Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Announces Indictments Of 23 Alleged Members Of Warring Subsets Of The Crips Street Gang

February 14, 2023

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz: Good morning everyone. Happy Valentine's Day.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning, Happy Valentine's Day.

District Attorney Katz: Well, I appreciate that.

Mayor Adams: How come you didn't say good morning, Mike? Good morning. Happy Valentine's Day.

District Attorney Katz: We'll try that again, Mr. Mayor. Good morning everyone.

Mayor Adams: Good morning, Ms. D.A.

District Attorney Katz: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I want to welcome Mayor Adams. My understanding, Mr. Mayor, is that you may be the first time this office has been graced with the presence of a mayor is my understanding. So we thank you for being here today. We thank Police Commissioner Sewell, who is always here for us, and we thank her for that. Deputy Chief Savino, who is the commanding officer of the Gun Violence Suppression Unit, and Chief of Detectives James Essig. I do want to thank our executive over Investigations, Jerry Brave, and of course John Sennett, in charge of Violent Criminal Enterprises, and all of the A.D.A.s that are standing here with us today. Thank you for your outstanding work in the N.Y.P.D., and particularly of the N.Y.P.D., I'd like to thank the Gun Violence Suppression Unit.

This take down today had to be especially gratifying for the department coming as you mourn the death, and we all mourn the death of Officer Fayaz, a victim of gun violence. And I just want to note him today and make sure that we keep him in our prayers. My condolences, and thank you for your outstanding work, commitment, and courage. It is enormously appreciated. I want to thank my violent criminal enterprise bureau for their outstanding work, collaborating with the N.Y.P.D. partners over the course of this two year investigation. Like I said, I'm joined here by the leadership of those bureaus. We want to thank them for the work they've done in combination with the N.Y.P.D.

The reckless criminality we saw during this investigation is the kind of lawlessness that has killed law-abiding citizens of New York that have been in the crossfire of gang violence in New York. We saw that in the heartbreaking loss of Ms. Vallinas. She was crossing the street in Woodside to go buy milk for her two young children when she was gunned down by a gang member shooting at arrival. Her killing led to the launch of this investigation into the violence between the rival subsets of the Crips in the community. Even though her murder was charged in a separate indictment, we knew that we could not rest there. We knew that we had to address the ongoing violence in that area, and her murder was a symptom of the gang violence and the warring factors permeating between these two gangs in these two housing complexes. As we will demonstrate in court with video evidence, no one on either side thought twice about shooting at a rival on a busy street.

It did not matter that it was the middle of the day, or that small children were present. They fired their guns, bystanders be damned. On June 15th, 2020, for example, Astoria gang members walked into the Woodside housing development and fired at a group of Woodside gang members who were in the courtyard along with other residents, including several small children. A Woodside gang member and an innocent bystander were hit. Similarly, on August 22nd, 2020, Astoria gang members entered the Woodside Houses and shot at gang members who were among the residents and their small children were at the playgrounds and they were on the benches. As residents scattered, including small children on bicycles, the Woodside gang members returned fire. Fortunately in that one incident, no one was injured. It's a miracle that the feud between those two violent gangs has not claimed more lives. Their absolute disregard for the lives of their neighbors and the fellow New Yorkers only strengthens our resolve every single day. The single most important thing we in law enforcement can do to keep New Yorkers safe is to work together to hold criminals accountable for the bloodshed, heartbreak, and misery that they face.

We will fight this plague of gun violence with everything we have on the streets and in the courts. We simply will not relent. As you know from your press release, after a three month grand jury — which by the way was a long-term grand jury at my request which sat solely on this case — we returned an 84 count indictment against 23 of the gang members, and we thank everyone involved in that for their work, especially the detectives that were involved in the investigation every step of the way, and the N.Y.P.D. who goes in, finds these individuals and makes sure that they are held accountable for the crimes that they commit. I would like to now welcome and introduce the mayor of the great City of New York, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much, D.A. Katz. We served together as borough presidents and we knew the impact of gun violence then, and now having you as district attorney and your common sense approach to public safety is a real partnership. We cannot say enough about the teamwork between the Queens District Attorney's Office and the detectives and the members of the New York City Police Department as we pursue those who are the most dangerous among us. Police Commissioner Sewell has made it clear that this is of paramount importance for not only the men and women of the N.Y.P.D. and the district attorneys offices across the city, but for the people in the City of New York. Just look at the numbers. You heard me over and over talk about recidivism. Those who are part of a system that allows them to continue to perpetuate violence on our city. We need to have that collaboration to crack down and take down these groups.

