Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live On CBS This Morning

November 1, 2017

Gayle King: Good to see you. The Governor joined us earlier and he said listen, New Yorkers show up when it’s needed. You were there yesterday at the Halloween parade. I think the question though this morning is what’s being done to protect the city this morning?

Mayor: Huge NYPD presence out. We have the biggest counterterrorism force of any police force in the nation. It’s out in very strong numbers so people can see it. It’s a deterrent force, you know, we are, in this city, very comfortable putting out large numbers of police officers with heavy gear, with heavy weapons to send a message, don’t try anything here. God forbid something happens like this, we can respond quickly. But it’s also to reassure our people that there’s a lot of presence to keep them safe.

But look what this incident points up, once again, is we need everyone to be involved in helping us fight terror.

King: When you see something, say something.

Mayor: Let me tell you that slogan is – means a lot. If you see anything that you think might be suspicious bring it to a police officer because it can be the difference, it can be the lifesaver.

King: Have you talked to the officer in this case? Ryan –

Mayor: I look forward to it later today. He did an amazing job responding quickly. And you know that officer, who is only five years on the force –

King: 28-years-old years old.

Mayor: – who knows how many lives he saved with his quick actions.

Charlie Rose: [Inaudible] suspect is in custody.

Mayor: Yes.

Rose: Is he talking? What can you tell us about what he is saying?

Mayor: Very early. Look over time we’re hopeful, working with the FBI and our federal partners that we’re going to get a lot more information about what happened here. But it’s too early on to start assessing this individual.

Rose: Is the assumption that he was inspired by ISIS, but that’s the extent of it?

Mayor: The assumption is he is an extremist and a terrorist. Who he is inspired by and how, it’s too early to say. 

Rose: There was a note found.

Mayor: There was a note found. That was one of the reasons –

Rose: What did it say?

Mayor: Without going into detail, I would simply say the note and what he said coming out of the vehicle and the manner of the attack made it very clear this was an act of terrorism. But we have to be smart about not ascribing to a particular group until we have more evidence.

Erica Hill: As I mentioned earlier, this happened just a block away from my apartment. You’re right, the city is very resilient. People were out trick-or-treating –

Mayor: Yep.

Hill: – last night as this was taking place. But you can’t help but notice the increased police presence here. We have the New York City Marathon coming up this weekend. What extra measures are you taking now in light of this event?

Mayor: There will be a huge police presence, a lot you’ll see and a lot you won’t see. And let me tell you, last night was – after the pain and the loss and our hearts go out to these families who have lost people. New Yorkers within hours, a million strong, came out to our annual Halloween parade. And I talked to a lot of them. I asked them how they were feeling and people said we’re not going to give in, we’re not going to change because of terrorists who are trying to change our way of life. I was inspired by it.

Rose: The NYPD is famous for looking at terrorist incidents and see what they can learn from them whether they take place here or somewhere else.

Mayor: Correct.

Rose: What have we learned from this incident so far?

Mayor: We’ve learned, I think, that we have to constantly reassess where we put up our physical barriers. There was an incident in Times Square some months ago, it was not terrorism, it was unfortunately someone with a profound mental health problem, an American. And in that instance we made physical changes.

We’ll continue to make physical changes. When it comes to parades and events, New Year’s Eve, the Thanksgiving parade, we don’t allow vehicles to cross them anymore. That used to be normal. There would be breaks in the parade and vehicles could cross. We put up big blocker trucks now so nothing can cross because of what happened in Nice, because of what happened in Berlin.

This is an ever-evolving situation but I can tell you from a New York City perspective our formula is simple: put a lot of people out, a lot of officers out well armed to send a deterrent message. And, engage all communities to get the information we need because again, a lot of times the attacks have been stopped, which we don’t talk about in some cases, were based on everyday people who went to a police officer and shared information. And that’s – that could be the key in any of these cases. So we got to say to people don’t hesitate, if you think something might be suspicious share it with the authorities because it could make a huge difference.

Rose: Intelligence makes a big difference.

Mayor: Yes. It is the lifesaver.

King: Regardless of how insignificant it might feel. You think well I’m wasting their time. It’s okay. People want their time wasted.

Mayor: Let me tell you –

King: You could make a difference.

Mayor: And it – and let the police judge if something has value. If you think it’s suspicious, if you overhear a conversation – and we’ve had people in all communities overhear something, go to an officer, again without going into detail I can say some of those times it led us to someone who meant to do harm and they were stopped.

King: Alright, Mayor de Blasio, thank you -

Rose: Thank you Mayor.

Hill: Thank you Mayor.

Mayor: Thank you

King: – very much for coming in to see us today.