Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show

July 15, 2016

Brian Lehrer: Good morning, everyone. And Mayor de Blasio joins us first today for our weekly Ask The Mayor segment, which we usually do here on Friday morning at 10 o’clock. Good morning, Mr. Mayor welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Brian.

Lehrer: And considering the horrible attack in Nice – I’m sure you want to say something about it and also tell us if our city is taking precautions any differently than usual as a result.

Mayor: Yeah, our hearts obviously go out to the people of Nice and the people of France. And this is – this is not the first time they have been through that kind of horrible attack. I was over in Paris last year after the first dramatic attack on Paris and spent time with leaders and everyday [inaudible] and France has just gone through so much in the last two years. So, our hearts are with them. We absolutely are on alert. We’re on alert every day in New York City. And we have reinforced offices and locations associated with the French government. So you will see a clear NYPD presence outside of those with our new Critical Response Command, our anti-terror force, and our Strategic Response Group will be out in force. Also, in major public areas – Times Square as a great example – heavily-trafficked areas of the City you will see additional police presence. But specifically one of the things NYPD has really learned from watching what happens around the world is to put up multiple barriers around major events to protect against these kinds of attacks. So, whether it was July 4th or New Year’s Eve celebration we extensively secure the area and put up lots of blockades to keep this kind of attack from happening. And we’re certainly going to be doing that a lot as we go forward.

Lehrer: And when you say this kind of attack, most of our listeners were just hearing that final report on the BBC World Service saying it does appear to be a lone wolf attack, not that they are entirely certain that he didn’t have connections to other groups, but it appears to be what they are describing as, from a security standpoint, the worst thing that you can have, which is a lone wolf not connected to apparently other groups or a network where you can intercept communications or anything like that – and then getting something like this big truck and staging this act as an individual, which I’ve heard described as the most deadly terrorist attack by an individual as opposed to an organized force.

Mayor: And further Brian, I think you’re right that the lone wolf is a particular challenge because when it comes to more elaborate plots our intelligence gathering capacity both at the NYPD and with our federal partners is quite extensive and typically does get wind of what’s going on, but with a lone wolf in this type of attack using a truck as the primary weapon – there are things we can do to defend against that particularly at major public celebrations; and that’s again something that the NYPD has done very well. I should quickly add, so all the people of New York City know, there are no specific and credible threats against New York City at this time. We’re monitoring very closely. We will have NYPD present in Nice today to get a better sense of what happened and to learn from the incident, but there is no credible and specific threat against New York City.

Lehrer: You know it feels like the world is lurching right now from one awful act of violence to another: Dallas, Baton Rouge, and St. Paul just barely a week behind us. This Sunday is the second anniversary of the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island. Those things are all in one deadly set of issues and then we’re reminded that terrorism – if this was terrorism in France as it appears to be – is the other deadly violence issue of our time. And we have them on top of each other. And I don’t even have a specific question, just how do you as a Mayor or as a human being deal with the world lurching from horror to horror like this in a way it feels like we haven’t seen in a long time.

Mayor: It’s painful for all of us and it is difficult and it causes fear, it causes anxiety. I think particularly for our young people. It must be very difficult to make sense of, but I want to put things in some perspective that might give us a little solace. The world was a much more violent place not long ago and if you look at human history there has been a consistent evolution away from violence. Obviously, this City is a great example – 20-plus years ago over 2,000 murders a year. That number was 300-plus last year, a huge difference in people’s lives; number of shootings that were typical on the streets of New York City just a couple of decades ago – obviously shootings continue to go down and I give great credit to the NYPD for that. So, there are newer threats like terrorism at least in this manifestation, they tend to be individual instance that causes us an immense amount of pain and fear, but they – in the scheme of things – are few and far between. We have to put this in perspective. We have to put in perspective when it comes to the dynamics between police and community that, for example here in New York, the NYPD is using its weapons less and less with every successive year. The number of shootings by a police officer in any form or fashion including in a situation where they are trying to stop a crime and a criminal is pointing a gun at them – that kind of incident where a NYPD officer uses a gun is down to the dozens for the entire 36,000 member police force for an entire year in total. So, we have to put things in perspective and recognize a lot is being done to reduce violence; and obviously if we think about the two dilemmas that you [inaudible] we can do a lot more in this country to address gun violence, with real gun safety laws and real restrictions that the people of this country want. And I am hopeful since the sit-in at the House of Representatives that some real change is going to start to happen. When it comes to terror, we’re learning more and more on how to stop terror. ISIS has been pushed back intensely in its territory in the Middle East. With our federal partners, we’re learning much more about how to disrupt plots and protect against them. So, there is a lot of pain, there is a lot of fear, but Brian when you look at it in perspective – in some other ways we’re actually in a less violent time and we know better how to stop violence now.

