Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Public Safety-Related Announcement

May 16, 2023

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvK-6dIM2A

[Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez speaks.]

Mayor Eric Adams: Well done, well done. The clear layout of a well coordinated effort that we see the district attorney's office and the New York City Police Department. People often talk about the alliances that violent gangs bring together. Let's be clear, we have an alliance of our own. It is the coordination of both these offices of the men and women who are here understanding that if we focus on the small number of extremely violent people who have made up their mind that they will continue to do violence no matter what happens. Doesn't matter if they reach fame and fortune, they're going to use that fame and fortune to enhance their ability to have access to dangerous guns. 21 guns. It's not for a 21 gun salute. 21 guns to shoot our neighborhoods and our families in a total disregard for everyday New Yorkers who are walking our streets. The intersectionality of what we have been talking about for some time is revealed in this case.

This is a textbook case of all of the mechanisms that are being used. I strongly believe that TikTok is a ticking bomb when it continues to use and exploit inner city conflicts to promote violence. When you have millions of views, young people are listening and watching the views and there's a duplication of the behavior that is spreading like a cancer throughout our communities. It is not specifically drill music itself. It is those individuals who are using any platform to promote retaliatory violence and that is what we are seeing over and over again, and all of us should be alarmed. We have communicated several times to our various social media platforms and stated that there is a moment of responsibility that comes with the impact that social media has on all Americans in general, but specifically on young people.

If it's a Kia car challenge, if it's young people doing challenges and burning themselves, 85 percent of their bodies, or if it's what we saw today using the platforms to assist in criminal behavior and reaching hundreds of millions of people that are already dealing with some very dark moments when we look at post pandemic. Cannot thank the DA enough and the team that's here. We saw several years ago immediately after major gang takedowns, we witnessed a substantial decrease in the shootings and violent crimes. We've done a great job of removing close to 9,000 guns off our streets. We've seen a double-digit decrease in homicides. We've seen a decrease, double-digit decrease in shootings, a decrease in homicides. But if we continue to have this and as we saw, the brand new guns are waiting, we are constantly having to catch up. When you match the ready accessibilities of guns and those who are willing to use them anytime and anywhere in a very coordinated effort, you saw the sophistication of blocking off streets, targeting people, plotting out for months, the vicious beating in the cemetery, they're dangerous people.

They're dangerous people, and it's a small number of them. They're repeated recidivists that as soon as you let them out, they're back on our streets. We can have it. We are not going to give up. We are not going to surrender our streets to violence, and that is proven today about the real alliance that matters, and that is this district attorney's office and the New York City Police Department and all of the innocent people that live in this city that are applauded today that we removed dangerous people from their neighborhoods. Again, district attorney, thank you very much.

[Police Department Chief of Detectives James Essig and Deputy Chief Jason Savino speak.]

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez: Are there any on-topic questions?

Question: Can you explain for us, articulate for us how specifically orchestrating that violence benefit [inaudible]? Here's a guy that really didn't have to do this, he had tons of life. How did that benefit him?

District Attorney Gonzalez: Well, I think in general, as Chief Savino said, gang life is all encompassing and he was involved in gang life since being a young man. And the influence that he had over the gang is something that I believe gave him and his family pride. It's hard to understand, but as the gang got more influence, it was a source of pride for him.

But I'll let the Chief answer that more specifically. But this is something that we continue to see is that people who could exit gang life choose to continue to stay active in the gang life. And ultimately when you have the amount of money and influence in the community that these rappers had, they actually make the gang more powerful because people want to join to be around them. They're famous.

Jason Savino, Deputy Chief, Gun Violence Suppression Division, Police Department: Yeah, and that's a great question. That's something that even we consider and we kick around. To tell you the truth, there's no straight answer. What I can tell you is throughout our investigations, we see this repeatedly where individuals are up and coming, doing well, but they refuse to leave that gang life. And once again, I mentioned earlier, Sheff G, 42 million views, predominantly before he went into jail on guns.

So he's trending, he's making bones for himself, he has the respect of the entire neighborhood and is feared by others. And a lot of individuals let that dictate their actions and they just cannot give up the gang life. We have seen it successfully and we applaud it. There's tremendous programs out there. I was part of the Mayor's task force. There's venues for individuals, but you have to give up the gang life, otherwise this is the consequence.

Question: Yeah. Eric, can you talk about the gang expanding their territory? Are they doing this to sell drugs or is it just about violence [inaudible].

District Attorney Gonzalez: It's a little bit of everything. There is obviously… Narcotics are increasingly being sold, but often it's about their own safety. By forming these alliances, they're allowed to travel into neighborhoods that they probably could not travel safely if they were ops within the organization.

