To my left is the lieutenant governor. To my right is the director of new york. With thatng the cover big warm smile he is famous for. Today is day 95 of the situation dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, and it is day 10 of the situation dealing with the civil unrest after the murder of mr. Floyd that we all saw on tv. The president held up the bible the other day in washington, d. C. Here in new york, we actually read the bible, and there is some passages that i think are especially appropriate for today and this time of where we are. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of god. Matthew 5. If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. That was mark 3. Actually, before abraham lincoln. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace and work to maintain it. Psalms 34. The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. I think those words are all appropriate for where we are today. Another quote that i think is applicable to where we are today. You cannot use the military as a political weapon. You remember who said that . I said that. Another quote the option to use activeduty forces in Law Enforcement, in a lawenforcement role, should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the insurrection act. Do you know who said that . Secretary of defense mark esper. Appointed by president trump. You cannot set fire to the house and then claim you were the one trying to put out the flames. Do you know who said that . You guys are not wellread, that i can tell you. A. J. Parkinson said that. Last night we had continued protests across the state, but there are two very different situations that are going on, and we have to keep them separate and we have to address them as separate situations because they are night and day. One is protesting. And the other is looting. So you have two very different situations. Some People Choose to morph those two together. All of the protesters are actually looters and we should treat them as looters. That is not a fact. That is not the truth. That is not the reality of what is going on. There are people who are protesting and there are people who are looting. Very, very different situations. The protesting is righteous indignation over mr. Floyds murder and systemic racism and injustice. And you listen to their point, i think they are right. You look at that, mr. Floyds murder on television, and it is reprehensible. There is no Police Officer in this nation that would defend that. And people are appalled, and again, it is not the first time. You cant say this is an isolated incident. Mr. Floyd was one in an ongoing series. Ahmed aubrey, breonna taylor, you can go back to rodney king, you can go back to Martin Luther king. There are dozens and dozens of the same case. Righteous indignations. Its more systemic racism. Righteous indignation. Its systemic injustice. Righteous indignation, yes, but dont be violent because when you are violent you lose the righteous indignation. When you are violent, you play to the critics who want to say, oh, theyre all violent looters. Theyre a criminal element, and that actually defeats of the righteousness of the message. Mr. Floyd was nonviolent. He was nonviolent against the police. The crime they were possibly investigating was a nonviolent crime. Violence actually demeans the situation and loses the right indignation. And i would urge the protesters to respect the curfew because the curfew is necessary because the police have a real job of policing, dealing with the looters. And the looting is criminal behavior, pure and simple. Theres no righteousness, there is no message, there is no indignation. These are opportunists who see the police are busy dealing with the protesters and they say, well, here is an opportunity to loot and to steal and to cause mayhem. Thats all they are. This is criminal behavior period. Designed to create chaos. Fine, it is all illegal behavior. And we will not allow our cities in this state to be in chaos. Period. Public safety is rule one. Maintaining order is rule one. Its not going to happen in the state of new york. Were not going to allow the looting that we have seen on videotapes, the chaos that we have seen. Period. The police must be empowered to keep order, stop the looting, and stop the criminal activity. Distinguish between the protesters and the looting. Yes, you have police action, which is necessary to work with the protesters, but the police have to be there and be empowered to stop the looting and the chaos and the criminal behavior that people are trying to exploit this moment for their own selfish, criminal purposes. And the police have to be able to do their job. And the police have to be supported in being able to do their job. Ive sent new York State Police to cities to deal with these protests. They have to have the right numbers. They have to be empowered to do their job. And weve had protests again last night all across the state. I want to applaud the local police, who have done a great job. I want to applaud the state police, who have done a great job. The protests were mainly peaceful all across the state, and i want to thank all involved for keeping it that way, protesters included. New york city last night was much better. The protesters were mainly peaceful. The Police Officers have the resources and the capacity to do their jobs. And the results last night were much, much different than the night before. And thats what its all about. And i think the people