Lehrer: And in fact, President Obama was making the exact same point in one of his commencement addresses this year – telling people who are graduating from college that they are actually coming into the world at perhaps the most advantageous time to be alive in human history. And despite these things that are really awful and in some categories spiking in their awfulness that the big picture is of a less violent world; is of a more equal world; is of a more going in the right direction world than I think he said it anytime in human history. So, it’s hard to see that big picture sometimes when we’re in the midst of a spate of incidents like this, but it is worth keeping in mind at least that that might be true.

Mayor: It’s worth keeping in mind because I think we as humans need hope by definition and we have to remember the things that do work to give us the hope to solve the problems of today. So, for example, on the gun issue I have met many people who feel as I do that we need much stronger gun laws in this country and yet there is almost – the next sentence is always, but of course it can’t happen because of the NRA. I find that ahistorical. I’m sure if you talked to civil rights activists in Mississippi in the 1950s – you know – they would have had their moments of doubt whether change could ever come; whether people would ever be given the right to vote; whether their strategies would overcome institutional racism. The fact is that we have movements and we have efforts of social change for a reason and history proves over and over that they can work. We faced other terror threats before of other types and they have been very regularly defeated. So, I think we have to keep in perspective that humans are very adaptable. There’s a tremendous amount of innovation going on and we’re learning better how to fight terror. We have many of the solutions to gun violence in terms of the access to guns. We have to get the political will to use those solutions, but at least when it comes to relationship between police and community, which has been so much on our minds in the last two weeks; there are very specific tools to reduce tension and reduce violence between police and community. They are working in this city. It is so clear. Shootings are down, gun seizures are up, and complaints against officers to the CCRB are down, stop-and-frisks down; when you look at this combination of features that bring police and community together and training, retraining all our officers on how to deescalate conflict situations; how to minimize the use-of-force; how to recognize implicit bias. These are tools that fundamentally change the reality on the ground. So, there have been tragedies – individual incidences that grab at us and yet everyday these tragedies are not happening. We don’t hear about them because they didn’t happen because all of these policies are starting to work – not only here, they were working in Dallas. Dallas has been exemplary on creating a better model of police community relations. They’re working in a lot of places, so we’ve got to have hope because there is real evidence that we can make these changes.

Lehrer: It’s our weekly #AsktheMayor segment – Friday’s at 10 o’clock here with Mayor de Blasio on WNYC. And listeners as we’ve been mentioning during the week the call in portion of #AsktheMayor this week is part of our ongoing conversation about race and the police. The Mayor is among those public officials as you just been hearing trying to find common ground and take the city for it together; and so we want to invite calls today from two groups of listeners – police officers and New Yorkers who are black. And if it sounds kind of stark to say it by race like that I think inviting by a specific racial group makes sense in this case because so much of the issue is specifically about police encounters with black Americans as it is being discussed and as black Americans especially experience it. And we know that many police officers are also feeling misunderstood. So, we are inviting right now people in either group to call in and tell the Mayor or ask the Mayor about what might be needed to bridge the police community divide – most starkly to avoid unnecessary use-of-force while still keeping the streets safe – 2-1-2-4-3-3-W-N-Y-C. And forgive us if we don’t take your call for today if you’re not in one of those two groups of people – 2-1-2-4-3-3-9-6-9-2 – as we will save some lines for police officers with the NYPD. Officers this is your chance to talk to the Mayor directly about police-community relations and any New Yorkers who identify as black call in and tell the Mayor and ask the Mayor about bridging the divide and what the City can do – 2-1-2-4-3-3-3-W-N-Y-C. And I know this obviously effects Latino people too and some Latinos are black and effects white people and Asian people, but for today – this segment and with the focus being what it is in the country right now we’ll do it this way – 2-1-2-4-3-3-3-9-6-9-2. And while the calls are coming in, Mr. Mayor, can I get your comments specifically on City Council withdrawing its so-called right to know legislation regarding the police, but the NYPD accepting some of it voluntarily like as you know asking people’s permission to search them in most cases and taking no for an answer unless there is an immediate perceived threat; and to offer business cards after a search and a few other things. So, am I right that you oppose this legislation?

