Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at First Central Baptist Church

July 17, 2016

Mayor de Blasio: Good morning, everyone.

Audience: Good morning.

Mayor: It is such an honor to be with you at First Central. And first, I want to give honor to God, without Him this day would not be possible.

Audience: Amen.

[Applause]

Mayor: Chirlane and I are truly grateful to be here. We’re truly grateful to be among people of faith, people who care so deeply for each other – for their communities, for their city. It’s an important day to be together. And when I acknowledge the blessing I have of being married to this fine woman.

[Applause]

I also want to remind us all she has a mission. She has a mission to help the people of this city to destigmatize the challenge of mental health.

[Applause]

Something as human and fundamental as any physical health challenge that we treat as “normal,” she is taking aim at this challenge. She’s here to help all of us to move farther. I want to tell you one thing she did – just one thing – that makes me even more proud of her, and I didn’t think I could be more proud of here. A few weeks back there was a weekend, and it was a weekend of faith because we went to houses of worship – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths. We said could you please – to all the clergy – could you please speak from the pulpit about mental health. Could you talk to your congregation about the fact that it’s okay to acknowledge a challenge that you have or your family has? And if we bring it out in the open we can all work together to address it and solve the problem and solve all the other things that happen if you don’t address the problem in someone’s lives.

So she set out to create with her team this Weekend of Faith, and you might say – well, a few dozen houses of worship might participate in all of New York City that might be good. You might say a few hundred would participate. Guess what? Our first lady achieved 1,000 houses of worship were a part of that Weekend of Faith.

[Applause]

So tens of thousands of New Yorkers heard that message from the leaders they trust the most – our faith leaders. That’s the beginning of making a chance. Let’s thank our First Lady for all she does.

[Applause]

Now while I’m giving praise where praise is due, let’s talk about Pastor Carolina.

[Applause]

You’re popular!

Besides all he does – and that is so much as the pastor of this flock, all he does to support the families that make up this fine congregation – he’s also a larger voice in this borough and in this city. He is a voice of conscience. He is an advocate for human rights and civil rights. He is an advocate for our youth. He’s been helping to provide crucial leadership in the Cure Violence initiatives that help our young people stay safe.

[Applause]

Now pastor, I have an eye for ability and talent, and so seeing your good work, I was honored to name you to the City’s Human Rights Commission, and I thank you.

[Applause]

And thank you as well for all the extraordinary work you did serving our young men as part of our Young Men’s Initiative Advisory Board, helping the city of New York to help uplift our young men of color all over the city. Thank you, Pastor.

[Applause]

I want to talk about the day that we’re noting the anniversary of. But first, one more credit I have to give. Chirlane and I have the honor of being in many churches, and we are connoisseurs of fine choirs and fine bands. This is a fine choir right here –

[Applause]

And a powerful band right here.

[Applause]

I’m going to give special – this is a city wide competition – I want to give a special honorable mention to our brother percussionist. Well done, sir, well done, well done.

[Applause]

So there is always a lot to be joyful for – a lot to be happy about, a lot to appreciate. And we can’t forget that even when we mark a somber anniversary – and this is a somber anniversary. We want to feel what it means to us. We’re in awe. We’ll never forget. We want to learn. We want to grow, but we don’t even want to lose hope. We don’t ever want to lose our capacity for joy. We don’t want to ever lose our ability to reach each other and move forward. That’s what I want to talk about today.

This church can give us a metaphor just from your own experience, you know. As everyone here knows – but I’m sure the people of the city may not know – a very painful episode happened here just some weeks ago. An arsonist attacked this church, and thank God no one was hurt, and thank God there was only minimal damage. Another house of worship was attacked well. Again, the same – thank God no lasting damage. But the metaphor is not that there was an attack. The metaphor was that all of you – the members of this congregation – prayed for the assailant, prayed for his healing.