in new york city should feel much better today than they did after the night of looting. These are perilous times. Theres a lot going on, and we have to understand whats going on and the difference among the issues that were dealing with. You have the covid crisis. You have the murder of mr. Floyd, two very different situations, but both critical in and of themselves and both happening at the same time. It has been wrapped in an environment and a dynamic that is racially charged and politically charged. It makes it a very, very perilous times in this country and we have to be careful. We have to be very careful because the consequences are steep on both sides of this equation. So leadership, good government, responsibility is more important than ever before. Especially in these divided times. Covid19 is still a real threat. We are still battling that. I know it is not on the front pages today. But it is still in people and in society. Were still battling that. That is going better than it has ever gone in new york. We have the lowest number of hospitalizations ever and we have the lowest death toll ever. And god bless the people of new york for what they did. God bless the nurses, the doctors, the essential nurses, and frontline workers. They saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the state of new york. We have to remember what made us successful during covid. We are new york tough. But new york tough is multifaceted. It means new york smart. If youre going to protest, protest intelligently. Remember, the covid virus is still out there. Protest intelligently. We are united. We are not upstate and downstate. We are not red and blue. We are one community. We came together that way with discipline fighting covid. With discipline having our right to protest and doing it peacefully in a way that respects law and order. And we are loving at the end of the day. Yes, we have issues. Yes, we have challenges. But we have shown how good we can be as a community and how much we respect one another. And the sacrifice we are willing to make for one another. Lets keep that spirit. Lets keep that going. That is pure magic. If we stay loving and we stay smart, we will handle all of these issues. We have overcome the greatest challenge this state has faced in my lifetime with this covid virus. Not was the beast we did know if we could beat, but so far we have beaten it. We have to stay smart. Make sure that we control the beast. But we did it. We overcame. We the people overcame together. Last words for today, do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Romans 12. That, my friends, is new york tough. Questions . Reporter how do we tackle the power of Police Unions and the need to change culture in the criminal justice system. Why are bad apples being called out by colleagues and will you allow the release of state troopers disciplinary records . Gov. Cuomo you have a lot in there. There are necessary reforms that need to be made. There is no doubt about that. I hope that is the positive legacy of the injustice that was done to mr. Floyd. Many of those policies are law in the state of new york. 50a, the disciplinary records, i hope they become law shortly. We have to respect everyones interests. I look forward to doing that. And i think the legislature is prepared to do it. I think they will be coming back in the next couple of weeks to have those conversations. Reporter the power of Police Unions, specifically, something the mayor has talked about trying to change the culture. What is your role in trying to get local agencies thinking about this idea . Gov. Cuomo i dont know what the governor was referring to. I will see what he said and then comment appropriately. Reporter with reference to what the president did on monday gov. Cuomo they said it was. Reporter i got it. Gov. Cuomo even if i didnt say it, you would have figured it out. Reporter what do you make of the president s recent attacks on new york . Is he trying to rile his base or make legitimate criticism . Gov. Cuomo far be it from me to psychoanalyze the president of the united states. I have a law degree. I have no medical degrees or a degree in psychoanalysis. It is nothing new for the president. Not just in tweets, his policies have been vicious to new york. He changed the tax code in a way that increased the taxes in new york and other democratic states. He has failed to do anything positive for new york. He has gone out of his way to be negative to new york. Now, why . Is it politics . Who knows. That is for someone else to answer. But the negativity forget about , the tweets. Who cares about the tweets . Its what hes done to the state that bothers me. Refusing to fund urgent transportation projects that hurt the entire northeast. Like the hudson tunnels. Stopping the 2nd avenue subway. All of these egregious acts. Kicking us out of the trusted traveler program. With dhs, the department of homeland security. Becauseunitive policy they dont like that we wont give them the drivers licenses for undocumented people. So they punish us with the trusted traveler program. From day one and his administration, you have seen negative, hostile government acts. Way, a refusal to fund state governments, that is negative to new york and negative across the board. There have been good things. Helping us with the Javits Center and the army corps of engineers and the additional beds. That was very helpful. I said from day one im not playing politics with the president. When he does