Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Call in to 1010 WINS

October 21, 2022

Brigitte Quinn: And we begin this Friday edition of Newsline with your safety. Mayor Adams is holding a public safety summit at Gracie this weekend, and our Juliet Papa spoke with his honor this morning. Juliet, joining us live on Newsline, and Juliet, I know you got to talk to him about a whole bunch of issues, including migrants.

Juliet Papa: Yeah, that's right, Brigitte. We did speak one-on-one with him and we touched on a lot of things. But first let's get to the summit, which he announced today. He wants all in at the table, law enforcement officials, community leaders, district attorneys. He wants those who agree and disagree with policies, and he wants to find common ground and solutions to rising crime and the fear and unease of New Yorkers. Now, he also updated me on a setup at Randall's Island because it looks like not as many asylum seekers are arriving here. So let's listen in now to an extended portion of my interview with Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: I'd say over and over again that there are many rivers that feed the sea of violence in our city and we need to look at each river. It includes the bottlenecking of our criminal justice system. What laws are impacting us? What can we do better as a law enforcement entity? By bringing all of us in the room, those who have criticized our policies, supported our policies, let's get around the table and see what we do together to reach one common ground. And that's making sure New York is safe from actual crimes and feeling safe based on some of the things we are seeing around those who are in emotional crises right now.

Papa: Yeah, talk about that. Yesterday I covered the assault in the subway, the guy with the sheath of a sword attacking a passenger. And so many people there were telling me that there are so many mentally ill in the subway and frankly on the street. So how will the summit address this? How do you want to address this as the mayor? What can be done to help the mentally ill?

Mayor Adams: That is so important because when you look at the common denominator of many of these incidents, it is dealing with those who are dealing with mental health illnesses or dealing with crises. If it's pushing someone on the train, if it's attacking an individual like Lieutenant Russo who was murdered, you keep hearing the same thing. Mental illness, mental health. And our goal is to examine that. What we need to do to put teeth in Kendra's Law, what we need to do to have early warning signs. How do we give those with mental health illnesses community healthcare, and those who can actually give them the support, what's called the clubhouse model that we believe in.

We can't ignore the small number of those with mental health illnesses that are carrying out very violent acts and have created this spirit of uncertainty and this feeling of crisis that people are experiencing right now.

Papa: Yeah. I know you talk about perception, but there is perception of feeling unsafe. There is sort of a breakdown of civility on the streets, people running into Duane Reade and stealing stuff, and just with impunity. How do you address that perception and make people feel safe while trying to tamp down crime when these lawbreakers are back out doing it again and again?

Mayor Adams: That is a great, great question that you raised and that is what I'm educating New Yorkers about. When we are doing these quality of life initiatives, making sure people don't evade the fare, making sure people don't steal things in stores, or just outwardly disregarding their fellow neighbor, they crack down on ATVs and illegal license plates. There's a reason we're doing these quality of life initiatives because it leads to a total disruption and abandonment of the public safety that we're looking for. Our goal is to continue to do that.

Now this weekend, we're going to talk with our partners on why we're doing these initiatives and why we can't let those small numbers of repeated offenders continue to inflict this level of uncertainty and disorder in our city. Because we can bring down the numbers all we want. We have a decrease in homicide, decrease in shootings. We have an increase in police response, up 47 percent in arrests in the subway system. Those things are great, but if we don't match the actual crime decrease with New Yorkers feeling safe, then we're going to fail. I have to do both. Bring down crime and create a climate where New Yorkers are feeling safe again.

Papa: Okay. Let's talk about Randall's Island, the operation there for asylum seekers. I know you've set up for hundreds of people. Right now there seems to be a handful. Do you expect more? What's the expectation there now? Things have sort of slowed down. Is that just a temporary situation or what?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, I'm happy as heck we only have a handful of people. We were really concerned. We had an unpredictable governor. We had a mayor in El Paso that was sending anywhere from ten buses a day to New York. It was predicted that we could have 100,000 people here. We did what we've always done. We didn't panic. We were prepared. We came with a multifaceted plan. One was to make sure that we could address our legal and moral obligations of housing people in the city. The second was to speak to the federal government and have a decompression strategy. We were hoping that they would listen and they did.

Now we're seeing a small amount of buses. The mayor of El Paso communicated with our office that he won't be sending any more buses. So we were prepared. We didn't panic. This is how we respond to crises in the city. We did it with COVID, we did it with monkeypox, and we're doing it now with the migrant issues. So if it comes down to no one using the tent, the HERRC up at Randall's Island, I am extremely pleased because that shows the second phase of our plan has been successful.

Papa: Now, do you think there would come a time when you would dismantle it or would you use it for other purposes?

Mayor Adams: Well, during the time that we have it now, we're looking to eventually dismantle it. It was there to serve the purpose. It was like insurance based on the unpredictable behavior of what was happening in Texas. We're going to use the tent now for other means. We'll use the HERRC for other means right now. If it fills up, we will have it there. But we see dismantling. It is not something that we need permanently, and it's going to save taxpayers' dollars in the process.

Quinn: All right, Julia. Boy, you two covered a lot of ground there.

Papa: Yeah and in fact we could go on and more of that will be on 1010wins.com for anyone who wants to listen to the rest of that. And the questions remain too. What about people in the shelters, the families and the migrants that have been in the shelters? Where are they going to go? What is the more permanent setup for them, and for the kids in the schools? And also the New Yorkers that are in homeless shelters? Well, I was curious to know whether he was going to be using some of these tents for that purpose as well. I really have to wonder how long those things are going to stay there and if they will be dismantled. I think that remains to be seen, Brigitte.

Quinn: In particular, if only a few people are there. All right. Juliet Papa, more throughout the hours right here on Newsline. Juliet with that one-on-one with Mayor Adams.

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