Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Police Commissioner O'Neill Press Conference Regarding Crime Statistics

September 5, 2017

Commissioner James P. O’Neill: Thanks for being here. I’m just going to talk for a little bit and then turn it over to Mayor de Blasio, and then Dermot Shea is going to speak, and then Terry Monahan is going to talk about J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Carnival parade. 

First, I want to congratulate Captain Louis DeCeglie – Louis’ the C-O of the 4-1 – for an incredible job. Under his watch there, which is more than a year, I think, this precinct, which covers Hunts Point and the Longwood neighborhoods of the Bronx, has seen one of the most remarkable turnarounds in crime and disorder in our city. A great deal of that credit of course goes to the hardworking men and women who put on a uniform here each and every day. But just beyond the 4-1, we just can’t take all the – it can’t just be the NYPD. We continue to make the city safer because of our collaboration and our efforts with our law enforcement partners of course, our federal partners, the prosecutors, the local prosecutors – such as Darcel Clark. Darcel, thank you for everything you’re doing to help keep the city safe – and then, the US Attorneys also. 

So much of the good stuff that’s happened over the last couple of years has been a direct result of neighborhood policing and Bob Boyce’s people in the Detective Bureau – precision policing. The work that they do each and every day, the crew and gang members that they’re doing cases against I think shows you – and when Dermot talks about these numbers, you really have to take a second to think about them. The homicide number for August is absolutely tremendous when you compare it to not just last year, the last couple of years, even go back 25 years and you’ll see the tremendous progress that has been made in New York City. I just want to thank everybody in the city because this is not just the effort of the NYPD. I’d like to thank the Violence Interrupters. They worked J’Ouvert the other night, and I think they were an important part of keeping that event safe – so, a lot of good things happening here. John Miller’s people in the Intelligence Bureau, the FIO’s, the work they do to take guns off the street. It’s really an incredible effort and I don’t think the city could be in a better place. 

I know everybody always talks about, well, how far can you push crime down? And it’s our obligation – we have a moral obligation to try as best we can to keep pushing it down, and that’s what we do each and every day. 

Like I said, Terry’s going to talk about J’Ouvert and the West Indian-American Day Carnival yesterday. He’ll talk about – give you a little recap of what happened. You know, we did some tremendous plans, going into J’Ouvert. There were a lot of changes and I think it really paid off, and, going forward, this is the model we’re going to go with. 

So, I went to J’Ouvert in the morning, and there were thousands and thousands of people at Empire Boulevard. I marched in the parade – the West Indian-American Day Parade yesterday too, and the reception that the NYPD received I thought was great. It’s good to see that we continue to improve community-police relations across the city. And, once again, the men and women of the NYPD had to take another day where they’re away from their families on a holiday to keep this great city safe. 

At this point, I’m going to turn it over the Mayor de Blasio. Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner, I want to congratulate you and congratulations to First Deputy Commissioner Tucker and Chief of Department Gomez, and all of the leadership of the NYPD that’s here today. A big congratulations to Captain DeCeglie for all of the great work in the 4-1 Precinct, but most especially to the men and women of the NYPD. And as the Commissioner said, more and more working with community allies shoulder to shoulder to make these changes you’re seeing before your eyes. 

The men and women of the NYPD have a lot to be proud of when we look back on the month of August. A lot of amazing things happened in this city. I want to give you a quick rundown of what was achieved. And I want to remind people at the outset, we’re all used to the phrase, a long, hot summer. We all knew for years and years in this city that it was July and August that were the toughest months for fighting crime. These facts that we’re presenting today really stand in such sharp contrast to what we’ve known in summer’s past, and it makes clear how extraordinary the achievement is. I’ve never seen anything like this in all of my years in this city and the numbers speak for themselves. This was the safest August in the modern era. The declines just from last year alone are absolutely staggering. The overall index crime levels just compared to last August, down over 10 percent. And I want to give you a perspective that really, really is striking and reminds us of some of the history in this precinct and the surrounding communities. 

This precinct, once upon a time, was one of the toughest in all of New York City, dealing with some of the most severe problems. And you go back in time to one of the points when we were doing, as a city, having the toughest, toughest times. August, 1993 – this gives you perspective – in August of 1993, 184 murders during that month of August – more in that month than in all of New York City this year to-date. When you compare August 1993 – 184 murders in this city. In this August, 14 murders in the entire city – a huge decline again just from what we experienced a year ago. 

Now, I have to affirm the point the Commissioner made. You know, people always ask this question – can crime go lower? Can we get even safer? Well, I want you to understand, the men and women of the NYPD took on that challenge a long time ago. They take it on every single day. And when you meet people who say there’s no way to drive crime down lower, the men and women of the NYPD say, watch us – watch us do it. And that’s what they’ve been doing, year after year. They’ve been setting a new record every single time. So, this is unbelievable what’s happened here. Now, again, it is because of careful and patient investments and changes that were made over years and years, and particularly the paradigm shift of neighborhood policing. I refer to the point the Commissioner made about the response from a lot of folks in the community at the parade and at J’Ouvert – an appreciation that the police were working very closely with the community.

And that’s helping in every way – that’s providing the police with much more support, much more information. The neighborhood policing strategy alone is one of the reasons we have this success. Obviously, the investments as well – 2,000 more officers on the street has made a huge difference. The training, the equipment, the better protective gear, the better technology – it all adds up. And you know, you remember at the beginning of this calendar year, it was the first time we had felt the full effect of 2,000 more offers being on patrol. The training has more effect cumulatively, obviously; the new technology – the same thing. This effort grows and deepens, and we got to a point earlier this year when more than half of our precincts had the neighborhood coordinating officers – that made a huge difference.