the right thing by new york, i say he did the right thing by new york. Democrats dont like me to say that, but its the truth. When he does a bad thing for new york, i say he has done a bad thing. I think i was in the white house last week, we had a meeting. Im sorry . Reporter what about those sent to d. C. To help out Law Enforcement . Do you have a comment . Gov. Cuomo i dont think you should use active military for political purposes. I dont believe it is constitutional. Now you have his secretary of defense saying that they shouldnt be used. Now how can the secretary of defense and then do it, thats another question. If you dont believe its right, would you pull up secretary espers quote again . If you dont believe its right, why did you do it . You cant do it and say that i think its wrong. You just admitted that you did something that was wrong . Look at his quote. The option to use active duty forces and Law Enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort. We are not and one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the insurrection act. Then how did you do it, mr. Secretary . Question for him, not for me. Reporter can you talk a little more about the National Guard, how close the question was about active military, right . That was the question. Ok. You come how close did to activating the National Guard for new york city . Did you ever say that the National Guard should be on standby . Could you just shed more light on that, especially given your statements about active duty military personnel. Gov. Cuomo the National Guard are different than active military personnel for political purposes. National guard we deploy for public purposes. We deploy them to help with the covid virus, we deploy them for storm emergencies. If they were deployed for new york city, thats not a political purpose. That is to help the police function in new york city. So those are not political purposes. But we did not send the ,ational guard in new york city i said yesterday that there was a terrible night of looting. I was prepared to send the National Guard to help to provide the resources if the city needed them. I dont believe the nypd needs in the National Guard because they are the Largest Police force in america. 36,000, 38,000 people, so i dont believe they need at the National Guard. I believe it was an issue of management and deployment of the nypd. You have to remember the nypd, level, i grew up in queens, i grew up with the nypd. My neighborhood, a lot of my friends became Police Officers in new york city. A Little New York arrogance, but i believe its the best Police Department in the country. And we know the Police Officers can handle these situations because they have, right . We have gone through the sean bell situation. Through these. We went through Crown Heights. The gavin kato death. And then we went through the aftermath of Crown Heights. There was a whole report done on Crown Heights that studied what happened. Five days ofour or riots. We have done this. This is been there, done that for the police. The Police Officers officers know how to do it. These are the best. Now, a Police Officer needs support. They need the right deployment. They need to be empowered. They need the capacity to do their job. They have to know they are backed up. They have to know that if they are out there they can do what they have to do. If they have to arrest somebody, they have the right gear. So they have to get the support that they need. But its not about the nypd. And one other point. Forget everything else, its about getting results, right . Im here to get things done and make life better for people. We got results. Last night was a much, much better night than the night before. So it worked. We got results. Lets just remember what we did last night and lets keep that going. Executivethe county is urging a report on the basis of just suggesting that they open up right away if they so choose, and he is also starting a page to help pay fines if dara are fines. In response to that . Gov. Cuomo i dont think county people who violate the law is a good idea. Its not an excuse when you violate the law. Oryou still get the fine whatever the penalty is for violating the law. You would still be liable. You could still get sued. You will still be closed down. And you will be penalized. And you know, i can tell you, yeah, you should get up and assault jesse. I think you should do that. But you would go to jail. One more. This morning on one of the radio shows, one of the shows downstate, chief monahan of the nypd said you called in to apologize for your remarks yesterday towards the nypd. Just wondering what that conversation was like when you again,ith the chief and, how did you come to that conclusion . Gov. Cuomo very simple, first, i never spoke to whatever that persons name is. I spoke to the Police Commissioner and said the same thing i just said to you and the same thing i said yesterday, which is it is an issue of management and deployment. The actual Police Officers are the best. Managements with the and deployment. Never about the Police Officers. Its about the management. Its about the deployment, not about the officers. Thank you very much. In response to the protests. So im going to start with a few housekeeping announcements. First of all, the president s annual physical results are ready for release. The full memo will be released shortly. In summary, the president remains he
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.