Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Mayor Eric Adams joins us now for the first time since taking office on this day after President Biden came to New York to meet with the mayor about gun violence. Well, first of all, Mr. Mayor, are you there? Do we have the line connected?

Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, I am. How are you? Good to speak with you.

Brian Lehrer: Same here. This is the first time I get to call you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, thanks for some time today, after a packed 24 hours for you, and welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. It's always good to speak with you.

Brian Lehrer: Before we get into the specifics of your meeting with the President, on your first month in general, many commentators, maybe you've seen this coverage, have been saying the events that you've had to deal with have been happening so fast, you haven't been able to have a honeymoon period. Well, I say, never mind a honeymoon period, you didn't even get to have a wedding. You had to cancel your inauguration ceremony because of Omicron, and then all these headline crimes, and the fire in the Bronx, and the weather, how's it felt to start out with a January like the one we had?

Mayor Eric Adams: Very interesting that you're asking that question because there is no feeling of overwhelmedness. There's a feeling of sadness because I lost two amazing young people that were police officers, Officer Mora and Rivera. You never want to see violence in the city where 11-month-old babies are shot sitting next to their mothers, and the six officers that were shot, and the countless number of others.

There's a sadness whenever I respond to these incidents. My life has been responding to incidents and crises and bringing people together. I am not overwhelmed. I know I have a big job ahead of me, and I'm prepared for that job. Every day, I wake up knowing we're going to get through this as New Yorkers.

Brian Lehrer: Maybe you are having a honeymoon period because I saw that poll that came out this week from Siena, and your first-month job approval rating is 63%, so that's pretty good. In the time we have, I don't want to ask you all the same questions you got asked at your news conference after the President left, those answers are out there. Let me try something different.

I saw you say people should read your whole Blueprint to End Gun Violence to understand the balance of public safety and justice in there. I can say I did read the whole plan. It prints at 15 pages, by the way, listeners, for anyone interested in holding a hard copy. Let me ask you about a few things from it, Mr. Mayor. It includes adding more detection efforts at city entry points for illegal guns being trafficked up through the iron pipeline, how will that work? Is it like spot checks at bridges and tunnels and Penn Station or Port Authority, or how will that work?

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, it's clear, and we speak with our law enforcement experts, they shared with us that the Greyhound, the bus terminal is one of the favorite ways to transport guns here. I know when I travel abroad, or even in the subway systems, believe it or not, people do spot checks, random spot checks, to determine if someone is carrying an explosive device. If we're doing that for a bomb, then we should be doing it for bullets and guns. It's just a periodic check. We're not going to profile people, but it just sends the message that we're just not an open door to those southern states that are transporting guns to this city. It's done already in our airports, it's done already in the subway stations. When I go abroad, countries do that already to keep their citizenry safe, and there's no reason we are not doing it.

Brian Lehrer: The blueprint also includes using new technology to identify people carrying guns, and I assume that would be an aspect of not going back to Bloomberg-style stop-and-frisk to find guns. Can you describe the technology a little bit?

Mayor Eric Adams: Technology must match public safety within the civil liberties that we have. There is amazing technology out there right now that's not as intrusive such as the searching people when they walk in schools. Some of those are really intimidated devices that you see. There are non-descript technologies that are available that would allow you to determine based on mass and other specifics.

My team actually, right now, is meeting with some of the individuals that produced this technology nationwide in an international community to determine how to use technology to go after those who carry illegal weapons. We are to bet, 100% legal, no one is going to violate civil rights because I fought too long to prevent the city to have non-violation of civil rights, and I'm going to continue to do that. We do need to upgrade our use of technology to help detect guns and make sure that they are not on our subway system and other places where young people and families are located.

Brian Lehrer: How about the summer youth jobs program for this year, Mr. Mayor, as an alternative to the temptation to gang activity in the summer? The blueprint cites 250,000, that number, young people who would be out of school and out of work. Do you have a number yet for how many the city will be able to afford to employ?

Mayor Eric Adams: I'm glad you mentioned that because you never hear people when they talk about my plan. They don't talk about the preventive measures because public safety's intervention prevention, and we've outlined some real issues that we want to do that's really unique, and no one knows it better than a person that has gone through a life of looking for that summer youth employment.

We are crunching the numbers now. I'm meeting every day with OMB, my Office of Management and Budget, but we're also asking our corporate leaders to do the same, 100% paid internship program for every child that wants a job. I think that is the best way to give back. We've gotten a lot of interest from our corporate leaders. Kathryn Wylde has been amazing over at the partnership, and we're going to continue to map this out that we can employ our young people, give them alternatives, so they don't have to spend time just hanging out on corners or being lured into illegal behavior.

Brian Lehrer: One more, and this might be the last thing for now, because I know you're going from thing to thing today, and we just have a few minutes. You say all the time, and I want you to know that I hear it and people hear it, you hope that people will hear you that you were both for public safety and justice, meaning not the bad old days of racist policing and judging even as you crack down on guns in ways that some people are pushing back on.

I read the part of the blueprint where you said if you go to a dangerousness standard for jailing people before trial, you would collect data to see if judges are doing it in a racially biased way. Can you say something about how you would prevent biased views of dangerousness if you get to that standard that you propose?