[Applause]

And that’s what faith does for us. It helps us recognize we can overcome the pain or the fear, and every one of us is called to do that. It is a difficult time to do that in. I have to say I was asked a few days ago on the radio – what should we feel as New Yorkers, as American about this time where we see violent incidents of so many kinds on TV, and we read the news and attacks on our officers, attacks on young people, attacks of terror? We could say it’s a horrible time, it’s a dangerous time, it’s a violent time, but no, wait a minute, we all know a little bit about history.

In fact, slowly but surely and very imperfectly, human beings are making some bigger progress because the violence our forbearers knew was much greater – much, much greater. It was much more consistent. It was much more a part of everyday life. It really was. Not just here, in countries and civilizations all over the world. In fact, human beings – even though you wouldn’t always know it from looking at the news – human beings are making progress. We’re finding ways towards each other. We’re finding ways to reduce the violence. In the context of world history it is undeniable – and in the context of New York City.

Chirlane and I served at City Hall in the early 1990s, and if you remember the 1980s and into the early 1990s, over 2,000 murder a year was normal in this city – normal. And I’m not saying that to say it’s okay, but we had sadly grown accustomed to it. Nowadays – thank God – we hover around 300 murders a year, less than one a day, and we want to go farther. We want to have fewer, but look at that time – in just that time, 20, 25 years – look how far we’ve come – one indication of a society trying to find its way towards safety and piece for all, one indication of many. We’re living longer. We have better healthcare.  We have so much more to do. But recognize our forbearers knew all too often, the violence and the pain that was much, much worse. And we are on a journey to leave those times behind.

[Applause]

And it is all of our responsibility to leave that bad past behind. We can’t let it afflict us. It tries to. Everyday a very painful past in this country tries to reach back up and pull us down, every single day. We are called in our time to overcome that, to truly put the past in the past. Now, it is tough because those events we see are nonetheless real. Even if I give you – I believe the truth of a hopeful, bigger trajectory we’re on, those events are nonetheless real. The terrorist attacks are real. They’re frightening. They’re painful. Think about those innocent people in Nice, in the middle of a celebration, what they went through.

The tragedies in this country in just the last weeks – unarmed people gunned down, on video for us to see how painful for everyone, for us, for their families, for those we’ve lost – how painful, how distressing.

Think about those five good officers in Dallas protecting protestors, successfully seeing them through their protests, and then gunned down in cold blood. And as I speak, we’re just getting news from Baton Rouge of a further attack on our police officers.

And this is unacceptable and I want to say what everyone knows – an attack on our police is an attack on all of us.

[Applause]

It is an attack on democracy. It is an attack on our values. It’s not acceptable. So, this is the environment we’re in. But we do not choose to accept it. We don’t choose to let it define us. There are the acts of a few. We’re a nation of 330 million people, and yet our fears, our anxieties are often dominated by just a handful who have done something heinous. They are often dominated by a tragic accident. When the remainder of the 330 million people somehow find a way to get a long most of the time and move forward – we have to keep that in perspective. A city of eight-and-a-half million people of every nation somehow coexisting.

And by the way, in that vein of where we’ve come – when Chirlane and I served in City Hall in the early 1990’s, you remember the ‘80s, you remember well in to the ‘90s the overt and explicit tension between communities in this city that would break out into violence regularly. We have all come a long way from those times. We’ve all come a long – we’re not in perfect harmony. I’m not here to tell you that but we are more harmonious, we are coexisting.

And by the way if most of the world could see everyday life in this city, could spend a few moments on a subway car, or in a public park, or in a public school, and see every kind of people in one place somehow getting along, there would be something that would amaze most people about the most diverse city on Earth, living in the harmony that we have achieved – imperfect but still an accomplish, and more work to be done.

Now, two years ago, those headlines weren’t about someplace else, they were right here – really – right here, very nearby – a street corner just a mile away. And the pain was real then and it remains as real. If you spend times with the families who have lost a loved one to violence, it does not go away – that pain. I’ve spent time with the Garner family. I’ve spent time with the Graham family. I’ve spent time with the family of officers who were killed in the line of duty. The pain does not go away. It hangs in the air.