So, these numbers correlate, in my view, specifically to the deepening of these investments, the deepening of these strategies, and we think there’s much more we can achieve after this. I mentioned the 4-1 Precinct has in the past gone through some of the toughest times this city had. This was a place – and I walked over here from the bus stop with Borough President Rubin Diaz Jr., and he talked about growing up right around here, and how open drug dealing was and crime was, how constant the violence was, that young people grew up assuming that. They don’t grow up assuming that in the Bronx anymore. In the Bronx today, they assume they can live life in peace because of the work of the NYPD. So, we’re here in this precinct as a particularly sharp reminder of how far we’ve come.

And I want to tell you about this precinct alone. This August just compared to last August – overall index crime down 24 percent in this one precinct. They’ve had, in comparing the month of August, – this year to last – no murders this month, this August we’ve just concluded. No shootings, this August we’ve just concluded. Really extraordinary progress, and what it means is that people can live better and it means that people who God forbid would have been victims of violence, are not, and they can live their lives in peace. 

So, this is further evidence that, you know, the way we became the safest big city in America was neighborhood by neighborhood, precinct by precinct, and this is one of the real, powerful examples – this precinct – of the changes that we have made. 

So, again, congratulations to all. And before you get more detail from Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea – wait, I’m calling him Deputy Commissioner still, aren’t I? I keep getting trouble on titles. I want to say a few words in Spanish first. 

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, over to Dermot. 

Dermot Shea, NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Good afternoon, everyone. I’ll begin by just talking about August, and then we’ll get into where we are in terms of crime statistics for year-to-date. In August, crime in New York City, we finished overall [inaudible] on our index crime down 10 percent. That was a reduction of almost 1,000 crimes – 981 crimes. As I have said before, the continued trending is what we’re seeing, so you’re going to see every borough of New York City down. You’re going to see every crime within the index crimes down. Murder for the month of August – we recorded 14 murders. That’s down from 35 – a 60 percent reduction, and you can see that displayed on the screen to my right – a drastic drop. Reduction of 21 homicides – when you look at the type of homicides that are being reduced it goes to the core of what we’ve been trying to do the last four years. Down 19 homicides by gunfire in the month of August – 8 vs 27. Rape down 16 percent, robbery down nearly 11 percent, felonious assault down nearly 15 percent, and all of these numbers will be given to you by DCPI afterwards. Burglary down 15.6 percent, grand larceny down 6.8 percent, and stolen vehicles down 3.6 percent. In tandem with the murder numbers that you see, you have the shooting incidents – and the Mayor alluded to this – 84 shooting incidents in the entirety of New York City in the month of August, and July and August are historically the top two months for shooting incidents. That 84 is against 145 shootings just in 2016 – a 42 percent reduction, 61 fewer shootings incidents this August. We recorded four days without a shooting in New York City this August. We recorded an additional four days with one shooting for the entire New York City. These are some staggering numbers that quite frankly we’ve never seen before. Transit and housing were both down for the month of August – 17 percent for transit and nearly 12 percent for housing.

As we move to the year-to-date, where does that put us eight months into the year or two-thirds of the way through the year? Murder – we’ve recorded through August 31st, the preliminary number is 180 murders. That’s down from 231 – 51 fewer murders recorded. It’s a 22 percent reduction, and again when you drill down on the type of murders committed and what is driving that decrease, we are down 44 murders by gunfire this year through the first eight months – 89 versus 133. Rape down seven percent, robberies are down ten-and-a-half percent, felonious assault down five, burglaries down nearly 10 – again this is all categories, every borough – grand larceny down 3.7 percent, stolen vehicles down 11.4 percent.

Where does that bring us in terms of overall index crimes eight months into the year? Down nearly 4,300 crimes, and that’s about 6.4 percent reduction. And again that is still putting us – last year we finished just over 102,000 – we are over 4,300 ahead of that pace eight months in. When you look at a year-to-date shooting incidents this year in 2016 – I bring you back to the end of last year – we finished at 997 shooting incidents. Through the first eight months, we are 153 shooting incidents ahead of that pace. It’s a reduction of nearly 23 percent. The raw number is 523 shootings versus 676, and most importantly 177 fewer shot in New York City this year. Transit is near even but slightly down in crime year-to-date, and housing is down 7.5 percent.

As you move to the next slide, this is the question we continually are being asked – what is going on in New York City? This illustrates a combination of data, technology, feeding our precision policing, working in coordination with neighborhood policing, and then feeding also the unified investigative model. We have a formula that is working very effectively, and it is giving us rewards in New York City that the sky is the limit it terms of where we will end this year. If you could transfer to the next slide, I could speak of the 4-1. I could speak of the 1-0-1. I could speak of the 3-2. I picked the 7-7 precinct just to illustrate we know exactly what is going on in New York City, and how we are driving crime down.