Now that's the benefit to them. The downside is that they also then take on their alliance's enemies. So it expands the number of people who are now shooting on site. We see a lot of financial fraud in these gang activities and quite frankly, I think many of these gangs are moving more and more towards bank fraud, financial crimes, and even cryptocurrency fraud.

Question: For the mayor, if you don't mind. Mr. Mayor, I'm noticing in this case, when you're speaking about the defendants, you're condemning their actions, speaking to how dangerous they are. It strikes a contrast with how you spoke about Daniel Penny and kind of you avoided talking about the specifics of his case. You specifically said you have avoided doing that because you're concerned about tainting the prosecution. Why are you not concerned about tainting this prosecution? What's the difference?

Mayor Adams: Chris, thank you for your question and let's stay focused.

District Attorney Gonzalez: Any other questions?

Question: I know that you made a point of saying that no rap lyrics were used in connection with this indictment. Can you talk to me about the importance of making that distinction?

District Attorney Gonzalez: Well it's a hot issue whether or not courts and prosecutors should be allowed to use rap lyrics to help prove their cases in court. I obviously think that those decisions should be left to a judge after weighing the probative value of the lyrics. We see with drill rap and with other music that there are actual threats to name people made.

But I wanted to be very clear for those who have those concerns that none of the lyrics used in this case. And if you go on and you listen to either Sheff G or Sleepy Hallow, clear references to gang retaliation and actually mention of some of their rivals in the songs. None of that was used as evidence. None of that was presented to the grand jury in terms of our case. So this is just based on the investigation, the fine investigation conducted by the police department using surveillance and social media and text messaging and appropriate use of recovered cell phones and of course the guns, right? Because the guns also tell a story.

And we should say, I didn't mention this, but there was a member in the gang who seemed to be one of the prominent traffickers of guns. He would go down, I believe it was South Carolina, if that's correct. He would go down to South Carolina and repeatedly bring guns back. A number of the guns he purchased legally in South Carolina, legally in the sense that he had some kind of ID in South Carolina were recovered in short order. So that iron pipeline is present in this case.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Savino: We have seven outstanding individuals. We also have a warrant squad, a regional fugitive squad along with our Gun Violence Suppression Division that are actively seeking those individuals. We're making arrangements as we speak, but that's about as far as I can go into it.

District Attorney Gonzalez: You should turn themselves in.

Savino: Yes, it's a great point. If you are out there, if you're out there, now's the time. Now's the time. Come see us. If not, we'll come see you.

Question: When we finish any other [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Yeah. First of all, they have done a Herculean job. The part of our success of driving down shootings are those who are able to stop the retaliatory shootings and we are now going to roll out with Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and AT Mitchell from Man Up the next phase of how we are going to utilize our violent interrupters.

We believe there's a broadest plan of being more proactive and they are excited about these new changes and how we are going to really partner more with the police department and ensure that we can prevent some of these cases and connect people to some of the services that they need. Those who are on the peripheral, but also zero in on those who are the violent ones. These gangs, when you look at these gangs, they are shooters, they're extremely violent people, and then there's a body of people who are just caught up in the aura of it. We need to save those so that they don't go down the pathway of violence.

Question: Yeah, I was [inaudible]. Get a little more, I guess, detail about it. Where was it? [Inaudible.] How did you get into it [inaudible].

District Attorney Gonzalez: I wasn't invited to the dinner, but it is a fine Manhattan steak restaurant, which I'm not going to give the name of the restaurant. But it was a fine restaurant, expensive restaurant. I've been there once in my life and food is very good, but it's recorded. Our young people, and these aren't the youngest of the young people, but our young people record everything. And so there's a celebration. It was centered around the score of hitting the rival, the Folk Nation rival's Hawthorne address with…. That's the mass shooting when the six people were shot and they celebrated the score.

There's really not much more to say other than it is how in part Sheff G and Tegan Chambers, Sleepy Hallow assert influence. Right? Because they take people out and they're able to spend money and they're able to encourage others to do some of the gang violence that's just critically important to them and their status in the community.

Mayor Adams: In response to your question about Bill. Bill transitioned today. I spoke with his wife. He was a very dear friend. We served together in the state senate. We would ride back and forth from Albany on a train together. And I just have so many fond memories of a person who dedicated his life on uplifting people and fighting for justice.

He had a very balanced approach. He would feel extremely comfortable standing here to talk about ridding guns from his lovely village of Harlem. And he was also very proud to stand up the fight on behalf of those who were wrongly accused like the Central Park Five. He has a very rich history and legacy and we lost a very strong, committed fighter for justice in the city. I wish his family well and I'm going to miss him again. He was a very dear friend. Thank you.