When you're doing an analysis, District Attorney Katz took down a similar dangerous group of people in Queensbridge housing. You saw, immediately after that, a substantial decrease in shootings and in homicides. I believe for a period of time you had no homicides in that area. Partnering with the Crisis Management Teams that were involved in that area, we saw how the progress works and keeps people safe. 23 people. Eight of them had multiple shootings that believe our criminal justice system is something that they they're not taking seriously. And this is why we must pursue those who are dangerously involved in these crimes. They're had a total disregard for the safety of the people who are there. We are going to stop and communicate with the residents on the ground there. They have asked for this of the residents of Queensbridge, the residents of Astoria housing. All of the housing. They're not calling for defunding police. They're calling for protecting police and allowing the police to protect the people.

Gangs plus guns equals graves. And our goal is to be proactive, and not just one gun at a time, but to take down these dangerous individuals who are carrying these guns. These are illegal guns. Even when you color them purple, pink, and lavender, they still discharge death. They are endangering the lives of innocent people in our city, and they have no regard for the safety of the people who live in our city. And we are saying, in the most clear and loudest voice possible, that we are going to use every tool that is available to pursue them and take down the criminal enterprises that are creating the violence and death in our community.

And before I depart and turn it over back to the district attorney, we know of the incident that took place yesterday in Bay Ridge. The police commissioner will be doing an announcement later on today. Our hearts go out to the families. I visited the families in the hospital yesterday, two of the victims, and I visited and communicated with family members of the one deceased. He leaves behind children. He was a single father raising those children on his own. Just a terrible tragedy. And I just want to thank the New York City Police Department for taking appropriate actions to apprehend the driver. But again, D.A., thank you so much for being a great partner.

District Attorney Katz: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Next we'd like to hear from our great police commissioner, the City of New York and the N.Y.P.D. A very welcome sight in Queens County, always here, and we thank her for her involvement in almost every case that we do here in Queens County.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell: Thank you. I too echo the mayor's sentiment. Our hearts are with the families and victims of yesterday's horrific incident. And thank you, Madame D.A., for your kind words about our member who we lost.

Today we are highlighting the work of our Gun Violence Suppression Unit, and the skilled exceptional professionals of the Queens D.A.'s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau. But this critical work is done every day citywide by the hundreds of patrol and investigative units across the N.Y.P.D. The indictments announced today are the direct result of the exceptional collaboration between the Queens D.A. and the N.Y.P.D. These investigations are crucial. The dismantling of these gangs is essential, and as we have seen over the last year, apprehending these criminals is imperative. Together, we are continuing our fight against illegal firearms in our city and against anyone who terrorizes our neighborhoods.

We're here in Queens talking about dismantling these crews and gangs, but we have been at podiums like this over the last several weeks and months, announcing with our partners several takedowns and indictments of other gangs and crews who believe that they too could create a culture of fear in our city. Those who believe that are wrong. We will be back with more cases and more arrests wherever violent criminals threaten our communities.

These are dangerous people and bringing them to justice is a dangerous job. But nobody does that job better than the women and men of the N.Y.P.D. In the face of unprecedented challenges, your officers continue to address unsafe conditions and apprehend offenders in our communities. And your detectives steadfastly work these cases that leads to the success we are reporting today. So thank you to our District Attorney Katz and your entire team for our partnership and the work you do in our collective effort to keep New York City safe. I will now turn it over to the commanding officer of our Gun Violence Suppression Unit, Deputy Chief Jason Savino.

Deputy Chief Jason Savino, Gun Violence Suppression Division, Police Department: And thank you. And I'll share the D.A.'s sentiment, Happy Valentine's to everybody out there. It's a real special day, not only for Astoria and Woodside, but for everybody.

