Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks on Tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina

June 18, 2015

Mayor de Blasio: Well, we have an announcement today, and we’re very proud to make it, but I first need to talk about the events in Charleston because I think they’re rightfully weighing on all of us this morning. This was an absolutely troubling and heart wrenching moment. The fact is that nine innocent lives are lost. Our hearts go out to the people of Charleston. Our hearts go out to the members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. We in this city feel the pain of people anywhere in this country, anywhere in this globe, because we’re so connected to each and every part of the country and the world. There are so many people here who hail from South Carolina, and it’s a very, very painful moment for all of us. I want everyone to know there’s no place in New York City for this kind of hatred, and that we, through the NYPD, have increased our resources directed at protecting African-American churches in this city as a precaution.

The fact is that even though we don’t know the whole story here, we have seen time and time again these times of horrific attacks motivated by bias. We’ve seen so many tragedies in our high schools and college campuses like this – so many related to mental health problems – so many mental health problems that in many cases were noticed and not acted upon. So there’s a lot that we have to unravel here. We can talk about it later on in this gathering, but we’ve got to take very seriously the fact that many of these tragedies occur and there are warning signs that we can act on if – if we are more aggressive about dealing with the question of mental health, and de-stigmatizing it, and opening up both the discussing and taking the actions we need on mental health in this city and in this country. So, our prayers are with the families of those who are lost. Our prayers are with the members of that church and all of the people of Charleston today. 

Let’s have a moment of silence for all of the victims.

[Mayor de Blasio observes moment of silence]

Thank you.