Mayor: I like the changes that have been made, but I wanted them to be made in a way that would balance public safety and respect for our communities. And I thought it was important to do that with the NYPD; to do that administratively so it could be done right away; so it could be done without any potential legal challenge. But it had to be done in a way that made sense for public safety as well – exhaustive process. I want to credit Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the sponsors of the legislation, the members of the Council because this was a very long and detailed series of discussions between the Mayor’s Office, the Council, and the Police Department. But where we got was we’re making additional reforms that the police leadership know can and will work and still keep us safe, so I think the administrative root was the right root.

Lehrer: Were you involved in the negotiations to make it voluntary?

Mayor: Different ways, yes, not in a lot of the great detail, but in the broad strokes yes. And again, I want people to understand what this means. It means that our police can do all the things they need to do to keep us safe, but it means they also have clearer guidelines on how to approach potential searches, clearer guidelines for how to communicate with the community and let people know they can communicate back. It’s very consistent with the vision of neighborhood-policing that Commissioner Bratton and Chief O’Neill are putting into place that emphasizes communication with the community. So, I think this is now another part of a series of reforms – now, you’ve got this set of reforms, you’ve got the summons reforms the City Council passed weeks ago to give officers the option of summons rather than arrest in many cases; on top of retraining, on top of the body cameras that are coming. There are so many big changes happening and they all connect to a neighborhood policing strategy and approach that I think will really fundamentally change the relationship between police and community.

Lehrer: Now, I want to re-invite police officers to call in – your chance to speak to the Mayor directly. There are so many fewer police officers who might be listening at any given moment than black New Yorkers considering the population of just people on the force compared to everybody in the community in the city. So, at the moment we don’t have any police officers on the line. Officers we know you call us at other times, so here’s your chance to speak to the Mayor. And so, others who are calling in don’t be insulted or think we’re censoring you if we bump some of you because we want to keep a few lines open for police officers to call in and get your voices on how we can move forward together as a community after these [inaudible] weeks and really years – 2-1-2-4-3-3-W-N-Y-C. Police officers you’re invited – 2-1-2-4-3-3-9-6-9-2. But let’s go to our first call for the Mayor. And it is Antonin in Brooklyn. Antonin, you’re on WNYC.

Question: Hi, Brian and thanks so much for having this segment. My question for the Mayor is around these clear guidelines and the administrative changes as opposed to having the City Council legislate and a lot real legal accountability. We know that this weekend is going to be the second anniversary of the death of Eric Garner who was killed even while the NYPD patrol guide included a ban on chokeholds and that was added decades ago and it continues to be violated. So, I guess I’m wondering as a black New Yorker how can you seriously ask communities [inaudible] violates a existing patrol guide to believe that adding more language to that book will change anything or has any real accountability?

Mayor: I think the question – Antonin, I appreciate the question and I think it gets to a very fundamental issue. I believe in accountability and I think there’s many, many tools we have to enforce accountability, but I guess I would put this in perspective – I think we need positive change more than we need anything else. I think the notion here is we have to reorient our police force and this is happening right now to a different approach – a de-escalation strategy when they are in confrontation with an individual; a much closer working relationship [inaudible] with communities. All of the reforms that you have seen, administrative and legislative, are all pointing in the same direction. It’s a culture change and the retraining is literally a culture change.  It’s going to not only involve de-escalation techniques, but literally implicit bias training by some of the most noted folks in this country to do that work. So, I think this is how you create and sustain change. Yes, accountability tools are important, but I think the much more profound change comes from the positive – the reorienting. And look at some of the evidence, there have been 8,000 stops in the first six months of New York City. Now, this police force that under the previous commissioner and previous mayor hit 700,000 stops in 2011. This police force changed with the new policies and that is an amazingly quick trajectory. They stopped doing the unconstitutional and broken policy of stop-and-frisks. This police force, when we made the decision to not do the low-level marijuana arrests anymore, the police force took that policy up and implemented it. So, I think we have to show some faith that when people are given the right leadership, the right direction, the right training that’s actually how you get things done. Accountability matters, but the positives matter a lot more.

Lehrer: Troy in Bed-Stuy, you’re on WNYC with the Mayor. Hi, Troy.

Question: Hi, good morning. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Good morning.