So with that, I have to start with, we all collectively share a vision. What is that? To keep everybody safe. We share a passion, a drive, a desire to keep our neighborhoods secure. And you'll see me reference to saying, "Our," because we're all equal partners. What do we want in our neighborhood? We want to be able to walk freely amongst our peers. That neighborhood feel that just makes everybody feel safe. To live without the fear of gunfire and enjoy a quality of life we all deserve. And today, once again, we have brought this goal even closer. And I'm just so genuinely proud to announce that today our beautiful Queens is just a bit safer with some of the most dangerous individuals in all of Queens now in custody.

But before I go into the investigation, I just want to extend just extreme gratitude to our case detectives, Detective Greg Perpall and Detective Darren McFadzean, whose expertise and dedication towards this mission of reducing gun violence brought us to this day. And I also just have to mention the supervisors of the case, the team leaders, Sergeant Sandy Rodriguez and Captain Ryan Gillis, who along with all our many partners — which I'll ultimately circle back to — just provided such focused guidance throughout this entire investigation.

And just quickly note, we're just so blessed with an entire team at Gun Violence Suppression Division. We love our community. Let me repeat that: we love our community. Our team cares for our community like we would our own family. We take our mission, obligation, and purpose of protecting our members, we take it to heart, we make it personal. So today's announcement is noted and more to come. It shows that our team will remain absolutely relentless in addressing the senseless gun violence. Let's get right into the case.

So actively moving is an investigation addressing several gangs that have committed violence in the northwestern portion of Queens, namely Tru Cash Gettas and 8 Trey Crip set stationed in Woodside Houses as well as King of Queens, G-Squad and Hip Hop Boys, all opposing Crip sets which frequent Astoria Houses. This investigation addressed shooters. As with all of our cases we're talking next level, precision policing where our investigation remained laser focused on trigger-pullers, on those that fire bullets without remorse and without fear of consequence.

23 total subjects. Of those 23 subjects, 18 have been arrested for a shooting-related incident or are being charged with a shooting related incident on at least one occasion. And as the mayor noted earlier, eight of the 23 have allegedly fired a gun more than once. Simply put, these subjects are the alphas of the gangs. The gangs' most threatening members, that small group of individuals that have no problem shamelessly firing guns and endangering our greater public. Every member in the community knows exactly who these individuals are. Why? Because they do everything they can to avoid them, well aware that they can create threatening conditions and potentially place all in danger. And as noted, that includes children.

Let's speak once again to the incident that initiated this case. So in March of 2021, the murder of Ms. Gudelia Vallinas — it demands repeating, 37 years young — she ventured to the store to buy milk for her two children, 11 and 9-years-old. Just prior to leaving, Ms. Vallinas sent a picture to her husband of the food she had just prepared. Now take a moment to think about that. Ms. Vallinas is our American dream whose life was suddenly halted due to gang members recklessly firing bullets with total disregard of anybody around them. Absolutely horrific. I know I've said it many times, but it also bears repeating. Fired bullets have no names. Fired bullets have no names. A theme we've so tragically seen too many times.

Now our beautiful members of Queens deserve to be able to enjoy the beautiful parks, walk along Broadway or Steinway Street without any fear of gunfire. These gangs did all they could to intimidate our streets. And we're all here to say quite proudly, "No more. Criminality does have consequence. And this is exactly what it looks like."

So in all, right now, 16 subjects are now in custody as a result of our investigation. I also want to mention this is one of numerous, numerous takedowns our Gun Violence Suppression Team has initiated and we will never lit up. We will keep our promise and our obligation with the ultimate goal of eliminating gang and gun violence. Lot of kudos around just to make this happen. First, a special thanks to the community that we so proudly serve. Our community, traditionally, these cases have a tremendous impact upon depleting violence. If history repeats itself, and we're quite certain it will, you will experience a better quality of life. You will have that neighborhood feel that you deserve and you will feel safer. We are gracious to be a partner. Thanks to our Queen Squads, that 114 squad and that homicide squad, along with the 114 Precinct and PSA 9 F.I.O.s, Field Intelligence Officers. Our teams have held hands throughout this investigation and have certainly enabled great results.