Here you see the 7-7 precinct – the last five, six years of shooting incidents at a level between 25 to 30 shootings, and then you see the dramatic drop – if you go to the next slide – as you see the precision policing take effect, the neighborhood policing feeding the investigative model. Year-to-date shootings when you compare to 2012 – 27 down to eight where we are currently. If you slide to the next one, what is often times lost is not just a dramatic crime decline – it’s again how we are getting to that point. At that same time we have that dramatic drop in shootings as I’ve said before, we are nearly a 25-year low in arrests in New York City. It’s not the number of arrests – it’s who we are arresting for what charges, and I think ADA Clark will agree with me. What’s the outcome of those arrests? In the 7-7 precinct, at the same time we’re driving those shootings numbers down we’re seeing nearly a 34 percent reduction in overall arrests.

I will leave to the academics the debate over what is going on and the various reasons. No doubt there’s many reasons for the crime decline, but at the forefront of those reasons is the men and women of, in this case the Bronx, and the entire city of the New York City Police Department putting into play what we have laid out for them.

Mayor: Excellent.

Commissioner O’Neill: Terry, do you want to talk about J’Ouvert?

Terence Monahan, NYPD Chief of Patrol: Good morning, as you know, we did a lot of major changes to J’Ouvert this year. Two separate and distinct parades – the J’Ouvert parade on Nostrand and Empire in the early morning hours, and then we have the West Indian Day parade on Eastern Parkway starting in the afternoon through the evening. For the J’Ouvert parade, in and around the area of the parade we had zero violent incidents. Arrests were down for the J’Ouvert parade. Seven arrests were made this year compared to 12 last year. When we go to last year, there were seven gun arrests made that evening. This year there was one gun arrest this year during the J’Ouvert time. As we transition over to the West Indian Day parade. This year we had two incidents – one stabbing and one shooting both of which took place along the parade route. Arrests, though, were down again this year – 18 arrests last year, four arrests this year.

Commissioner O’Neill: Thanks, Terry.

Mayor: And before we move to questions, I just want to give some credit where credit is due. DA Darcel Clark gets a real share of the credit for the extraordinary progress being made here in the Bronx, and one of the things we’ve talked about is since she took over the role there’s been a very, very close working relationship particularly a great focus on getting guns off the street and creating the prosecutions to help us do that. So I wanted to say to the DA this is a day for everyone in the Bronx to celebrate, and I really want to thank you for the crucial role you played.

Alright, we’ll take questions on this report and police matters, and then we’ll go to other matters.

Please?

Question: [Inaudible] Chief Monahan, [inaudible] J’Ouvert and the violence that seems to overshadow the [inaudible] but it also seems to keep many people away. There were long lines to wait in to get in after the parade had kicked off, so I’m wondering if you’re considering any changes already for next year or if [inaudible]?

Chief Monahan: Again, well we looked at it – we looked at –

Commissioner O’Neill: Is your mic on?

Chief Monahan: If you look at that parade route at 6:30 in the morning when the parade – the J’Ouvert – was kicking off from 6:30 to 10:30, there were just as many people out on that street celebrating as there were last year. We did have a rush. We opened up the entry areas at two in the morning. There was a rush at 6 o’clock with everybody trying to get in, but we were able to get them in very quickly and by 6:30 most of the people that were trying to get in were in, and the parade had only progressed maybe half a block between 6:00 and 6:30.

Commissioner O’Neill: And Ashley, just as you know already that this is a plan that we came up with not by ourselves – in conjunction with elected and people in the community and the J’Ouvert international organizers, so this is something that we did in great collaboration, and we started working on it the day after J’Ouvert last year. So we’re not going to move away from this model. We might have to make some tweaks. We’re going to speak to the community members and the electeds again and see how we’re going to do this next year, but all in all it was a very safe parade, and there were a lot of people out there at 6:30 in the morning.

Mayor: Alright, other questions on police matters?

Question: I just want to get your take on that mayor. The same sort of question,  but did you think that it struck the right balance because there were some people who were out celebrating at J’Ouvert who felt like there were too many police officers, and they didn’t like the feeling of so many checkpoints and security measures that were in place.

Mayor: I definitely think it struck the right balance, and look, we go back to the New Year’s Eve example. We provide a lot of security at New Year’s Eve. People have to wait for the event, obviously, but they still have a great time, and we used that model here. So look, I want to emphasize the point the commissioner made. This started at the community level, talking to elected officials and clergy and community leaders to decide how we could improve the situation. We all, between One Police Plaza and City Hall, had a number of conversations to refine the plan, and we came up with the right plan. I’m very satisfied with the fact that this strong police presence and a more organized approach to how people were brought to the parade area, the later start time, they all achieved their intended purpose, and I think now there will be growing confidence that people can go to the event at 6:00 in the morning. It will be safe. It will be something people can really enjoy. I think we struck the right balance because you can’t do anything without safety, and we needed to get to a situation that was consistently safe.

In the back?

Question: Is there a sense these security precautions did result –

Mayor: Louder?

Question: Since these security precautions did result in basically no crime around J’Ouvert parade, but there was a shooting and a stabbing during the day parade, which traditionally has been much safer than the overnight parade, is – are you considering implementing similar security precautions at the West Indian Day parade?

Commissioner O’Neill: So, obviously from every event that we have we learn from it. We’re going to take a look. I mean the parade was just over yesterday, so we’re going to bring everybody in from Brooklyn South, and if there’s something we need to do different next year we’ll do it next year. I think, if I recall correctly, there were no events at the West Indian Day parade. So, you know, there’s over a million people on the parade route, and if two people or so want to engage in criminal behavior that’s a very small percentage of the population, so we’re going to do our best to prevent it.

