Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears Live on Fox 5's "Good Day New York"

June 24, 2022

Rosanna Scotto: Joining us this morning from City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams. Nice to have you back on Good Day New York.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Good morning to both of you.

Scotto: So let me ask you something. Do you think it was personal with the Supreme Court? Do you think they really were targeting New York when they made this ruling?

Mayor Adams: I was really surprised to see Manhattan actually mentioned inside the article. And let's not kid ourselves, there are people across the country who have, they have a different view of New York City as though we are not the economic engine for the entire country. We're still analyzing the ruling. But it's one thing clear, we woke up today as a country moving in a place where we are going to be unsafe due to this ruling when it comes down to gun violence.

Scotto: So when it comes to the ruling, people who apply for these permits, is there training involved? Is there any kind of background check involved? Or you just give it to them?

Mayor Adams: Well, that's what our legal teams are going to look at. We communicated with the governor yesterday and I spoke with my counsel. We were expecting some form of ruling and we wanted to make sure we could be prepared. I'm hoping the governor called the lawmakers back to Albany, because this ruling is going to be sent back down to a lower court and we have a window when we can clearly attempt to deal with this devastating impact that is going to have on New York City.

Dan Bowens: And, Mr. Mayor, you have described this in some ways as the potential to descend into the Wild West. Some people with guns shooting at others with guns if they feel unsafe, traffic stops, things along those lines. But is it that simple? Is there now a time period where some rules can be laid out by the state of New York to designate sensitive zones? Like maybe Times Square, you can't have these concealed carry, maybe in the subway, courthouses, things like that. There is a moment here to sort of get a hold on this.

Mayor Adams: That's our challenge. Because the Supreme Court made it clear in their ruling that we cannot just blanketly state all of Manhattan. Let's look at Times Square for a moment. Last Monday, we had over 350,000 people there, can you imagine if just a third of them were carrying guns? One person shoots a gun, everyone reaches for their gun. Now we have a crisis. This is not Dodge City, this is New York City. They use theory to really collide with reality, law abiding citizens that are angry… they can carry a gun and will have a gun, that can often escalate to a serious gun problem.

Bowens: Supporters of this ruling might say, “Look, it's the bad guys with guns, the ones who are already concealing illegal guns that's the real problem here.” People who want to follow the rules, who want to fill out the paperwork, who want to go ahead and do those kinds of things, the so-called good guys who want to have those weapons. They aren't the problem. The other side is the problem here. How would you respond?

Mayor Adams: Dan, that is extremely important, because that is when I say theory can't collide with reality. Good guys have bad days and a bad day with a gun creates a bad encounter. And you know and I know there are days when someone may cut us off on the road, someone may get angry on the subway station and we respond and we ask ourselves, “Was that the right way to handle that?” When you have a gun on you, that changes that scenario. And that's what people don't realize in the city of 8.8 million people. Millions of people use our subway system, outside, our streets. This is extremely devastating for the City of New York and our pursuit to get guns off our streets.

Scotto: Are you concerned that the guys who have illegal guns now, who did not ask you permission, have the legal guns now, do you think that they're going to get a permit? Do you think that they will go legally through the system to get a permit?

Mayor Adams: No. There are certain parameters that we are looking at that we could put in place and the lawyers are looking at that. But think about this for a moment. Law abiding citizen, "law abiding," is walking down the street with the bad guy that is using him to carry the gun for him because he's a law abiding citizen. When he's ready to use it illegally, he could easily get that gun. That's the problem with this ruling when you look at it, it is not taking into account the reality of what plays out on our streets every day. And it is really troubling. It's connected to the historical past of guns but it's not dealing with the everyday reality of what's happening in cities across America.

Scotto: So right now nothing's going to change in New York City. You're examining everything trying to figure out the loopholes, if there are any. What else can you do?

Mayor Adams: Well, the ruling is going to be returned to the lower court once the law is put into place. Right now, the governor and other mayors across the city that we met with, we're looking at how we can look at sensitive locations. How do we define them? How do we ensure that we follow the law but at the same time isolate the crisis that the Supreme Court has created? But we have to continue to do what we're doing. For the last 10 weeks, shootings have decreased. In the months of April and May, we saw the 30% decrease in homicides. We're taking guns off our streets, but this is going to aggravate the problem.

Mayor Adams: I say this over and over again. There are many rivers that feed the sea of violence. We dammed one with the Senate passing of the bill to deal with some gun restriction, but the Supreme Court opened another river and we're going to have to figure out how to dam it.

Bowens: And, Mr. Mayor, we had the police commissioner here on Good Day New York. She detailed some of those decreases in shootings that we've seen over the last few weeks, but then just after she left the set here, there was a shooting in Brooklyn involving a police officer who was injured, detective. This appears to be a random shooting, a stray bullet, somebody firing trying to hit somebody else. It sort of reinforces the message that sometimes, perception outweighs reality when it comes to what's happening with gun violence in the city.

Mayor Adams: That's so true. And that's what we are fighting against. We have to deal with how people felt with what they're going to feel. The police commissioner has done an amazing job, gave you the numbers of the decrease. As we going after the robbery, we’re going after those violent offenders. But we need help. It's clear. It appears as though sometimes everyone is against the good guy. We're seeing bad rulings coming out of our lawmakers, bad rulings in a real bottleneck criminal justice system, now the Supreme Court. I keep saying over and over again, who's for the good guys? I know the men and women who are protecting our city, they're for the good guys. I'm going to be for the good guys. And we need the other apparatus in government to be for the good guys.