Our D.A., Ms. Katz, we have stood here before and we will stand here again. You have always dedicated and committed your entire team's partnership. John Sennett, in particular as a godsend, along with Joanna Matuza and Andres Sanchez. Our Chief of Detectives, Jimmy Essig, you created Gun Violence Suppression Division and your mentoring and support has saved lives. What an awesome accomplishment. Our police commissioner, you hold our torch just so proudly and your genuine passion towards keeping this great city safe is so heartfelt. Thank you for being our leader.

And finally, Mr. Mayor, we are absolutely privileged to represent you. Under your guidance, our communities have so much to be thankful for. You have taken policing to the next level. This is why we became cops, to be the gatekeepers of our beautiful city and you enable our teams to do just that. We are honored to serve you.

Now I know that's quite a bit of kudos, but it's also a reminder. If we all work as one cohesive team — and this is especially true during challenging times — if we realize and embrace that we are all pieces to this complex puzzle and we will need every single one of us: N.Y.P.D., our partners and our community, we will continue to curtail this senseless violence. We tackled this mission collectively and as a result, once again, our community is safer. Thank you.

District Attorney Katz: So the message is clear today. The guns will not dictate what happens on our streets. The guns will not be the drivers of what happens on our streets. Look at this team standing up here. You have the mayor of the City of New York, the commissioner of the N.Y.P.D., District Attorney of Queens County, the men and women of the N.Y.P.D., the men and women who serve my office. Pick up a gun, use it in our county, use it in our city, we will find you, we are investigating you and you will be held accountable for those crimes. We've had enough. Thank you very much. I'm happy to open up for questions on topic. I want to just acknowledge my chief assistant, Jen Naiburg, who's here with us today as well. Huge part of all these investigations. Questions on the topic. Frank?

Question: Hi D.A. Katz and Mayor Adams, Commissioner Sewell. This (inaudible) on the indictment happened in this area on the decreased violence in the city yesterday with U-Haul also happened in a busy neighborhood. Did the city's density work against it? And how can people be sure they're not going to be victims of a random crime, random violence?

District Attorney Katz: I'll let anybody else take that who wants to… I can only say this. We are the City of New York. We are busy. That is what we do. We are economically-driven, we are residential-driven, we have people who rely on this city every single day for their safety and for their wellbeing. The N.Y.P.D. is out there every day policing the streets. They will continue to do so. They can speak for themselves. And we will continue to prosecute and hold those accountable that do not let life live on a daily basis in our busy communities. Commissioner, anything else?

Police Commissioner Sewell: I'll add to that actually. In terms of the density, we're talking about a concentrated area where this case was affected. And to your point about yesterday, and I won't go into details about that until later on. We are everywhere. The N.Y.P.D., there's no place we will not go to apprehend those that bring harm to our communities.

District Attorney Katz: And I want to add to what Deputy Chief Savino said as well. Just to put this in perspective for everyone, Astoria and Woodside are 6,000 people. 6,000 people. These 23 individuals are able to wreak havoc every day in the community. Very small amount of people. You use guns, you use gangs, that's what happens. We will not allow it. Sir?

Question: Were any of these gangs using ghost guns? Have you seen an increase in individuals printing these guns?

District Attorney Katz: We have seen an increase in ghost guns, but whether these are…

Johnathan Sennett, Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau Chief, Queens District Attorney’s Office: In this particular case, we did not recover ghost guns and there were no printed guns in this case. In other matters, of course, unfortunately in this county we have already seen 3D printing as far as firearms are concerned.

District Attorney Katz: And make no mistake just because they weren't in this take down, ghost guns are everywhere. And we are trying to get them off the streets as fast as we possibly can and we're being very successful at it as well. You buy a ghost gun, we're probably going to find you.

Question: (Inaudible.)

Mayor Adams: We look alike.

Question: I got a great story about that. How cooperative was the community in getting to these arrests? Were they cooperative? And if so, could you kind of describe what the community involvement was in getting to this point?

District Attorney Katz: I'm going to ask Deputy Chief Savino to take that.