Mayor: And I would just emphasize we take every single act of crime very seriously. We want to stop them all. We do not want any violence around any of our events. I would differ a little on the history. Once upon a time, not so long so, the parade itself was plagued by some challenges, and great work was done with the community and the NYPD to overcome that as was true with some other parades in this city. So I think it’s a good thing that you could say ‘well, the parade’s been known for being peaceful.’ That was not true in the past. That has been true in recent years. We want to keep it that way.

Who else on this topic?

Question: Yes, for Chief Shea. You’re – we’ve talked about this before. You’re probably getting into the area where you might get under 300 homicides this year, but your experience – and I know record keeping changed over time for homicides, the way they were plotted – in the modern era of record keeping, what’s the lowest you’ve actually hit since about 1963 or ‘62 or do you have a better benchmark?

Chief Dermot Shea: Yeah, Tony, I’m not sure what you are referring to in terms of the difference in how they’re – your first part of the statement. I can tell you in terms of the modern era – that’s usually what I quote – and that’s back to the early 90s. When you get pre-90s you see numbers substantially higher than now, and I don’t want to give you bad information, but to the best of my recollection you have to go back to the 50s, 60s really to see lower numbers than what we’re seeing now. But I could certainly follow up through DCPI with you for that. Last three to four years we’ve been in a pretty consistent trough if you will of 335 – 333 in 2014 that was the low point, the low water mark if you will. We’re at 182 right now. We finished August at 180. I would love to finish the year at 182. 

It is probably not realistic, but how low can we go this year? We’ll see. We are setting new marks. We think we have a firm plan in place but we will have to see until the end of the year. Four months to go. There is a long time left in this year and we have had other prior years where the last four months are busier than the summer months. So, we will see. Right around that 300 mark is – that is what we are on pace for roughly, right now.

Unknown: Yes, Marcia?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, anything police-related. 

Question: [Inaudible] Columbus Circle, the tourist that was stabbed in Columbus Circle on Sunday, the question is what percent of the reported assaults that you have categorize as random, has the number of random assaults gone up or down?

Chief Boyce: Actually they have stayed about the same, Marcia. It’s about 38. We do take note of them. This one was an unprovoked attack and that’s the way we are looking at it. We put out an image of the fella. There is nothing to suggest that he is a tourist, the victim of this, there was an argument before it all. We have about 38 so far this year. It’s about even from last year to be honest you. We don’t know. Some people don’t cooperate with us, some people are emotionally disturbed, and there is a whole couple different components into that question. We do take a look at them. 12 are on the subways. We see if that’s up or down each year. That’s about down – the subway and crimes. So we see if there is any pattern. We do collect them, we do look at them, and I think we have about 18 arrests on those 38.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: My detectives are in Elizabeth right now. This was a jewelry store robbery. It was four males with masks. One had a long gun. We had a robbery at Staten Island that we are looking at that is possibly – this was different – this was a phone store. Two males with masks. No long gun. So, we are looking at those two right now, working with the Elizabeth police. They did come over the bridge and well do – we will search for that car and see where we can find it in Staten Island, so right now it is a joint investigation.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: Sunday

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: In part – no we don’t because it is four and two. This, this – some differences between the two. Right now we are working to see if it is the same. The perpetrators may have come from Staten Island that is what is important.

Question: [Inaudible] 

Chief Boyce: It could involve us and we will help any other police in the city anytime – any chance we get. Lisa?

Question: Mr. Mayor, arrests are down but also are stop-and-frisks continuing to go down as well?

Mayor: Well since the beginning of this administration it’s been about 93 percent, so we are getting to a point where there are very few and they are very precise and for very specific strategic reasons.

Question: Any information or update on the man who was shot in Bed-Stuy on Sunday in the 7-9?

Chief Boyce: Sure that individual was David Dottin. This happened on Sunday night just before nine o’clock – about a quarter to nine – he was at 50 Herkimer Place with his family. His two kids were there. It was a social event. There was some chairs outside and we have a male who walks off Atlantic Avenue onto Perry Place and then onto Herkimer. Immediately pulls out his gun and fires three times into a crowd. We do not believe Mr. Dottin was the intended target. Right now we are trying to figure out who was the intended target as well as where this male went. We describe him as a male – a dark-skinned male with a gray hat and a camouflage shirt. He walks back up to Perry and then we lose him on Atlantic Avenue So we are doing video right now to see if we can identify him. I don’t think Mr. Dottin had anything to do with this at all. He was just unfortunately in that location when this happened. So, right now, the investigation still active.

Mayor: Just wanted to add that Mr. Dottin was one of our City employees. He worked for the Department of Education as part of the school food team at P.S. 163 and it is very, very sad in so many ways and he is an immigrant from Barbados right there with his family. It is a very painful incident. We also lost a member of our Department of Education family. Yes?

Question: Is there any information you can share on the slashing that happened onboard a northbound 2-train to Brooklyn earlier this morning?

Chief Boyce: I will have to get back to you on that. I haven’t looked at those things yet.

Mayor: Yes?

Question: Chief, [inaudible] can you elaborate again about the stabbing near Columbus Circle on Sunday?

Chief Boyce: We put out a picture of apparently a male – male, white – with a baseball cap and a knapsack walking away. That is right at Columbus Circle. There is a transit – transit right below – we checking video in the area. We did push out a picture. We have no information on who he is. The person who he assaulted was a tourist who has since gone back – he left New York City. We put out pictures hoping to get – we have no tips right now but we will keep going by see if he is inhabits that area normally.

