Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears Live on Fox 5

June 27, 2022

Lori Stokes: New York's still reeling over the Supreme Court decision overturning a law restricting the carrying of concealed firearms. Mayor Adams says this ruling makes every single one of us less safe from gun violence. The mayor, joining us now, good to have you on once again, Mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, Lori. Good to speak with you. Don't get to see you in the morning anymore.

Stokes: I know. I know, but I'm glad you're here in the nighttime with us. We want to start, we'll go back to the Supreme Court decision, but we want to stay local. Last time you were on the show with at the end of March, we talked about crime in the city. And since then we've seen, in April, that mass shooting on the subway, last month Kyhara Tay, she's 11 years old, who was shot and killed in the Bronx. The other day the promising basketball star, Darius Lee, 21 years old. So many other murders, shooting, injuries across the city. New Yorkers still, still plagued with the crime on a day to day basis.

Mayor Adams: Yes and we're making some enrolls. I was up in the… to the wake today in Harlem, speaking with Darius’ dad. Just a tragic series of events. When you look at what we're doing, as I committed and promised to. April and May, 30% decrease in homicides, 30% decrease in shooting, over 3,000 guns removed from our streets. 3000. When you look at what the Police Department is doing between our subway system, over 460,000 subway inspections. Removing people, what the public has stated, the encampments on our system, 22 people in the first week. 1,700 people we cycled into our safe havens, moving on the pathway to permanent housing. There are clear indicators that we're moving in the right direction. Those high profile issues, Lori, they give the impression that we're not making progress, but we are making progress and we're going to continue. But we do need help from the state, the federal, the city, our courts, our prosecutors, to keep dangerous people off the streets.

Stokes: Mayor, people were shocked when we heard you say you were shocked at just how bad the crime is in this city. You also talked about how you were astounded by the botched deployment of resources. Who do you blame?

Mayor Adams: Well, I didn't say shocked by the crime wave, I knew we had the crime wave. I was shocked during my first month, as I dug into how we were deploying the resources in this city, how bad it was. Now, let's be clear. We have some of the best civil servants in this city providing the services to our city. We have bad systems. We have layered over generations on top of broken systems. If the foundation is wrong, then everything you lay on top of it is going to be wrong. That is why we are going to the foundation and rebuilding those foundations. Like what? Like dyslexia screening for every child. We know that 30, 40% of our inmates in Rikers are dyslexic. So why we keep adding on failing systems that's not going to the root of the cause? And I can go across the board when I'm talking about the depth of how we've been running our cities.

Stokes: The MTA of course, releasing some numbers, both good and bad. Transit patrol planning to enact some… showing some evidence of some progress, particularly with the homeless safety task force, which was instituted three months ago. Yet, there's still work to be done, correct?

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt. We would never surrender to believe we could just rest on our laurels. We get about six transit crimes a day out of the millions of riders, but we're not going to be happy until that six turns into zero crimes a day.

Stokes: I'm also... Let's go back to the high court decision that we first talked about on guns yesterday. Deputy Commissioner John Miller saying that New York could turn into the Wild, Wild East with the number of people allowed to carry guns. You were pretty harsh when it came to the Supreme Court in their decision.

Mayor Adams: Because it's wrong. It is basically stating that we are going to make these rulings based on the historical past, not on the present, and the endangerment of our future. Two days in a row, they ruled on going after our health, our safety, our freedom. Two days in a row they've done this. They have ignored the will of the American people. And two days in a row, which I'm surprised of, that they are using politics over what the principles that this country and this city's looking for. And then to advertise, look what Judge Thomas said, he advertised that we're now going to go after more freedoms. This is unacceptable.

Stokes: Last time you were on, we talked about the iron pipeline. We talked about how it's always been around. There are still illegal guns with men and women carrying them through the streets of New York. What is being done to tackle that? Because it's still out there.

Mayor Adams: Accommodation, and I said earlier last week, that the iron pipeline is no longer going to be I-95, it's going to be the Van Wyck Expressway. It's going to be right here, and that is why I stated that this was keeping me up at night that the Supreme Court was even deliberating on this. But what we must do is adjust. We must utilize the laws within this state, and I'm happy to hear that Governor Hochul is taking this seriously. When I spoke with her, we are going to continue to do what we have been doing. We took 3,000 guns off the street in the month I've been the mayor, and more than that from the last total. So we are going to continue to have our Neighborhood Safety Team, precision policing, going after bad guys. But Lori, let me tell you something, nothing is more disheartening than when you take someone off the street that carries a gun, and you see them back on the street the next day or a few days later. That just makes no sense.

Stokes: I had former Mayor de Blasio on a couple weeks ago and I asked him, "Could he take responsibility for the numbers of homelessness, the crime that we're seeing today, the economic downturn that we've seen?" And he said, "Yeah, he made some mistakes." Have you made some mistakes in your almost seven months now?

Mayor Adams: Well, I am six months in, we're going into the seventh month. He reflected after eight years, give me four years so I can reflect. This is not a state of revisionist right now, this is a state of the seeds we've planted. Give us an opportunity to allow them to nurture and grow. And that's what New Yorkers are saying. 64% of New Yorkers say, "We judge Eric as fair or excellent. Fair, good or excellent." They're saying, "Give the guy a chance," he is turning around historical problems in this city. And I'm excited about what we're seeing, and I have a great team and we're going to turn this city around. We're seeing activity back at Times Square, 350,000 people were there two Mondays ago. We're seeing our hotels are getting back opening. You see, if you are on the streets, you see that excitement returning. Passengers are coming back on the system, so we are excited and we are optimistic about the future of this city.

Stokes: Quickly, before I let you go. There was a saxophonist in the subway. A lot of people just felt that he was being treated unfairly by the NYPD. He did not have a permit, but he was making people happy.

Mayor Adams: Think about this for a moment, Lori. These are the same people that are saying, "Eric, our subway system is out of control. What are you doing about it?" We can't have it both ways, so what happened here? That little clip that you saw wasn't the whole story. The police officers went to him because we received a call of someone blocking traffic and being disruptive. The officers went to him and stated, "Sir, you have to stop." He refused to, they said it several times, "Sir, you need to give us identification." He refused to. They called their sergeant, he refused to listen to the sergeant. So once they took action, he started yelling and screaming to get attention.

Mayor Adams: Listen, you got to follow the rules. That is how our system got in the way that it is now, because no one was following the rules and I'm going to back my police officers. We can't have it both ways. Let's not tell police officers to do a job and then when they do the job, we turn on them and state that they're being heavy handed. They were not heavy handed, they was patient. He was heavy handed and ignoring them. And then he became loud and disruptive to draw attention that something was wrong. Those officers took the right action and I'm proud of the action they took.

Stokes: Mayor Eric Adams, never a dull moment with you, sir. Thank you for being on the six o'clock news.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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