Deputy Chief Savino: Yeah, that's a great question. So as mentioned, these are the individuals that are putting fear really in every resident's heart, if you will. We are engaged with the community in a multitude of ways. A matter of fact, I was part of the mayor's task force, which offered so many different services to our community, engaged the community. And matter of fact, we have a meeting tomorrow in Brownsville engaging the community. Specific to the 114, they asked for this to occur. You have to remember every community member is our next witness, is our next source, are individuals that we are here to protect. These are the people we serve. And we saw that throughout Astoria, and we saw it out throughout Woodside, and as mentioned earlier through the prior cases with Queensbridge as well. So the community is tremendously receptive. They don't want to go home and have to walk around these individuals that place them in danger. They don't want to. And it's something that it's tremendously well received and you see it just walking through, when you get a subtle nod, that means the world to us.

District Attorney Katz: And we have heard from a lot of the community members after the individuals were arrested and after the indictment came down, and they are happy to take a breath. Ms. Kramer?

Question: I have two questions. One for the D.A., and one the mayor. D.A. Katz, I wonder if you could tell us why these two subsets of the Crips split, if there were some reason they split? And if you could tell us what the count was? How many people were shot? How many people were murdered during the course of your investigation?

District Attorney Katz: Well, like the deputy chief said, this was actually started with the murder of a woman going to get milk for her two children. And I'll let the chief go through the actual numbers in the indictment.

Sennett: There are multiple shooting incidents, but there are only seven actual victims, two of whom were innocent bystanders and the others were actual targeted rivals. As to why the violence occurred between these two sets, essentially it was, while senseless, it is personal between them.

Question: Can you tell us your name, sir?

Sennett: My name is Jonathan Sennett. I'm the chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, S-E-double N-E-double T.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I wonder if you can answer this question for me. What message would you like to send to the residents of Astoria housing and Woodside housing other people who move in public housing that deal with the similar gang problem about the significance of this takedown?

Mayor Adams: Well, there was a part of this investigation that also included what I believe is one of the underlying problems, and that's social media. Using those who are using social media to taunt each other and using a version of drill music. And it's not saying all drill music, and I want to be clear on that, but using a version of drill music to taunt and turn into violence. What happens in social media impacts our society and social media, they have yet to grasp what they're doing to our communities. And the message is clear. I mean, when we saw what the Queens District Attorney's Office and the detectives and her office were able to do in Queensbridge, it was astonishing immediately after that take down how it translated into safety. And we want active participation from the residents.

There's an overwhelming amount of violence that surrounds NYCHA housing and it is unfair to the tenants who are there because they too want to live in a safe environment. They don't want their playgrounds cordoned off. They don't want their children to participate in this fear factor. And so when we zero in on these areas, we are saying to them that they are as important as any resident. I think the Detective Bureau has been loud and clear, just the passion of the caring for the people in this residence…

It hurts us. Anyone who has been in policing would tell you how devastating it is to go to a family member, knock on that door and say, "Your child is not coming home". I don't know how many times the commissioner and I have been in hospitals, hearing from family members. It takes a lot out of you. And these gangs, taking them down is the message we want to send to residents over this entire city. We're not going to surrender our streets to violence.

Now, there's a disconnect from the residents and those who state they represent the residents. I have not been to a community meeting, a civic meeting, a block association, a P.T.A. meeting where the residents stated they don't want their police. I have not been in one location where residents said, "Disband, defund, take away from my police". I've heard just the opposite, "Where are my cops? I want my police officers". And there's something that's securing and that's safe. When you see that man and woman in that blue uniform.

Question: So are you saying at this time, the takedown sends a message to the people in the City Council who are saying, especially the Progressive Caucus, who said they want to defund the police?

Mayor Adams: It is a very loud, clear message, and what is interesting is that they're those who say they want to defund the police have been reaching out to us for personal security, have been reaching out to us to get more police in their communities. And I say, well, just as you hold the presser and say "Defund," hold a presser saying that you want personal security and that you want more police in your community. You can't have a public posture and then a private conversation. No, I'm not doing that. If you don't want police in your community, let me know, and I'll tell you the communities that will like yours.