Question: I heard he had surgery, so he already left?

Chief Boyce: He has already [inaudible] – thank God he is not hurt – four inch lacerations with some stitches on it.

Question: Chief, Boyce, there was an incident over the weekend where they had the body pulled out of the water off Brooklyn, something out off – off the waterfront, the victim was reputed for mob ties. Is your investigation going into that in any way?

Chief Boyce: We did a search warrant on his home today. It is still an active crime scene, to see what happened. We found out he was last spoken to on Wednesday night. He was recovered Saturday at the 5800 Avenue U. Pretty busy area down there. We believe he was in the water Friday night. We have people who saw that blue tarp. He was weighted down with a cinder block and a five-pound bag joint compound, apparently it didn’t work. It came back up and we recovered the body. We identified him through finger prints. He was recently out of jail with something else. We don’t know if that’s the situation. His father had the – actually the O.C. ties not him. But right now we’re into an active investigation going forward to see exactly who was in his life at this time – his phone and everything else. We got a long way to go [inaudible].

Mayor: Grace.

Question: There are protests outside Trump Tower, people protesting the DACA announcement by the Trump administration. I understand there have been a number of arrests. I was hoping we could get a sort of overview on what’s happening there, why people are being arrested, and if you’re expecting more protestors as we head into the –

Mayor: Before I turn to Chief Monahan, I just want to state the obvious – this issue is generating tremendous concern. We’ll be back at five o’clock with a detailed strategy for how we’re going to deal with this. But civil disobediences are a part of protest. And obviously when it’s an issue that literally has life and death ramifications for so many people, as this DACA is, it’s just not surprising that people might turn to civil disobedience as a method of protest. But it is being done with full communication with the NYPD. Chief – 

Chief Monahan: Alright, so approximately an hour or so ago protesters – around 300 protesters were out on the street around Trump marching around. Twelve sat down in the street at 57th and 5th blocking traffic. They were issued warnings to get up and leave. They disobeyed those warnings. remained in the street, and they were arrested. Approximately ten, 15 minutes ago another group marched and 22 individuals, again, at 57th and 5th sat down in the middle of the street. They were issued warnings to get up, they did not, and those 22 were arrested.

They’re all being charged with disorderly conduct and some various VTO violations.

Mayor: Willy.

Question: About ten months ago in the Bronx there was the death of those two girls in the incident with the radiator. Can you tell us if that’s still an open criminal investigation? And also the radiator was taken away for examination by the FBI. Did that examination show that the radiator – the valve had come off accidentally, was taken off intentionally? What can you tell us about that?

Chief Boyce: To the best of my recollection, there was a failure there of a – a material failure on that pipe and that’s what happened. I have to get back to you on the update. I – I’m not sure. We worked with the Department of Buildings on that and the Department of Homeless. But right now I think it was deemed non-criminal but again I don’t want to give you wrong information but that’s the way I remember it right now.

Question: [Inaudible] update on that –

Chief Boyce: We will. We’ll get you one.

Mayor: Okay. Let’s see. Anyone who hasn’t had a chance yet? Okay, back there.

Question: This, I think, is developing today. The baby in Springfield Gardens – possible suspicious shaking [inaudible] –

Chief Boyce: So we had an 11-month-old child in the 1-0-5 Precinct. He, Jeremiah Callaghan, apparently was staying with his grandfather and his step-grandmother due to the mother’s inability to provide welfare for that child. This happened Thursday. [Inaudible] hours they came back from a park. Apparently this child is allergic to a specific formula – I’m sorry, a specialized formula has to be given to the child and right now the child is in grave condition but still alive.

But right now we’re looking to see if that played a role and so we don’t know right now but we’ve spoken to the parents. The parents have requested an attorney – I’m sorry the grandparents have requested attorney so we stopped speaking to them. So, we’re dealing with doctors and the Queens DA on this case right now.

Question: Is there any evidence that it could [inaudible]?

Chief Boyce: Well, apparently when the child was in respiratory failure, CPR was given and that could have caused some of the particular hemorrhaging that was noticed in the eyeballs of the child. So, this is pretty technical stuff so we don’t want to comment too much further than that. But it’s an ongoing investigation right now.

Mayor: Yes, way back.

Chief Boyce: Mr. Mayor, are you concerned – regarding the arrests outside Trump Tower – are you concerned that if some of those people who were arrested are undocumented or a DACA recipient, that their arrest [inaudible] fingerprinting through the NYPD could put them into contact with ICE [inaudible] –

Mayor: Yeah, I’ll turn – I appreciate the question. I’ll turn to Chief but say at the outset, look, you’re going to hear in the Chief’s answer that there is a careful approach taken to protests. Obviously, if someone now with this new information that we’re getting out of Washington today is a DACA recipient, I would urge them to be very careful about anything like civil disobedience. You know, there are plenty of other people who can undertake the civil obedience. I wouldn’t advise the DACA recipients themselves to do it but in this city I think there’s been an approach that is mindful. Go ahead, Chief.

Chief Monahan: To all of the arrests today for disorderly conduct and on these VTO violations, they’ll be given a special desk appearance ticket so that if they give us all their pedigree information they will not be fingerprinted. But any of the individuals that refuse to give pedigree – name, address, date of birth – those ones will be processed as alive arrests and they will be fingerprinted.

