The following is a transcript of an interview with New York City Mayor Eric Adams that aired Sunday, April 3, 2022 on “Face the Nation.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: Now let’s move on to the impressive increase in violent crime, and fighting this increase is one of the top priorities for the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. A pleasure to have you in the studio.
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS: Thank you. It’s good to be here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: New York City has the highest number of shootings in a decade, with an increase of more than 40% in homicides in the last two years. You have some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Where do all these weapons come from?
MAYOR ADAMS: That’s a big question, and in my conversation with the president and chief of staff yesterday, we talked only about the flow of weapons through our inner cities. A few days ago, I was in Chicago with Mayor Lightfoot, who last year pulled thousands of guns out of the street. And here in New York, we are doing the same. We really need to have a combination. We must stop the flow of weapons. But we also have to do the work of removing weapons from the streets we have now. And my anti-gun unit, they’re doing it. A few weeks later, they took more than 20 weapons out of the street. But this is the interesting figure: 70% of those who carried weapons had previous violent crimes. So we have to combine with this small number of people carrying guns with the large number of guns on our street and both get out of our street.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you know that acknowledging that and having some of the toughest gun laws in the country will get critics to say, well, look, it doesn’t matter if you have strict gun laws.
MAYOR ADAMS: Well, I tell the critics, go visit that 13-year-old boy who was shot yesterday while sitting in the back of the car. We need to stop criticizing good and proper law enforcement with the right proactive things to keep guns out of the hands of young people. And this is the combination we will make.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So why don’t the laws work?
MAYOR ADAMS: For several reasons. We have a small number of arms dealers who are just suffering from the law. We are dealing with the problem of ghost weapons. It is imperative that we create clear messages about ghost weapons and the equipment that mounts them. And I think Washington will. We then need to invest money in the ATF so that they can share the information properly so that we can identify the flow of weapons to the nuclei of cities. And that’s what we’re doing in New York with our combined efforts of all law enforcement agencies.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Looks like you’re waiting for more executive action or orders from the president to do this because nothing will happen in Congress.
MAYOR ADAMS: Well, it’s a combination. I think executive orders are crucial. But while we’re waiting for the president and the White House to continue doing the good things they’re doing, I have to do the things we need to do on the ground in New York City, and that’s what we’re doing. My officers are raising quality of life issues and we are focusing on dangerous gangs and those who shoot cats and carry guns.
MAYOR ADAMS: I want to ask you that. You said quality of life. It is the application of quality of life. You yourself have been quite critical of previous mayors when they have used known tactics such as broken windows, oh, chasing these kinds of crimes on a smaller scale. Quality of life includes crimes that are precursors to violence: selling marijuana, urinating in public, things like that. Aren’t these the same zero-tolerance policies that have been exploited in the past and caused civil rights violations?
MAYOR ADAMS: Well, I’m glad you pointed out the story, because this is my brutal and abusive police fighting story. You can have the justice we deserve with the security we need. That’s what we’re talking about when we say quality of life – not allowing someone to walk into a store, stealing what they want, and then going out, skipping turnstiles, not paying the subway fare. Many of the criminals are actually entering the subway system without paying the fare and committing crimes. We found out in the mid-nineties and early nineties, but also looking only at open drug use, injecting heroin into our parks in front of our children, loud noise, just being messy. Some of the things we do around the camps. You don’t have to use the police to remove the camps from our city as we are doing. We are doing a combination of social services, giving people the dignity they deserve. That’s what we’re talking about, cleaning up our streets and making sure we don’t get in a mess.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But whatever you’re saying, no one is for these things. But they are concerned that this is just a backup of the broken windows theory, that you are doing the same things, but re-labeling it.
MAYOR ADAMS: Well, I think it’s important for people to say, well, let’s see who is implementing the proper use of quality of life treatment. Eric Adams, I was a leading voice who testified before the federal court about the excessive use of police tactics. I am now in charge of this police department, and I know how we can run a police department with a great police commissioner, Commissioner Sewell, where we will make sure we have no clutter in our city, where we will legally show people that this is a city where quality of life is important.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you said things like you wouldn’t tolerate viewers being on top of police officers filming their activities. Aren’t public reports, eyewitnesses like this, exactly what stopped or at least exposed the rapes, like the murder of George Floyd? Isn’t this kind of public information important?
MAYOR ADAMS: That’s right. And let me tell you what I’ve done over the years. I did something called “What to do when the police stop me,” how to film the police, how to do it right. Nothing is more dangerous than if a police officer fights someone who has a gun and you have someone by your side recording that interaction. This is extremely dangerous. This agent does not know who is behind it. Many days I struggled with individuals carrying weapons or knives, and I had people lifting me up with a camera. This is extremely dangerous because you do not know what you have. So what we’re saying in New York is cinema. In the case of Eric Garner, the young man filmed at a safe distance. It did not interrupt or interfere. This is like movies. Do not endanger yourself or the police officer who is taking action.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Mayor, thank you for your time today.
MAYOR ADAMS: Thank you. Good to see you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be right back.
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