District Attorney Katz: I'd like to remind everybody that out of the 23 defendants, 18 of them — even though it's a conspiracy charge, and I want everyone to recall that too — 18 of them shot a weapon. Eight of them shot the weapons more than twice according to the indictment. I think that's very important to acknowledge. Out of the seven people who were hit with the gunshots, two of them are unintended targets. So I think we all need to keep that in perspective. This is a conspiracy charge because we need to send a message out that gangs cannot be your family, your substitute family. There are other types of activity out there, and if you are in a gang, if using weapons, if you are using guns, unintended people are going to get injured. And even if it's intentional, we are going to come out and investigate and find you. There are many ongoing investigations, and they should actually be aware of that as well

Question: District Attorney Katz, are all 23 defendants currently behind bars? And seven victims, multiple shootings. What is the assurance we give to the public that they're not going to go back to the streets before trial?

District Attorney Katz: So we did the indictment pre-arrest, 16 of them are now arrested. The rest I have no doubt are going to be found by the warrant squad of the N.Y.P.D. and be in custody soon.

Question: I had a question for the mayor. You touched a little bit about recidivism. You've also spoken about bottlenecks….

(...)

Question: Yeah, I'm wondering how elements of this case apply to these larger points that you were making? And is anything about this case going to help you speak to legislators in Albany?

Mayor Adams: I believe that it was just indicated that those who were part of the 23, many had multiple incidents. I believe the number was 18. And just think about it. Some of them were out for shootings, some of them were out for other dangerous crimes, and it just fits into the overall conversation that the commissioner and her team, they have been stating for some time now. We have anywhere from 1,700 to 2,000 people who are committing repeated crimes. They just have a total disregard for the criminal justice system. They don't believe that they are held accountable. And if we zero in on those 1,700 to 2,000, you're going to see a substantial decrease in some of the violence that we are witnessing, and that is my message to the lawmakers in Albany. We have been having great conversations. The governor has been a real partner, and I've been speaking with the leaders and electeds up there so we can zero in on what we agree is the extreme recidivists, they are our problem most wanted, and we must target them.

Question: I don't know if you saw… This is for Mayor Adams. On Monday, The Post's front cover, we reported about how there was more than 170,000 complaints of felony crimes (inaudible) 2006. On Friday, we had a story about shoplifting crimes. It's more than 60,000 complaints. We're just kind of wondering, how does your administration plan to combat the surge, not just a pure tough on crime?

Police Commissioner Sewell: So I think we're all mindful of the fact that while we talk about our shootings are down and our homicides are down, one is too many, right? And we have other crimes that we have to focus on as well, and we're actually doing that. We had a challenging weekend and we recognize that it's not just about the deployment of our resources, and we did move resources to be able to address those concerns as well, but there's a strategy that we have to put in place here. People are concerned about robberies, they're concerned about shopliftings as well because they affect quality of life. So we're tackling those crimes head on, and as the mayor said, we have some challenges, legislative challenges that we're looking at as well. But it comes down to being able to put our officers in the right places. So we're constantly evaluating those strategies and being able to tackle those other crimes as well.

Mayor Adams: And the commissioner and I want to be clear, the responsibility of people being safe in the city, that's our responsibility. And no matter how bad the deck or our hand is, we are not going to abdicate the responsibility. We have to keep the city safe. That is our job. And yes, we have challenges. Yes, we have people with mental health issues. Yes, we have some real challenges in our legislative bodies, but we are not going to say because of those challenges that we can't keep our cities safe.

Whatever hand we are dealt, we are going to drive down crime. We're going to do what we have committed to do, continue to remove guns off the street, dangerous people off the street, partner with our DAs, prosecute. But we know this is our job. The buck stops here, and we are going to defeat those who want to keep us unsafe. Why don't we do a few off topics? Should the D.A. stay to help me with these guys? (Laughter.)

Mayor Adams: How are you, Marcia? 

Question: I’m good, how are you?

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: So there were published reports today about an N.Y.P.D. internal investigation of how the George Floyd protests were handled, and it was very critical of how the N.Y.P.D. manned up, sent people to the various demonstrations. There was a lack of personnel, et cetera, (inaudible). I wonder what your reaction is to that internal report and if you're going to take any steps now to make sure that it never happens again?