Everyone wants to understand what happened. Everyone wants due process and resolution but that does not end the pain. Our job – what we can do is to hold those families in our hearts and to embrace them by making progress, by making sure no other family can have to feel that pain, no other family have to go through that agony. That is what we all can contribute to. That is the mission of this city, of this administration, of this NYPD today to end that pain.

And so, we recognize the pain hanging over us speaks against our hopes because it makes us sometimes despairing. It makes us feel – if that could happen, how can we go on? It’s not a logical feeling but it’s not a productive feeling either. We have to understand that we can overcome tragedies. We can overcome mistakes. We can overcome injustice.

Our forbearers did. We would not be a better society today if they had not succeeded. And I always say – you know, you see the screaming headlines, you see the breaking news – bad news travels very well, very quickly. It is exceptional it in its ability to reach us all. Good news does not travel far.

So when I say to you, think about 20 years ago in this city, or 30 years ago, think about what used to be normal in this country. I often say up until 1967 – Chirlane and I were both alive in 1967, up until – proud to tell you, voice of experience here.

[Laughter]

Up until 1967 in many states of this union, it would have been illegal for Chirlane and I to be married – illegal. Now, I’m the Mayor of the biggest city in the country, she’s the First Lady of the biggest city in the country. That says something.

[Applause]

So, I’m giving you a fact no to wipe away the pain and pretend that that resolves the pain but to say keep us all, keep us in perspective here. There are problems we must face. There are intractable problems that we have to get under the skin, and will take real work so that they become no longer intractable.

But there’s progress too, and we have to be animated by that progress. If you think about the messages you receive every Sunday in this good church, they don’t deny pain. Scripture does not deny pain. It, in fact, illustrates honestly so much pain, and tells us how to transcend it, how to be better than it.

[Applause]

So, we can’t give up. We can’t retreat. It’s up to us. It’s up to this city because we have that special role in this country and in this world, we have that special role as a beacon. I’m telling you, wherever I go around the world people – when you say New York City, a glow comes over their face because they think of us as one of the places in the world that anyone can go to. It’s an open place. It’s a place for everyone. We have more to do to perfect it, no doubt, but when you say New York City an image comes into people’s minds of someplace that has gone farther than most other places at allowing everyone to be a part of our society as one.

We have a special responsibility. When things happen here, when we get something right, it is acknowledged and noted all over the country, all over the globe. So, I’m say this not to put a burden on your shoulders but to perhaps deputize you, to recognize that the victories that we can win together here for peace and for harmony and for understanding can resonate far beyond our borders and make us all stronger. We can help show others that there is a way forward.

Now we have to bring out into the open the problem to solve it. It’s true, by the way, in destigmatizing mental health. To be able to solve it, you’ve got to destigmatize the conversation about police and community, the conversation about race and economics. All of those have to be put on the table. So I’m very comfortable as the Mayor of the biggest city in the country saying we have to overcome a history of structural racism to move forward.

[Applause]

And if we say it, analyze it, understand it, and make it a common piece of our discourse, we can move forward. I have been asked what I thought about the Black Lives Matter movement. And I’ve said I thank them, to begin with, for bringing the phrase Black Lives Matter into the discourse of this country.

[Applause]

If that statement wasn’t needed, if that movement wasn’t needed, it wouldn’t exist. Think about that. The phrase is self-evident according to all our values. Your religious values, our civic values – everything we’re supposed to be about as a country. So, we shouldn’t need to say it. But we do because too many facts prove to us we do. Too many lives lost, too many people denigrated, too many young people treated as if there were something wrong with them. Well guess what, America – they will be the America of the future. They will be the leaders of this country in the future.

[Applause]

So if you’re looking at your future leaders – shouldn’t we uplift them, embrace them, laud them, thank them?

[Applause]

And don’t you think people who are treated with respect and dignity find in themselves the best in them – their better angels come to the fore when you tell people regularly how much they are loved, how good they are. I talked about our son Dante. He is as good a young man as you will ever find on this earth. He was loved from the moment he was born, and told constantly how good he was. And he is living up to that promise.