Question: That’s just for today’s protest? Is that a special –

Chief Monahan: That’s for these protests, these types of protests. This is what we do.

Mayor: Okay. Other questions. Anything else on the August numbers or any other police issues. Go ahead.

Question: I have a quick question. [Inaudible] head count for J’Ouvert [inaudible] –

Mayor: You mean attendees?

Question: Yes. 

Chief Monahan: We weren’t counting them. We were getting them through as quickly as we could.

Commissioner O’Neill: From my best observation it was a lot of people.

[Laughter]

Mayor: Thank you for that factual update, Commissioner.

Question: When you say ‘these types of protest’ in your last response, were you referring to specifically these kind of political –

Chief Monahan: No, no, no. When you’re sitting down – an organized sit-down in the street.

Mayor: Civil disobedience.

Chief Monahan: Civil disobedience-type protest.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: Can you say the number of cops that were at J’Ouvert and West Indian Day parade?

Commissioner O’Neill: All I can give you is thousands.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: Thousands. I don’t want to get too specific with numbers.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: One more time, the total as of right now of the arrests at the moment.

Chief Monahan: 34 – 12 in the first incident, 22 in the second.

Question: I have a question about the civil disobedience statements. How often do you employ those?

Chief Monahan: It’s done on these type of protests. We can either give them the special desk appearance ticket or a C-summons.

Question: Is that something you [inaudible] –

Chief Monahan: No, that’s what we’ve been doing for a while through legal. We work this out with our legal division.

Unknown: Anymore police questions?

Mayor: Ok, everything else questions? Back there?

Question: On the Select Bus, on your first campaign for mayor you vowed 20 world class plus rapid transit routes. The City is on track at the end of your first term to get just 15. Why not the full 20 that you vowed? And do you also see these Select Bus routes as, “world class”?

Mayor: I definitely see them as world class. Fifteen is a big step forward for the city and we had a great ride coming over here and people were commenting on how fast it is, how efficient it is, the busses look great. 

Look, it was a stretch goal. I wanted us to get to 20. We found out there was a lot of work to do on the community level that took more time than anticipated to get everyone comfortable and make adjustments based on community concerns and concerns from elected officials. We got to 15. We look forward to re-upping and going for a lot more in the coming years because it is clearly working and it’s very popular.

Question: To follow up, the bus you were on does not have full bus only lanes throughout the whole route –

Mayor: Yes?

Question: Is that something you are satisfied with? Because many transit advocates say that having bus only lanes actually improves what is actually a kind of a crummy ride if you are stuck in traffic.

Mayor: Well, look, we took a – at this point I’m not saying that was representative every single ride on the route and I think it went very smoothly and I asked this exact same question along the way of the DOT officials. Their view was that there were parts of the route that could be effective without having bus only route that were less congested and they could do without it. It gave more flexibility to everyone. Obviously that is something that can be changed and one of beauties of this is that if you see a need to alter and add in something, you can do it. I am satisfied it’s an option that we can use depending on location and I’m also satisfied that we can make improvements if we don’t get the result we want.

Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, New York City hosts folks who are DACA beneficiaries including one of your spokesman. Will New York City continue employ those people once DACA lapses?

Mayor: Look we obviously will have more to say later today. Don’t agree with the action that the federal government is taking. We will go into later the different options we have to address it which I think will potentially nullify this action by the President. So we are not going to make any changes right now in anything we do while we are attempting to stop what is a very bad decision in Washington.

Question: Just a follow up, you will continue to employ these people?

Mayor: Again, we are not changing anything.

Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, if the city were to hold a parade for you, where would you want it held –

Mayor: Misinterpretation, which is the, the watchword of your publication. Go ahead.

Question: Are you any closer to a timetable when you are going to put information of the review of the statues and monuments? And how many are you have to be looking at?

Mayor: Very, very soon, in naming the commission. And look the commission as I said will accept ideas from everyday New Yorkers. We will have an open process can put things forward and they can be assessed but the most important thing is to get to some kind of bigger standard that will help us think through everything we do in the future, so, we will leave it up to New Yorkers to put forward their ideas.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I’m sorry, but what do you mean by the parades then if it was a misinterpretation?

Mayor: I meant very simply that there is a lot good – a lot of good news in New York City, but I think what has happened is too often the sort of impulse to appreciate our progress as a city, all of us, the progress NYPD officers have made, our businesses have made, the whole City has made, our teachers have made. As a city unfortunately we do not take a lot of time to celebrate that and I think that, that’s a lost opportunity. People should really appreciate how much everyone has achieved together. 

Go ahead.

Question: Mr. Mayor, last week after you released your op-ed on the donors who receive favors, one of the people who you provided as an example of was Robert Durst. 

Mayor: Not Robert, it’s very different –

[Laughter]

– very different.

Question: Prompted by saying that, quote “Winter is coming.” I wanted to get –

Mayor: His spokesman did.

Question: To that, and I also wanted to ask you what Preet Bharara said on twitter about what you had written.

Mayor: I haven’t seen that.

Question: I will tell you what he said, he said, “A fun Twitter poll might ask this: Who is more prone to blame the press for his own failings or failures – Donald Trump or Bill de Blasio?”

Mayor: I don’t have really much to say to that, that doesn’t make sense to me. On the, first point, when the spokesman said that, I was impressed at the term or the phrase and I had no idea what he meant. As I read that, I thought that that’s very clever, but what does it mean? It is literally what I thought. The only conclusion I take from it is I will not attend if Mr. Durst invites me to a wedding. Game of Thrones reference there. Good, Marcia got it. Thank you Marcia.