Mayor Adams: I haven't read over the entire report and we are going to dig into it because it's about learning from past experiences. I was out there during the George Floyd protests. I walked the streets. I interacted with both sides, those who were protesting and those who were protecting the city. I do know that we were infiltrated by outside agitators who intentionally wanted to disrupt our city, and they attempted to hijack those who wanted to rightfully protest. And so we're going to do an analysis and we're going to learn. That happened prior to my administration, but I know what the former mayor and police commissioner had to endure during those difficult days of what was happening on our streets. There was a combination of those who were peacefully protesting and those who were being disruptive, and some of them for criminal opportunities. What happened on Fordham Road, what happened on Fifth Avenue had nothing to do with George Floyd. You had people who were intentionally trying to use the incident for criminal behavior, and when you have a combination of that, it makes the job extremely difficult. But we will do an analysis.

Question: So are you basically cutting them some slack and saying that the pressure that the multiple demonstrations and the infiltrators and everything else made it difficult to police? Or are there lessons learned about failure to (inaudible.)

Mayor Adams: No, we have to learn our lessons, and we have to get it right. When I say "we," I say N.Y.P.D. We don't get do overs. We don't get rewinds. We have to get it right. And we learn from whatever the internal investigation determine was improperly done. We have to incorporate it into how we move forward the next time. Every layer, you learn how to get it right, to get the perfection that you want. But again, I was on the streets during the protests, and I saw a combination of those who wanted to peacefully protest and those who were professional agitators carrying frozen water bottles, bricks, Molotov cocktails. Those are not people who are peacefully protesting, and we need to be able to distinguish between the two. But I'm going to read through the report, and we are going to make our recommendations.

Question: I saw that you were at a job fair this weekend, and I wanted to ask you about the staffing situation at city agencies. Where do you see yourself and the city making the most improvement as far as staffing? And where do you feel like there's the most room for improvement needed? What agencies are hurting most because of staffing?

Mayor Adams: And a couple of things, I've heard analysis from both the city council and the comptroller's office. We're at, I think, we have an eight percent vacancy rate of, we're around that. The comptroller has a 14.5, and they have remote work and all other options. The City Council has 14, and they too have all these other options. And so, what we are doing, when I learned, when I sat down with DCAS and all of our agencies, we were resting on the historical ways that people were seeking jobs. The people were taking civil service exams, and they were coming to us. There's a pulse shift that you have to go out now and compete. And I'm hearing from all of my corporations, they're all saying the same thing, every corporation across the country are saying that they don't have the manpower. They're looking for work.

And what we must do is now go out and be a competitor. So we had a hiring hall. 800 people showed up, a large number signed up online. We're going to do hiring halls all over the city. We're going to be setting up tables in our colleges and in our high schools. We're going to go and recruit our clergy leaders, our rabbis, our pastors, our imams. We are going to start letting people know the jobs that are available, and we're rolling out some new things in recruitment that the team is going to be rolling out.

We have to go out and recruit people to be part of the joy of civil service. HPD is an area that we need to focus on more. It's imperative that we staff up at HPD. We need to staff up and make sure we get more HRA, our outreach workers. And so, those are two areas that I'm really zeroing in on, because it can impact our housing plan, if we don't continue to staff up. But the crisis is not a New York City crisis. We have to be clear now. To keep hearing everybody report it's a New York City crisis, it's a national crisis of how do we shift to post pandemic work environment.

Question: Is work from home on the table with that calculus and trying to attract people?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. What we are doing is we are sending out a survey to our agencies and we're saying to our agencies come up with creative ways of having flexibility. But when you do it, how do we operate as a team? What do we do for the people who can't work from home? What do I do to my school crossing guard, my nurse, my doctor? What do I do for the police officers? How do we make sure that we don't create a two-tier system where some can work from home and others cannot? So we want as a team to say, how do I look out for my fellow civil servant to say you have to come in, so how do we compensate you in some way? And that is what we need to do.

Question: Oh, well, I had one earlier.

Mayor Adams: Are you surprised that he was going to call on you?