Question: I just wanted to express from being a police officer that the perspective that everyone in the public sees and then the media and [inaudible] sop-and-frisks situation – it’s [inaudible] as always stop-and-frisks. Everyone that is stopped is not frisked, so everyone goes and assumes that because someone is stopped their rights are being violated. That is not the case even though the numbers are inflated because everything that the New York City Police Department – once it becomes a stat it’s counted and the numbers represent a whole big view, but it is not necessarily a stop-and-frisk [inaudible] stop-question-and-frisks. Some of them may be stopped just for the fact that they’re in a – they are selling drugs, we can’t search them. We know that they are selling drugs, but we just stop them to let them know that we’re there. [Inaudible] they’re not stopping anyone because it’s a liability – you’ll end up probably getting sued for [inaudible] reason. So, officers are not – are refraining from actually coming in contact with people; refraining from doing any proactive policing and its hurting the community.

Mayor: Troy, first of all thank you for the work you do and thank you for the call. I do think [inaudible]. The work you do is very difficult and one of the things I think all New Yorkers should understand is that police officers, especially as we’re trying to train them to deal with a whole host of situations, they do have to deal with an extraordinary array of challenges including folks with mental health challenges; including all sorts of difficult split second decisions. I think every New Yorker should feel a connection to the work that our police do and how difficult it can be, but when it comes to the way you’re framing it – if you think that’s your experience I’m not going to challenge you on your experience, but I’m going to disagree with you on what we’re seeing overall. The numbers that we just announced a few days ago – the lowest number of shootings of the first six months of the year of any six months in the history of the City; lowest robberies, lowest car thefts. This is because of the work of the NYPD and that is not passive work that is active work; the fact that gun seizures are up over 20 percent compared to last year. There are a lot of officers out there doing their jobs and dong assertively and energetically.

Now, on the question of fear of being sued – I understand where that fear comes, from but I also think bluntly there are a lot of voices that are not giving you the full truth about what’s happening. The timeline on CCRB cases has been reduced greatly so that we can get fairness for everyone involved much more quickly, and those cases don’t hang over officers or get hanged up when a community member wants resolution. We also have gone very aggressively at the lawyers who bluntly were trying to take advantage of the legal system and find lots of opportunities to sue officers on the assumption that the City would just settle. We’ve said last year we are not going to do that anymore. We are going to challenge any lawsuit we think is inappropriate, defend the officer, and stop the lawyers who are basically trying to sue just in hopes they’ll get a quick and easy settlement and break the back of that trend. So I think officers should recognize a lot of changes are happening to make sure there is not unfair lawsuits and that if there is any issue raised it will be addressed speedily and fairly. But I got to say, I see a lot of action that is very effective from the NYPD. Our neighborhood policing strategy is clearly proactive, and that is having a very preventative and positive impact on reducing crime. So I am sorry if that is not what you are experiencing, but I think a lot of officers are experiencing something different.

Lehrer: Troy, can I ask you a follow-up question?

Question: Yes, you may.   

Lehrer: As somebody on the ground doing the job, if we are seeing shootings going down and murders going down in New York, even as you and probably a lot of other officers out there nodding their head listening to you feeling kind of chilled from doing what some of the things that might be more active as I think you have described them in policing, maybe it’s actually good. Maybe it works that there’s a little backing off from the old days and that it helps the community feel more trust and at the same time if the techniques are right, as the Mayor is asserting, crime can go down at the same time.

Question: There are several factors in regards to crime going down. There is actually the use of technology which has become pretty helpful with the whole shots fired. We’ve become more aware of the shooting incidents and able to figure out where they are coming from so maybe even apprehending. There is a lot more video surveillance throughout the city so identifying people and arresting them is a lot easier now. There are all different factors and I am not saying that the Mayor is actually wrong in what he’s saying but the reality is the sentiment of policing is totally different and the willingness to possibly go the extra mile is very much [inaudible].

I appreciate Commissioner Bratton for what he’s been doing because he is trying to change the sentiment and the whole mentality because having Commissioner Kelly, you know he was a good person, but having one person and one mindset doesn’t allow for much change. So they want a growth and change within the department. The use of technology is expanding the thought process. Even the whole concept of the Strategic Response Groups, all those units which make a lot of sense. And I was always baffled – why we’ve never had a readily available counterterrorism unit for [inaudible] guns in areas densely populated to wait for an Emergency Service Unit that might be 10, 15 minutes out. That didn’t make sense to me. But all of these sensible, strategic things that the Police Commissioner is doing does help. The most important thing is the tone and the rhetoric that’s going on nationwide and within the police department and within the community.

