Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on ABC-7 to Discuss Paris Terror Attacks

November 13, 2015

Anchor Liz Cho: Joining us on the phone right now is New York City Mayor – Mayor de Blasio. Mayor de Blasio, it's Liz Cho and Bill Ritter. Can you hear us?

Mayor: Yes, I can, Liz.

Cho: Okay. Thanks so much for joining us. Obviously you have been caught up on the situation that is happening in Paris. Can you talk to us right now about how it pertains to New York City and what New York is doing right now to take any precautionary measures?

Mayor: Absolutely, Liz. I've been briefed by NYPD on the situation. Let me just say up front, our hearts are with the people of Paris right now. And I was there in January after those horrible attacks, and we just have to think for a moment about what pain the people of Paris are in right now for this to be happening again in the same year. What I can say is NYPD is of course ready, has already deployed resources to protect the French Mission to the U.N. here in New York City, and the French Consulate, and will be focusing on other sites related to France to make sure they are safe. We have our Critical Response Vehicles on high alert right now to be able to move wherever we need them. There are no specific threats directed at New York City that we know of at this time, but we are monitoring very, very closely the situation with our federal partners and obviously with the folks we have in Paris. NYPD has a liaison in Paris, so we're getting reports directly from our office there. But thank God, at this point, no specific threats directed at New York City.

Anchor Bill Ritter: Thankfully for that, but New York always on high alert, Mr. Mayor. Your police commissioner, Bill Bratton, has talked a lot, as has his predecessor, Ray Kelly, who's joining us right now on the set, by the way – they have talked in the past about the fear and the worry of multiple coordinated attacks – exactly what we seem to be seeing in Paris. Is the police department, is this city, is your administration ready for such an occurrence?

Mayor: Absolutely. Commissioner Kelly, to his credit, put a big focus on fighting terror and developed a very strong apparatus. We have continued to build upon that foundation. As you know, in the last city budget, we added an additional 400-plus officers for our Critical Response Vehicles and for anti-terror efforts. That's building out an already substantial anti-terrorism capacity within the NYPD. We have liaisons around the world in key locations. One thing I can say for sure – the city is on constant alert and we're working very, very closely with our federal partners, with Homeland Security, FBI, etcetera. So we are ready, but every time we see an attack like this it is not only sobering, it's a reminder to be prepared, to be vigilant, and to make sure that we are reenforcing in places where there would be the greatest likelihood of a potential follow-up attack. That's why we're focused on these French government locations here in New York City.

Cho: Mr. Mayor, let me also talk to you about – because we've heard so much today about these soft targets – a restaurant, the [inaudible] Theater, the [inaudible] – what do we think – what can New Yorkers expect to see in terms of taking any precautionary measures towards some of these soft targets that we have here in New York City – and there are a lot of them?

Mayor: I'm sure – since you have Commissioner Kelly there, I'm sure he will talk about the conundrum that all security officials feel, that in an age of ever-more complex threats and certainly in the age of lone-wolf attacks, we know we can't have officers everywhere all the time, when – I think it is logical to focus on the highest-profile locations, but what we can do is constantly do the intelligence-gathering, both locally and in combination with partners all over the world, to look for any potential attack. There's been tremendous success, obviously, thwarting potential attacks on New York City and on the United States because of intelligence-gathering. We can also continue to remind our people to be vigilant. The phrase "if you see something, say something" is always pertinent. And that's one of the things that actually does help to inhibit attacks, and we're trying to do that not only with those broad public reminders, but by building very close relationships in all communities with our police so that if any member of a community sees something suspicious, they know to turn to the police and report it right away.

Ritter: Such an interesting and complicated situation here in New York City. So much of your time spent talking about crime – domestic crime, civilian crime – and then we have this parallel universe, having to be well-aware of terrorists targeting New York, and, as we see, another great large city, Paris. Mayor de Blasio, thank you for taking time, Mr. Mayor, to talk to us tonight.

Mayor: Thank you very much.

Cho: Thank you, Mayor.