Question: Yeah. (Inaudible) five questions ago. Anyway, while I have you, I was just wondering, it was more related to smoke shops. This past weekend, a man was killed in a smoke shop. A lot of people I spoke to say this is starting to feel like the eighties again. They're starting to see more crime. I know you said crime is down double digits. Is there any sort of effort zeroing in on that, just this past weekend? Is there any more efforts into these communities and specifically smoke shops? A lot of people are saying sketchy people are coming to their communities, specifically to smoke shops.

Mayor Adams: No, and I'm glad you stated that. And I had a conversation with Albany, and here's the problem with the smoke shops. And you're right, we are finding that smoke shops, because they're a cash business, that they are contributing to our robberies. And we knew it was only a matter of time before you start to see it, some of the materializing to shootings. So a police officer cannot go into a smoke shop and take action alone. If he's on his beat and someone is selling cannabis illegally, police officers cannot take action. The marshals and DCWP have different actions that they can take. So if you are selling cannabis, you will get a criminal court summons. You know what the fine is? $25. It's like they're laughing at us. $25, that is not even a sale. So they have weighed the cost of doing business with the cost of enforcement.

And so what we must do is change the enforcement. And that's my ask of the lawmakers, to give the authority to the Police Department to go in, to do inspections, to confiscate. Now we have confiscated a substantial number of cannabis items, illegal cigarettes, flavor cigarettes. We have been taking action, but the ability to enforce is outpacing what we can actually do. And then we have to make landlords accountable. If you are knowingly leasing your space to someone who is selling illegal products, you need to be held accountable also. And we need to look at legislatively how to make that part of the nuisance abatement. And those are my conversations I'm having with the state.

If we don't get this right, we're going to undermine the entire system, and what has happened in Los Angeles and other locations will happen here. We got too far ahead of ourselves in the legalization. It should have been matched with the enforcement, because if the enforcement is a $25, $50 fine, and you're making thousand dollars a day, the shop across the street from us, we raided twice. And their attitude was, "You know what? You're going to give me a $50 fine, a $25 fine? And I'm making that in the first second." Just doesn't add up.

Question: (Inaudible.)

Mayor Adams: The laws don't allow them to do it. Right, right, right. Duh. And we do say duh in New York.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I had a question for you. We wrote about the new Office of Municipal Services Assessment that you created. I had two quick questions for you. One, could you talk a little bit about what you want this office to accomplish? And two, what was the thinking behind putting it under Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and having a member of the N.Y.P.D. oversee the office?

Mayor Adams: Yes, a couple of things. The goal was to inspect our product, and the person who's in charge of it, he has experience in inspections, going out and inspect the product, not to be punitive. Think about it. We don't have any quality assurance of our product. How do we know that, if you are a constituent going in to get a birth certificate, that people are treating you in a humane way? How do we know that? How do we know that, when you walked in and you asked for a birth certificate, that people gave you correct information?

And so, our goal is of that unit is to go in, do visual inspections, do inspections on the product that we're delivering to taxpayers, and make recommendations on how we improve it. And the person who's in charge of that unit has years of doing inspection, not only in police to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but also in how we are making sure the quality of the product that we are receiving. I want to make sure the product that taxpayers deserve, they're actually getting, and you can't do that if someone is not out there seeing what kind of quality assurance are we getting.

Question: Mayor, I believe you mentioned visiting some of the U-Haul truck victims.

Mayor Adams: Some of the?

Question: Victims of the U-Haul truck incident. I wonder if — I may have missed it a little earlier — but can you give any more update on that situation? Still no ties to terrorism?

Mayor Adams: The P.C.'s going to be given a full briefing on that. I think she's doing it around 3. She'll give you an overview. I know that one of the incidents is a real horrific story. A father was raising his children, young children, and he was the one that died in this incident. I visited two of the families at the hospital, and it is a horrific incident. And our office is going to try to be there for the family as much as we can, but it was just really despicable what happened to them. But the police commissioner will be giving an update.

Question: Pretty off topic, but earlier, we were passing around Happy Valentine's Day. Do you have a Valentine?

Mayor Adams: When you say that, what does that mean? Do I have a boo?

Question: Do you have a date tonight?

Mayor Adams: I'm in love with the city, and I will be out making sure that everyone could have a safe Valentine's Day and enjoy it.