Bowens: But here we are going into the summer, and we all know that in the summer some of the numbers often take up into the wrong directions. What are your biggest concerns as we head into these next few months?

Mayor Adams: So true. So true. And the Supreme Court, I stated this before this ruling came down, this was keeping me up at night and I guess this summer and throughout the years we won't be getting any sleep. But one thing for sure, we are going to be committed to ensure the city is safe and to aggressively pursue the laws that could help us really mitigate this terrible decision that the Supreme Court handed down to Americans and New Yorkers.

Scotto: Mayor on another subject, bicycles. I know you've gone after ATVs, crushing them. The illegal ones that are in the city. But a lot of us deal with bicyclists every day and I have called the DOT asking for numbers on how many accidents there are. We only hear about the fatalities, but what are the accidents like in New York City? Because as you know there are some that are renegades in New York City. We saw the other day on Broadway where this bicyclist passed the light and caused a taxi to careen into some people sitting outside of a restaurant. You know, you were able to get the bicyclist in that particular situation. But those of us who have had run-ins with bicyclists, they're often running. You can't find them. No license. Nothing. No license plate. Do you think at some point you might consider licensing bicycles, even the city bikes, just so that we know that we have a recourse if we're hit by a bicyclist in New York City?

Mayor Adams: Well, that is Albany's decision. We are creatures of Albany. One thing I love about doing this show, you are a real New Yorker. You tell a feeling of everyday New Yorkers. And let's be clear here. Sharing our streets, bicyclists, motorcycles, skateboarders, scooters, cars. We have to learn this, this new dynamic of our streets and everyone must follow the law. The police commissioner has instructed our police officers that they're going to ensure bicyclists, as well as those who drive cars and other forms of vehicles, they're going to follow the law. And you're right, just as we have rogue drivers that speed and that are reckless, you have those reckless bicyclists. I ride bikes all the time and I see some of my fellow bicyclists that are really abusing the use of all streets and it is unacceptable and we’re not going to tolerate.

Scotto: You know what it is too, your honor. I mean, basically they're going faster than the cars on some of these streets. And some of them have... They're motorized. It's really getting very dangerous out there.

Mayor Adams: It is. And that's why we zeroed in, as you stated, crushing those ATVs and dirt bikes, which are illegal to be on New York City streets. Now we want to find alternate locations so that people can recreationally use those ATVs and dirt bikes, but they can't be on our city streets, and we will be zeroing in on those bicyclists that are also dangerous because a crash is a crash. Being injured from a car, an illegal dirt bike, or a bicycle is something that no New Yorker should have to experience.

Bowens: We didn't even talk about the e-bikes and some of the issues that we have with that. But, Mr. Mayor, I want to go back to some of these crime issues if we can just for a minute, because this is a concern for so many New Yorkers. We have the solo patrols now in the subway system. You've had to make some adjustments to that based on some of the things that happened very early on. Are you seeing any results from that early, and what can you tell New Yorkers about what's happening down in the subways? Because without the subways, you're not going to get people to come back into the city in these massive numbers, and at least to feel safe down there.

Mayor Adams: No, so true. And what you stated is so important. It's because it's not only about being safe, it's feeling safe. And that is what omnipresence of police, uniformed personnel is about. We still have our solo patrols. After speaking to [Pat] Lynch and the president of the DEA, we know that. Let's spread the officers out to get the omnipresence, stay in eye contact of each other. When you look at a train station, platform or train, you can spread it out, because police, the public, they want to see their police, and we're doing that. But we also want to be smarter. We are going to start educating the public on how to be a safe rider, where to stand, what are the zebra stripes? I tell you where the conductor's located. Where's the panic button or emergency button? We want to educate the public to be a partner in public safety.

Mayor Adams: We did something else that many people don't realize how smoothly it was done, removing encampments off our system. Week one, only 22 people took us up on our service of moving them into safe havens and in our shelter system. We're now up to 1,700 people that we removed off the subway system, no longer living in encampments. So we going to continue to evolve with our public safety plan on our subway, and we're going to make a difference. We know that the subway system is the lifeblood of our economics in this city, and we're going to continue to make it a safe place.

Scotto: Hey, Mr. Mayor, before you go, one more thing. I don't know if you had a chance to hear about this, but apparently two women were caught on video attacking police officers in East Harlem. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg reduced charges on one of them, dropped charges on the other. A lot of people are concerned because the women attacked police officers. Your thoughts on that.

Mayor Adams: And you can't. What we must understand when you attack a police officer, you are not attacking that individual. You're attacking the symbol of public safety in our city. And when you allow someone to do that and feel as though it is okay, that video goes viral on social media, it sends a message out to other people. I am hoping that assault on police officers, assault on our symbol of justice, is something that we will hold to the highest level of charges, and we'll have a zero tolerance of it. I will hope that we don't drop charges like that and we charge the people with assault on the police officer, because it's an assault on our justice.

Scotto: So will you call Alvin Bragg and talk to him about his decision?

Mayor Adams: We have been meeting with the district attorneys periodically so that we could have a partnership on dealing with this public safety crisis, and I don't like to talk about the private conversations I had with them, but I am concerned about dropping the charges on those who assault the men and women who are here to protect us.

Scotto: Mayor Eric Adams, got a lot on your plate. Thank you so much for always talking with us here on Good Day New York.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good to see you. Take care.

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