Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Conference Call With Commission of Religious Leaders of NYC (CORL)

June 18, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you very much, Marco. 

Look, I want to thank everyone for gathering together. With CORL, we’ve gathered together in times of crisis and challenge. We obviously look forward to meeting very soon – and I know Marco is working out that date – to talk about ways we can work together on an ongoing basis, you know, on positive things and challenges alike. But, you know, we gather at this moment in an atmosphere of crisis that’s afflicting our fellow citizens in Charleston, but it feels to so many people in this city like it’s right next door because it was so horrific. 

This attack – you know, inside a house of worship, so many people lost – is just deeply affecting people in this city. It’s affecting me and Chirlane and so many people at City Hall. And I won’t – I won’t go into all of the prisms through which we could look at this, but I will say it’s impossible to look at this without realizing that there are huge issues we have to address as a society in terms of racism, in terms of gun violence, in terms of mental health. 

There are so many urgent, troubling questions that this shooting raises – and a loss of nine people in a house of worship should shock us all into action and recognition.

And, you know, obviously, first and foremost, we have to think about the families. Our prayers are with them. And we have to think about any way we can comfort them. And they were, of course, a part of the AME family – the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which I know is grieving all over the city and all over the nation. 

Chief Waters will speak in a moment about some of the efforts of the NYPD, which we’re very thankful for, to protect and reinforce houses of worship in this environment – obviously, there’s been a particular focus on AME churches. 

But Emanuel in Charleston was a particularly historic church. It was one absolutely synonymous with the fight against slavery and for Civil Rights – oldest AME church in the south. When we first heard the reports, it was horrific enough that this happened anywhere, but the more we’re learning that this was in a church so synonymous with the fight for freedom and the fact the church that had been burned down at one point by white supremacists trying to repress the actions of that church. So it takes on so much meaning. And those stories we’ve heard so far of the people lost, including the pastor, are deeply affecting, because these were true leaders. 

So just in terms of the things I think that CORL could be particularly important in helping us with at this moment – obviously, spreading the word – you’ll hear details from Chief Waters, but thank God there is not an immediate threat – but we – we definitely need to get people vigilant for any kind of copycat activity, and spreading the word about what’s being done to protect churches, and spreading a message of vigilance. This is absolutely, you know, a dynamic where people, if they see something, they need to say something too – to their clergy, to us, to the police. People need to be notified. 

And clearly, at the same time, a moment where we have to say that we do not accept hatred and bias and biased violence of any kind in New York City, and that we will continue to follow up aggressively any time we see any indication of it, which is one of the hallmarks of this city.

So I want to just get us together like this, all, to hear from Chief Waters, and then any thoughts people have on how to appropriately spread a message of consolation and vigilance at the same time – or any other things that people would suggest that we do or anything we can do to help you in this moment we’d like to hear. 

With that, Chief Waters, thank you very, very much for joining us, and we appreciate your effort every day, and the men and women who serve under you. And please give us a sense now of how the NYPD has reacted to this tragedy. 

Chief James Waters, NYPD Counterterrorism: Well, thank you very much, mayor. 

Yes – first, as soon as we became aware – we follow the news, like the many people, 24 hours a day – and so we followed the intelligence in many different ways – first, on the classified side, with our partnerships with the federal government, Department of Homeland Security, as well as our own capabilities here in the city with the Intelligence Bureau and the Counterterrorism Bureau in an unclassified setting. So we looked at that intelligence – we were looking to see if there was anything posted – and we follow social media because it informs and directs us at times. 

Absent any threat to any church here in the New York City area, I – at my direction, I deployed our Critical Response Vehicles to locations in Manhattan – in some of the AME churches in Manhattan immediately this morning. So as the sun was coming up, those officers were deploying to churches in Manhattan.

We have an additional program [inaudible] Counterterrorism Bureau, called the Counterterrorism Officer Program – a force-multiplier, if you will, of officers that are trained in counterterrorism, but work in regular precincts each and every day, responding to police calls – they don’t – they’re not assigned to me, but they work for me at certain times. We mobilize – and this is just what the program is for – we mobilize those individuals and then we put them out in roving vehicles, where they were able to go to different churches in the other four boroughs of this city. The CRVs covered Manhattan. The CTO program covered the remainder of the four boroughs. 

And in addition to that, I was in direct contact with the Chief of Department, and they put out a message, and they direct it at each precinct – use a RND – a radio car with two cops – to be considered the house of worship car as a designation for the day, where they would go from church to church and make a stop – perhaps knock on the door, talk to whoever was around – but mainly because we – absent any intelligence of any real credible threat here in the city – it is basically out there to let people know, if anybody is taking a look at any church, that the police are out there, we’re paying attention. And it should – it should instill fear in the bad guys and confidence in the good, hardworking, church-going people that they should have confidence in the police – and I certainly have confidence in the counterterrorism program.

So with that – that program will continue. The deployments will continue for the foreseeable future. And we are – you know, as the mayor said, we’re always concerned about a copycat or someone that decides that, you know, the barbaric act that occurred last night somebody would think of trying to recreate that in our city – and we’re just not going to permit that to happen. 

So I’m happy to take any questions, but, mayor, back over to you, Sir. 

Mayor: Thank you very, very much, Chief.