Mayor Eric Adams: That's so important what you said, Brian, because I've been on your airwaves for many years. People have watched me throughout the years as the person who was formerly arrested and beat by police, went into the police department to fight for justice and safety, and then becoming a borough President, and state senator, and continue to fight that. People don't realize that I was a co-sponsor of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. I was the co-sponsor of so many bills that changed the way we police and how we use public safety. I know based on the failures of the past, how our criminal justice system was unfair, was biased. In some cases, it was racist.

What we must do is use the data on those judges that are not fairly using the dangerousness standards to retrain them or to use my power as appointed criminal court judges to determine they're not suitable to sit on a bench. The totality of my life has prepared me for the moment that New Yorkers need right now, but if you don't take a real deep dive in my future and a deep dive in where I came from, then you don't fully understand the wholeness of what I have done in this city as a public safety advocate, but a reformer for how we treat people in the city.

I was painted during the election as the person that did not have a history on fighting for reform when others were not anywhere near prisons during that time, but people are going to realize that I'm the best person for this time to have that perfect balance of being safe in our city, and also having the justice that we deserve.

Brian Lehrer: Are you in the weeds on that enough to give us an example of the kind of data on judges that you would use because like we had State Senator Michael Gianaris on the show, he would be an important person to approve that proposal? He said, judges, when they're looking at the dangerousness of a suspect, they tend to be racially biased.

Mayor Eric Adams: We have 49 states right now that they are allowed to use dangerousness. If you look at a judge, you keep the data, we partner, and with the court system here, the chief judge is really open to make sure this data is collected correctly. Remember, lawmakers can write into law of the requirement to give this information and turn this information over. This is something within our span of control. We can analyze that data, do a cross-analysis of the types of crime people were charged with and see if we are being racially biased, and then immediately zero in on that judge to take appropriate action. This is not difficult to do. It's within our span of control. All of this data is collected now. Now, and let's use it to make sure we have a fair court system.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, thanks for coming on today. I love to stretch out and go deeper on some of these things and the listeners would love it too. You know you're invited to come back soon, and thanks again for today.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Well, I'm not going anywhere for the next four years, so we have a lot of opportunity to do so.

Brian Lehrer: Good. Looking forward to it. Thanks again, Mayor Eric Adams. Listeners, we'll take your calls now for your own impressions of Mayor Adams' first month in office. Is he concentrating on the right issues from this interview or anything else you have heard or seen or read? What do you think of his Blueprint to End Gun Violence? Stephanie in Manhattan is going to be first on an issue the mayor hasn't been talking much about yet. Hi, Stephanie, you're on WNYC.

Stephanie: Yes. Hi, thanks for taking my call, appreciate it. I just was commenting to your screener that what I haven't heard is what is getting my attention, and it's the absence of radio silence on, of course, the issue of our lifetime, which is climate change. Then related to that are the quality of life issues, which for residents of Manhattan, obviously, include garbage, rats, et cetera, where the absence of recycling, predominantly in absence of recycling, and then, of course, the issue of helicopters, the noise pollution and the jet fuel pouring down on our heads all the time.

Brian Lehrer: Stephanie, did you see the mayor did this week roll out appointments for his climate team? They're all people who've worked in city government before. I wonder if you're in the weeds enough as somebody concerned with climate to know who those people are or have an opinion if he's putting a good team in place who could get serious.

Stephanie: No, I did not hear that. If that happened, I stand corrected if he did mention that. I guess I'm just worried that with the guns and violence issue, which admittedly is a quality of life issue, don't get me wrong, that some of these other issues, which also matter, are falling off the agenda and also falling off the media plate.

Brian Lehrer: Stephanie, thank you very much. Layla in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Layla. Thanks a lot for calling up.

Layla: Hi. I'm glad to be able to catch this segment because, again, I want mayor Adams to do well, even though he wasn't my first or second, or even third choice in ranked trap voting. I was glad to see that he started off with safety in January, but I'm just troubled that there hasn't been any mention of the case, the Supreme court case, which might change the dynamics of concealed carry in the city and how that dynamic affects gun violence in our city-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Oh, he is very much on the side. I have heard him comment on this. I know it's not been front and center, but he's definitely on the side of not allowing the concealed carry permits from Texas, say, to be valid in New York.

Layla: That's good to hear. Then also, I've read the plan, and one of the reasons why he wasn't on my first choice as far as the rank choice was because it seems most of his plan is more the same. We've always had summer youth employment programs, and that's never really stopped gun violence among young youth in our city, so I don't see how he thinks more the same of that will help. I get that it was stopped due to the pandemic, and it needs to happen. You need to have some youth employment, but as an impetus for stopping gun violence, I'm not sure that's this thing that really will help.

As someone who lives between two gangs, our block sees a lot of gun violence in Brownsville, and so most of this stuff he's been naming, violence interrupters, I'm not sure if that can be scaled up to a size that's of noteworthiness in the city as big as ours because many gangs that are operating in the city and has many clicks within those gangs, where a lot of the violence come from.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, violence is a huge issue. What would you like to see him do?