People are making assumptions and assertions, making racial accusations. I’m a black officer. And everyone who is white and a police officer doesn’t equate racist. And people marching along protesting lines calling me a murderer – they don’t even know me. I’ve never used my firearm. I’ve pulled it out, but I’ve never used it against anyone and I’m being called a murderer. These things, which are inflammatory, hurt the cause of which people are fighting for. There’s drastic change in the city. Gentrification – areas that weren’t densely populated are being more densely populated; people are being pushed out. Communities are changing, crime is changing.

Lehrer: And Mr. Mayor you wanted to say one more thing to Troy?

Mayor: As you sort of show your larger vision of things, I appreciate the balance in what you’re saying. I think you’re hitting on a lot of the key notes – what the impact of social and economic change is. And certainly I appreciate your recognition of the technology we’re giving to NYPD is – it’s helping you to do your job.

But I really want key in on your point about the way officers are treated – this is something we have to work on. I’ve said very clearly over the last few days that the Black Lives Matter movement and what it stands for is important for this country. It’s a very diffuse and diverse movement – very decentralized. I’m sure there are some individuals I agree with on a number of things. I’m sure there’s some I really don’t. But the very phrase, Black Lives Matter, is an absolute and direct response to a broken history in this country of structural racism. It is a necessary movement. But there are individuals in – that may associate with Black Lives Matter, and much more so – individuals who don’t associate with it and go to the same demonstrations and say vile, and violent, and horrible things to police officers. And I find it intolerable. I don’t understand it. If you’re trying to make social change, then talk about the changes we need in our society, in our laws, in our policies, in our leadership. But why on earth would you direct that kind of anger to an individual officer – particularly one who is trying to protect you at that moment – the exact example from Dallas where as the bullets were raining out, the officers went to protect the protesters. And by the way, many, many, many protesters show regular and consistent respect for police and appreciation. At the end of the Dallas protest, before the shooting, they were taking pictures together with the police. I think the vast majority of police try to work well with protesters; the vast majority of protesters try and work well with police. The protests done by peaceful folks who are trying to make social change are necessary. But it is this smaller group that viciously attacks police officers verbally that has really poisoned the well. And I think some of them do it quite consciously, hoping for conflict.

But I do want to affirm Troy’s point. And anyone – I would say to all your listeners, Brian – put yourself in Troy’s shoes. Say you were a sworn officer of the law, trying to do your job the right way, policing a protest, trying to keep it safe, trying to give everyone the right to – their right to free speech – and in the middle of it, someone’s calling you a murderer. That’s just absolutely inappropriate.

Lehrer: Sure.

Mayor: I don’t know – how anyone could do that to their fellow human being.

Lehrer: Troy, thank you very much for calling in. And be safe out there. And Millicent in Queens Village – you’re on WNYC. Hello, Millicent.

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I love you – I don’t care what they write about you. I love you.

Mayor: Thank you, Millicent.

Question: Anyway – anyway, Mr. Mayor, I have to tell you – as a 69-year-old grandmother, I am frightened for my grandsons because maybe in another few years, they may be driving. And I think many of these policemen are very racist. They’re racist in their heart. And when the black ones join the force, they have to comply with the rules because – because it’s blue – blue lives. And if they try to say anything, if they do want to say anything, then they become targets. I saw a policeman in Maryland say that he spoke up – and you know what happened – he was threatened by his fellow officers, and they put rat on his car, and all these kinds of things.

Mr. Mayor, I had a very hard job. And I never abused anyone. I went to my supervisor if I saw other people that weren’t doing the job well. I went to my supervisor and said – listen, watch that person because they are doing something that doesn’t seem to be right. Maybe they’re tired; maybe they’re taking some drugs; maybe whatever – my supervisor will stand up for it. Policemen are not the only ones who have difficult jobs. The man who washes the windows has a difficult job. The construction worker falls off the concrete – they have a difficult job. I am afraid of some of these police, and my heart rate goes up when I hear them and when I see them on the street. And studies have shown that black people’s heart rates go up when they see police because some of them are very terrible. I am very saddened by what happened to those innocent police officers in Texas. But this climate here has got to stop.

Lehrer: Yes.