[Applause]

So that’s why if we bring things out into the open, we can move forward. So, the acknowledgment, the dialogue, the understanding – the mutual understanding because there are so many stereotypes that have to be overcome. There are so many – too many stereotypes about our police officers that must be overcome. Our police today, in New York City – almost half of our force is people of color. Almost half of our force lives in New York City. This is not yesterday’s NYPD. This is today’s NYPD. This is a police force that is being trained to do things differently and a police force that is embracing that training. We’re talking neighborhood policing – the police officer works a small part of the neighborhood, stays in that part of the neighborhood – starts to know the residents, the clergy, the activists, the teachers, the parents – and all of them get to know the officer. What’s happening with neighborhood policing in this city? Right now, there are officers very comfortably giving community residents their cell phone number and saying if you need me, call me. Here’s my email. If something’s going on, tell me.

There are neighborhood policing officers sitting down with young people, teenagers – asking them to talk about what their lives are like – trying to demystify, trying to break down those barriers. And slowly, but surely, it’s working. There’s a reason crime is going down in this city. Crime is going down because police and community are communicating and starting to forge a real sense of common cause. So, neighborhood policing means systematically retraining our police force to connect and build that partnership. That’s one example of changes. It means policing of, and by, and for the community – reminding people the police are their guardians, there for them – the police feeling and seeing in the families of the community their very own family. That’s where we’re going.

Communities have to engage. Communities have to be part of the change too – bring our officers into the church. Invite them into community gatherings. Help them see the fullness of the community.

[Applause]

The young minister who was speaking when we first came in – I wrote down your words. What is the minister’s name, Pastor?

Reverend Dr. Demetrius S. Carolina Sr.: Daryl Moore.

Mayor: Daryl?

Reverend Dr. Carolina: Reverend Daryl Moore.

Mayor: Reverend Daryl Moore. Reverend Moore, I wrote down this quote – “we have a church full of people. We don’t want to leave the work to a handful of people.”

[Applause]

For the record, I liberally steal other people’s material.

[Laughter]

And occasionally, give credit.

[Laughter]

Well we – let’s borrow from that quote. We have a city full of people. We don’t want to leave the work of healing to just a handful of people.

[Applause]

Reverend Dr. Carolina: Wonderful. Wonderful.

Mayor: So, the policies matter and the people matter. Both matter. We heard all over this city several years ago that we had to fix the broken policy of stop-and-frisk. At its high point – and if anyone in this room is doubting that elections matter or democracy functions, or the government is listening – I don’t blame anyone for some cynicism or a sense of concern that they don’t see the results they want. But on this one, I’ll argue with anybody anywhere in this city. In 2011, there were 700,000 stops – overwhelmingly young men of color and by police statistics, over 90 percent had done absolutely nothing wrong – no summons, no charge, no nothing – 700,000. We had an election in which the people of this city said this policy had to change.

[Applause]

I sat with Commissioner Bratton earlier in the week and we laid out the first half of this year in which shootings had gone down, robberies had gone down, car theft had gone down to historically low levels. And he stopped and we wanted to address stop-and-frisk – 700,000 in 2011. Do half a year’s worth – 350,000. Commissioner Bratton said I want to tell you how many stops have occurred in all of New York City this year – 8,000 for the whole city.

[Applause]

Crime went down. Stops went down – crime went down. Some people are deeply concerned – what does it mean for guns? A very fair concern because we have to get guns off our streets. Gun seizures – last year compare to this year – have increased 20 percent – 20 percent.

[Applause]

So the NYPD is doing an exemplary job but not using the tactics that used to divide police and community. It’s doing an exemplary job by using the tactics that engage police and community in a common – common mission. We ended arrests for low-level marijuana possession that had held down a lot of our young people, and weren’t a good use of our police time.

We have a new police because of the City Council’s fine work – and I want to thank Councilmember Debbie Rose for the work she’s been doing.

[Applause]

While I’m at it, I’m going to thank my partner in government, Public Advocate Tish James. Thank you very much.