Layla: Again, I think this is a hard problem, particularly for a very major city. Again, being in the city since 9/11, we've had difficulties stopping just terrorism attacks. We've had the Chelsea bombing post 9/11, they brought that in through a van through one of the tunnels. We've had the subway attempted bombing. Again, he's like, "Oh, we just keep doing more the same."

I wanted to see something more dynamic. I wanted to see something that expanded on Bloomberg's I-95 Corridor, which he's now calling this iron pipeline, seems like, of getting the regionalization, but it seems it's just more of what Bloomberg tried. Again, I thought when Bloomberg tried that, even though I wasn't a fan of Bloomberg in some ways, that seemed like a new way of trying to get around the conversation of bringing in the federal government and making them do more for our problem in the city, and so I thought that it was noteworthy in a policy speed, I just don't see that coming from Adams.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like more that hasn't been effective. Layla, thank you. Please call us again. Nita in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nita.

Nita: Hello.

Brian Lehrer: Hi there. You're on.

Nita: Am I on?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, you are on.

Nita: Oh, okay. Wow, I can't believe it. I was trying to write notes so that I can be precise. Anyway, Brian, I was just listening to the young lady, and just to piggyback on what she was saying, I think that the policies that Mayor Adams is discussing now are policies that he wanted to implement. Anyway, it's just that these unfortunate tragedies are convenient to him and these other programs that he mentions like the ones the young lady just mentioned and the most social, whatever, are to me, make him sound more reasonable and more balanced. Let me just see. Afraid of potential. You see, I get nervous when I get on. Afraid of potential, more harmful than the-- okay. Basically, I'm more afraid of-- I live in Harlem, and of course, I want safety, like most people want, but I'm more afraid of the potential harm to Black men and women than to these people.

Brian Lehrer: You're more afraid of the police than the criminals on balance.

Nita: Yes. My frustration is that Mayor Adams, he focuses on himself, "I'm a good guy. I'm a fair guy." What if he gets hit by a car tomorrow? For whatever reason, he might not be a mayor, then what's going to happen? Then I don't hear the pushback. He's just allowed to go on and on about what he will-- there's no acknowledgment of the systemic racism in the police department and in every institution in New York and America.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you a follow-up question because he would say, I think, that the reason he talks about himself and his past is because he's been the one in the police department leading the charge, calling out racism within the police department and some of the other things that he's done, and so he wants a little running room from the public to see if he can actually bring more effective policing and more just policing, and he talks about things like this new anti-gun force in some of the precincts that I mentioned that they're not going to be plainclothes in the old way. They're not going to be fully uniformed, but they're going to be identified somewhat as NYPD. He says, "Give them a chance to do it different." Do you think it can be done differently?

Nita: I think more than policies, it's what's in people's hearts when it comes to police officers dealing with these Black men and other men of color knowing what happened in the past. I don't think that mayor can-- it's not just he's against it, he wants to lower the age of the youth, how they're charged as adults. He doesn't agree with the bail laws.

Brian Lehrer: If they won't say who gave them the gun.

Nita: It's a pattern of all the things that people have bought for because of justifiable reasons that he wants to change. He's scary to me, and he's being backed. He's being backed. He certainly isn't being backed mostly by African Americans, which I am. We are afraid of him. I'm talking about educated African-Americans. who want safety and want a quality of life that anyone else wants to them and their family.

Brian Lehrer: Nita, thank you so much, and please call us again. For someone who is nervous, you did great, so please keep calling us.

Nita: Yes, I have so much else to say that, but anyway, thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: You'll have to call us again. Thank you very much. I think we have time for one more. Lou on Staten Island. Lou, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Lou: Good morning, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. I just want to say to Mr. Torres that those of us who use the linguistic before the police, we are not saying get rid of the police, take away their vacation, don't hire animal police officers. No, that's not what we are saying.

What I personally am saying is this Brian, it seems that we are all missing the institutionally our foundation, the home, these criminals, these people, mostly young Black men with guns in the neighborhood, who are their parents? Who raised them? How were they socialized? The police officers that come from mostly white neighborhoods outside of the bad neighborhood, who were the parents? Who raised them? How were they socialized? How do they view Black people? What kind of conversaton did they listen to coming from grandma, grandpa, and daddy and mommy before they come into the streets? The thing to do there, to me, is we need to go back to the way police officers are hired, look into their background before you bring that into the force.

Brian Lehrer: The mayor once said a New York City residency requirement for police. We have 15 seconds left, Lou, are you for that? Do you think it would make a difference?

Lou: It might make a difference, but it still goes back to the who Brian. You come from who? How were they raised? How were we raised? How your mommy and daddy had you? How did they prepare ourselves for the future for people who are all like ourselves?

Brian Lehrer: Lou, we really appreciate your call today. We appreciate all of your calls. The Brian Lehrer Show this week was produced by Lisa Allison, Zoe Azulay, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Ryan Wilde. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen works on our daily politics podcast. We had Juliana Fonda and Miyan Levenson at the audio controls today. Have a great weekend, everyone. I'm Brian Lehrer.

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