Question: And I am tired of the talking. We need federal guidelines to say – stop killing black men. Police – stop killing black men; speak to them respectfully when you stop them on the street; take them out of the car, put the handcuffs on if you think you need to, and speak to them. Do not let my grandchildren have to see bullets being put into black men because the persons, young people who were on the force said – they have now got to witness police putting bullets into people who are lying prone and is of no danger to them.

And Mr. Mayor – the time for talking is finished. We talk, and we talk, and we talk. It’s not getting us anywhere. We need federal guidelines to tell the police – please respect black people who helped to build this country, and do not kill them when you see them on the street.

Mayor: Millicent, let me – let me. Millicent, I appreciate very deeply the way you’re expressing what you feel to the people of New York City right now because I think you’re saying a lot of things that people need to hear about the fear that parents and grandparents have for their children. And I wish we could get this out into our society and just establish very, very clearly – and I say this to any white American – that let’s get clear, the fear that parents of color and parents of children of color feel all the time. And I use the example around my son, and I want to amplify that and then make one other quick point to respond to you.

My son, I could not be more proud of. He is everything you could ask for. He has worked hard throughout his whole life. He is an exemplary student. He follows every law. And yet, he has that fear that he will be misunderstood – that there will be an assumption. This is why Black Lives Matter as an idea is so important because we have to in this country dignify and respect young men of color, in particular – all people – but obviously, young men of color have been the focal point of so much suspicion, so much negativity. We have to restore respect and balance, and put them in their rightful place in society. They are amongst the people who inherit this nation and lead it. Why don’t we start seeing them that way and treating them that way? Why don’t we start creating a dynamic where our police officers see them just the way they would their own children?

Now, important Millicent is to recognize – the New York City Police Department today is almost half people of color. It is almost half New York City residents. Those are very big changes from 10 or 20 years ago. The training – it goes right to what you’re talking about. We are instituting implicit bias training because all of us – every single one of us – grows up with biases. It’s all over our society and the way we’re brought up in our families. And we have to weed out those biases. You’re right. If someone in their public service is carrying that bias – well first of all, they need to be trained and retrained properly. Second of all, their supervisor should be watching if they see stuff like that. Their colleagues should be watching because it’s dangerous, and it has to be dealt with. And it should be – I agree with you on the federal point, that’s what the President’s commission was saying – across this whole country we should be retraining all our police forces; we should be moving to body cameras; we should be creating neighborhood policing.

But I don’t want to let the note of hopelessness – I heard that point from you – enough of the talk – I understand that. But I also want to recognize, Millicent – a lot of this stuff is happening right now. It’s happening with the Dallas PD. They made a lot of these changes. NYPD is making a lot of these changes. The fact that stop-and-frisk was 700,000 stops in the year 2011 – 8,000 so far this year. The entire police force retrained – no longer doing the arrests for young people for low-level marijuana offenses – all of the things that we’re doing to change the relationship between police and community – most importantly neighborhood policing. More and more officers now trained to get to know the community members – work the same part of the neighborhood every day – build relationships, build trust, build mutual respect. These are the keys to changing the culture of policing, so that what you fear will never have to happen in the future. It’s happening now. The changes are happening now, and we don’t feel them all yet, but they are happening. There is real change on the ground, and that needs to give us some hope.

Lehrer: I know we’re over time already, and you’ve got to go. We’ve gotten a few callers on anyway, and you know sometimes quality of interaction is more important than quantity of interactions. And I think we’ve had some quality here. Just to her specific policy point – you know it’s the same thing that Hillary Clinton has been making a point of saying since the events of last week – federal guidelines for police use of force. Is that something you support?

Mayor: Absolutely, I think Millicent is right. I think Hillary Clinton is right. I think the whole thing needs to be put in a national perspective. Look – tragedy and a horrible action by one officer in Minnesota, and it affects the whole country. And just like when horrible things happen to officers in Dallas – we feel it all over the country. This is a national dynamic at this point. And I think there should be a very similar vision of policing across the country – neighborhood based policing; building deep relationships between police and community; retraining every single officer in this country in de-escalation tactics, in implicit bias issues; body cameras will ultimately – and should ultimately – be ubiquitous in this country. We need all of the above, and we need to let our police know that we will protect them, we will support them. But we also need them to understand that the way forward is with unity with the communities they serve and no sense of distance from the communities they serve.

Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, thanks so much. I’ll talk to you next week.

Mayor: Thank you, Brian.