[Laughter]

I’m culturally literate Marcia. Right.

Question: Yesterday the Governor was asked about your reelection campaign. He said he had no endorsements to make and your campaign made it clear that you had not sought his endorsement. What – would it not be helpful to have his backing when you run for reelection?

Mayor: Look, the thing I want to talk about when it comes to the Governor is the work of government not the politics. Meaning, there’s a lot I’d like to get done. I’ve said very clearly I hold the Ed Koch standard which is when he does something to help New York City I will thank him, praise him, work with him. When he does something I think that doesn’t help New York City, I’ll stand up on behalf of New Yorkers. So, we’ve got a lot we’ve got to work through on the government side, I don’t think the political side is particularly pertinent. I want to focus on the government side and that’s why I never made such a request. 

Yes?

Question: [Inaudible] point, does the politics get in the way of the governing when people see two top elected officials constantly butting heads?

Mayor: I think no one should be surprised if there’s a difference of how to get things done that there’s going to be conflict sometimes. The – first of all, I’ve said many times that’s been true of a lot of governors and mayors, just different jobs with different imperatives. My job is to look out for the people of New York City, and if Albany does something that doesn’t help us or if fact hurts us I don’t think anyone would want me to take it lying down, that’s certainly not the message I get from everyday New Yorkers. They don’t want us to be, you know, they don’t want – certainly don’t want me to be a wallflower if Albany is doing something that hurts us. So, I think strength is called for, and the idea is to say very clearly let’s look for cooperation. We did that, for example, on mayoral control of education. I think we got to a good outcome there, not the ideal, but a good outcome in this last legislative session. But we disagree on some other areas and my job is to stand up for what I think is right for New Yorkers.

Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, [inaudible] New York magazine talked about the accomplishments of your administration [inaudible] I wonder if you think that you’re underappreciated, and that New Yorkers don’t appreciate all the things that you [inaudible]

Mayor: I think our – it’s not about me, I think it is a statement about kind of what’s happened in our civic culture. I think not so long ago if this city, you know, took a great step forward in terms of fighting crime that would be celebrated more in general. I think, you know, we’ve had 400,000 more jobs in the last four years. It’s pretty hard to find news coverage of that fact. And I’ve said I think it’s a tough time in history. I think folks all over, not just in New York City but all over, are kind of generically skeptical of government, you know, and they are used to a torrent of bad news, and it’s just something different at this point in history because I worked for four years in City Hall and I can say that in those years, and the years before and the years after people have been thrilled to have this be their reality. So, it just feels like in general it’s harder for the good to get through. But, you know, I’m certainly not surprised by it, and the job is the same job either way.

Question: So what’s changed in your opinion [inaudible] government [inaudible] what’s changed now? I mean, what’s [inaudible]

Mayor: Look, it’s a huge – I appreciate the question, it’s a very big question. I think the digital age is part of it, I think the digital age is a great double edged sword. Right, on the one hand it has opened up dialogue and information in some very powerful, positive ways. And on the other hand it’s created a torrent of constant information; constant questioning that really no one can keep up with. And it does put a bit of a premium on the negative and the sensational. And, I think also the growing questioning of all institutions. And some of that is well earned, right?

I mean I’m – as I’ve often said, I’m a child of the Watergate era. We learned during that era to question a lot of things we never questioned before, that was very good, that was very healthy. But I think that sort of has continued to such a point there’s very few institutions left in our society that people have much faith in. And I think that creates a certain sourness in the whole civic discourse. And our job, all of us, is to show – slowly but surely win back people’s faith. I mean today’s a good example. I hope anyone watching today, listening to what the NYPD has accomplished, you know, that should be something that gives people a little faith again; that big changes can happen. But, it’s going to take a long time to sort of get us back to a point that we used to know where people had a little more charity in their view of institutions. But, we’d never want to be blind. We don’t want to be blind in some of the ways we may have been in the past, we have to strike a better balance than I think we’re experiencing right now.

Question: [Inaudible] does that make you feel it’s difficult to do your job [inaudible]

Mayor: It’s frustrating –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: No, no, it’s not about me. Again, I’m – I understand what this job is. It’s frustrating but it also reminds me we have – it’s just work we have to do. I believe the pendulum will swing, I really do. I believe we will get to a point where people will see better from their government and their other institutions and will start to feel a little more faith again. But that’s hard work that you’ve got to do every day. I understand that. I had no allusions coming in the door that we’re in a particular moment in history and we’ve got to work our way through it.

Yes?

Question: By not fully processing these arrests made like at the Trump Tower, are we – like is the City encouraging civil disobedience by not fingerprinting the people who are arrested?

Mayor: No, I’ll just say as I turn to the experts, I have a meaningful history of civil disobedience myself going back decades in more than one jurisdiction –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: See? There you go. But here and in Washington D.C., no this has been an approach I’ve seen used multiple times. But, Commissioner?

Commissioner O’Neill: This is – that is the policy we’ve employed for a long time. I think it’s good; people have a right to express themselves. If they go out and block traffic and they do get arrested we don’t want that to be hanging over them forever.

Question: [Inaudible] encourage people [inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: Most of the people get off the street when we give them a warning. And if you stay on the street you know you’re going to be arrested.

