide services for New Yorkers.

We have 8.5 million people in this city. And we're not going to allow a numerical minority to impact the quality of life that they deserve. That is what we're going to do. We do it well. No one does it better than us. And we're going to do it tomorrow on the 14th.