[Applause]

The City Council passed a new policy to give our officers an option of summons versus arrests for low-level quality-of-life offenses which gives our officers more opportunity to judge – if something doesn’t deserve an arrest, we still are going to say if it’s illegal you get a summons. That’s not a minor matter. You pay money. But it doesn’t need an arrest which takes a lot of time and energy. Maybe that officer’s going to use that time and energy to go after something more serious.

[Applause]

We have started to have body cameras on our police force and that will increase every year going forward.

[Applause]

And we have retrained the entire police force. There are now – by the end of this year – we will have 36,000 officers in uniform. Every single one of them will have been trained in de-escalation tactics – how to take a conflict and end it through de-escalation.

[Applause]

So, we are giving our officers the support, the training, the better policies, so they can engage deeply with communities – that will keep our officers safer that will keep our communities safer. You know what officers are telling me? I’ve heard it from their own lips all over this city – neighborhood policing – community members are coming up to them proactively and saying you need to know that there’s an illegal social club on this block, you need to know someone has a gun or does not have a permit for that gun, you need to know there’s a gang that might be about to engage in retaliation – informing our officers. And I’ve heard from the officers, when they talk to me about it, they talk with a glow, an energy because they have always wanted – the people who join our police officers to protect and to serve, to put their own lives on the line for us – have always wanted to have people come up to them and tell them how to stop crime, and how to protect everyone. And now it’s starting to happen in this city for the good of all.

So, I’ll conclude – yes, Pastor, there is a conclusion to this talk.

[Laughter]

I saw him starting to get the hook, and I was like I’m not going to go through this indignity –

[Laughter]

Pastor was worried. He thought it might be a blemish on his reputation if he physically took me off the stage. So, I’m glad to take that anxiety away from you Pastor.

I use an analogy that I think brings all of these pieces together, and it gets to who we are as humans. Chirlane traces her heritage partly to the American South, partly to the islands of Barbados and St. Lucia – and because in the Caribbean there were some different cultural dynamics, there was more of an ability to hang on to some of the cultural survivals, hang on to some of the elements of the culture passed from the Mother Land. So, one of her family had the last name of Quashie. And if you know West Africa, you will know when you say something like that, Quashie or [inaudible], you are immediately talking about the nation of Ghana.

So, imperfectly but still quite importantly, Chirlane can trace some of her heritage to the Volta region of Ghana – and that is a blessed thing.

[Applause]

I remember we visited Ghana a few years ago, and I remember in the airport one of the Ghanaian security officers looked at Dante’s passport – and Dante was given the middle name Quashie – and the officer looks down – American passport – looks down, looks back up, and says, ‘Are you Ghanaian?’

[Laughter]

So, we’re never too far from our ancestry.

I have been to the villages that my grandmother and grandfather come from in Italy. I’ve literally seen the buildings in which they were born. And I say that because everyone in this room comes from a village somewhere. Every one of us – whether it’s African, it’s Latin America, it’s Asia, it’s Europe – we come from a village somewhere far away. We don’t come from big cities. You go back a few centuries, there were no big cities like this. We come from a village.

And across all those societies and cultures there was a very powerful commonality. In every village of every kind of background there were guardians. The guardians were chosen from the village. The guardians were of the village, by the village, for the village. The guardians represented the best of the village. They were the strongest. They were the most able to protect. The people of the village knew the guardians, of course, because they came from the village. The guardians knew the people of the village and respected them because they were of them.

Fast forward to today – we don’t have villages in this city, we have neighborhoods. We cannot recreate that perfect ancestral culture but we can sure learn from it and borrow from it, and take the best in us and have guardians who wear uniforms today, who come to feel that they represent the village that they serve, that they are of and by and for it, that they understand it and that the village understands them, that when they see a young man walking up to them, they see their own son.

[Applause]

I say that because I’m telling you it’s in all of us. It’s in our ancestral cultures. It’s not foreign. It’s not impossible. It’s not beyond our reach. It’s who we are deep in our souls, and it’s who we can be again.

So, we cannot give up faith. We cannot give up hope. We can’t lack the courage to do what our very ancestors did.

I’ll finish with scripture – in Galatians – “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up.”

[Applause]

Thank you. God Bless you all.

[Applause]