Mayor: Yes, and I would just say before turning to Deputy Commissioner Byrne, again, I’m a – I am a close watcher of civil disobedience over decades. I have not seen some major change in people’s habits or the numbers overall that time.

Deputy Commissioner Byrne: This is not a new practice. This has been the practice for years, and let’s keep in mind that every day in the city thousands of C summonses are being written for violations of law without any protests and during protests, and none of those people are fingerprinted.  You don’t get fingerprinted when you get a C summonses, so it takes a certain level of criminal activity and a certain level of enforcement action in order to get arrested and to get fingerprinted. Everybody is being treated the same, regardless of the type of protest and regardless of the type of violation.

Mayor: Yes?

Question: [Inaudible] what’s the legal justification for allowing someone to work for New York City if their authorization to work has been rescinded?

Mayor: Okay, one, this came out a few hours ago. Two, we’re going to have an event at 5 o’clock where we’re going to get into details, so we’ll have our lawyers there to talk about that.

Go ahead?

Question: Mayor, just to go back to op-ed that you put out last week. It was something that was following up on something you promised to deliver a quote ‘stunning number of donors and supporters who not only did not get the business that they wanted to get, they got a rejection of those things.’ I’m just curious why you chose not to name any of them in the story, and why you chose to focus on so few of them including one that didn’t seem to be a request for a favor but a [inaudible]?

Mayor: Because this was something I offered up as a notion long ago myself. I said I want to show you examples, and then everyone started to interpret it their own way, which is, you know, part of life. This is what I wanted to show. That there are very, very clear examples of people not getting what they want that defy the conventional wisdom about how the relationship goes between certainly me and donors, but I think a lot of other elected official and donors. So I said it was something I wanted to do. I did it the way I thought that it made sense, and I think it does shed light on the everyday reality. And I specifically chose public domain examples because they were well known, and I thought they illustrated well.

Gloria?

Question: Mr. Mayor, do you regret having promised that list since it’s turned into such a back and forth about what you promised, how people are interpreting it? Do you wish you had said something different back then?

Mayor: Sure.

[Laughter]

Question: And?

Mayor: Oh, there’s a follow up? 

Look, I said it in a moment of frustration that I thought a whole side of the story was not being recognized, and obviously it became much more dramatic idea than I ever intended it to. So yeah, you know the old phrase ‘I should’ve stayed in bed?’ I should’ve just let it be, but, you know, I’m fine with it. Would’ve been better off saying nothing, I still put out something I think illustrates what I’m trying to get across.

Unknown: Last one.

Mayor: We’ll do a few.

Willie?

Question: A couple of questions about your essay on Medium. I was a little surprised at what you just said a moment ago about how a little more charity you’d like to see in the way people view institutions. Are you really unable to see that the way that you have left an open door and given direct access to your donors undermines people’s trusts in their institutions? Are you really unable to see your role?

Mayor: It’s not – that’s your editorial question. It’s not what I’m able or unable to see. I believe very, very consistently that if you set up an equation from the beginning where the entire political system runs on this absurd notion of candidates having to go to individuals and ask for donations that right there we have an imperfection that creates so many questions and concerns, which is why I’d like to see a consistent progress towards full public financing. But since that is the world we live in, then the question becomes how do we comport ourselves within that world? And again, I mentioned the other day this is a question some of the people I have great respect for have addressed very openly. President Obama was very eloquent on this point that, you know, you’re going to get donations from people you agree with and some other areas you disagree with, people who have an agenda – that’s not a shock. It’s how you handle it. So I feel very comfortable that in fact all these instances where people wanted something, didn’t get it should be reassuring to people that it is made – the decisions are made on the merits. It’s as simple as that.

Question: A follow up on your essay. Don Pebbles what exactly did he ask you for, and when did that ask occur? And related to your phone call to him asking for a $20,000 donation –

Mayor: I’m not going to go into –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: You know well I’m not going to go into a lot of chapter and verse. I’m not going to. So, but my bottom line point there is I said it very clearly. A request to predict the outcome of the land use outcome process that I made very clear I was not going to do. It’s as simple as that.

Question: How do you relate to your request for his donation?

Mayor: Again, I’m not going to go into the details. There’s no – I was very comfortable telling him the truth, and it was not what he wanted to hear. I have no memory exactly of how it interrelated with anything else.

Question: [Inaudible] not to reveal this kind of thing.

Mayor: I think I covered it. Thank you.

Question: I want to just clarify the arrests of the DACA protestors. Is there a concern that people might think that based on their political view of the protest might or might not get these desk appearance tickets?

Chief Monahan: No, we treat everyone exactly the same. No matter what they’re protesting. This is just a system that we have in place.

Question: Are there particular parameters or is it just everybody?

Chief Monahan: Everybody, everybody. Same thing if you – if you’re going to sit down in the middle of the street, no matter what you’re sitting down in the middle of the street for and you’re not going to move, we’re going to arrest you, and you’re going to be treated the same.

Mayor: I want to caution you. This is not news. Maybe – I just really want to make sure people are understanding because I myself, again, have experienced this. This is not a new approach. It’s only being asked, and I understand why, because of the concern about the fingerprinting and the DACA recipients, but the approach is not new by the NYPD. Civil disobedience is not like other crimes. It is a political act, often well-choreographed and orchestrated, discussed with the NYPD, or certainly the NYPD gives warnings before people do it, so it’s not like other crimes. So this approach is something that makes sense in that context.

Okay, last call – once, twice? 

Thank you, everyone.