00:19:02.580And every day, people are overcoming adversity.
00:19:06.740And then when you look at the journey, you know, when I was studying to become a lieutenant, somebody pulled up next to my car, and they called out my name, and I looked to the left just in time, and they had a 9mm.
00:19:17.800As a matter of fact, Jordan, you was just born, you was just a baby.
00:19:22.160They had a 9mm shot at my car, and I hit the gas fast enough that it just shot the back of my window.
00:19:28.580And a bunch of older African-American women, when they saw the story in the paper, they came, and they were just praying for me in front of my house, you know, after what happened.
00:19:42.060But when you look at that, and that's why what people say right now, you know, when you got indicted, Eric, you were still waking up doing the job, you know.
00:19:51.700Because people knew only Eric the mayor.
00:20:00.480Do you still feel like, because sometimes with me, I still feel like, even though I've been out of it for a long time, that I still sometimes feel like I'm in survival mode.
00:20:09.960Like, I wake up in the middle of the night, and I'm like, there's things that I have to do.
00:20:15.780Like, I think about the next day, and I think about, because that's been most of my life.
00:20:19.420Do you still, do you feel like that sometimes?
00:24:59.320When you talk about urinating on somebody's grave right after they die, when you talk about, you know, some of the music being used to feed the violence.
00:25:09.400Because the artistry, I had a group, I had a meeting at City Hall with all of the top drill music, Mayno put it together for me.
00:25:19.140And, you know, when they understood what I was saying and I was able to show them the correlation where you had a shooting in one morning and then the next morning you had people desecrated in the grave of the person and his crew got upset.
00:25:34.640Then you had another shooting in the afternoon.
00:25:36.080And so the industry is using that violence to sell records and is using that violence for notoriety.
00:25:44.420And we're using our, we're losing our young soldiers.
00:25:46.760So do the music, you know, but if, if, if, if you could only imagine if God forbid someone took out my son and the next thing you know I see you on YouTube talking about how happy you are to take out a son.
00:26:00.580And that's what the, that's what the industry was doing.
00:26:03.640And we, you know, we had a conversation with the industry and say, you know, you guys are making paper, but I'm seeing too many, you know, too many bodies lying, that's lining up because of what you are exploiting on social media.
00:26:18.300It's about when it's used for retaliatory action, taking out other young people.
00:26:22.400Because we're, we're losing a whole generation, man, to, to this violence.
00:26:27.020And, you know, young people at that age, they have so much heart, you know, and when that heart turns into taking out another young person, that can't happen.
00:26:39.760The New York drill music was really big post-COVID.
00:26:42.580How were you responsible in slowing that down?
00:26:46.060Because I, I personally, I feel a lot safer walking around, taking the train than today, than I did 2020, 2021.
00:26:52.800Let me, let me tell you what's happening in the city.
00:26:55.520I inherited a city where crime was off the hook in the trains, over proliferation of guns on our streets, particularly in communities of color.
00:27:22.740We dropped unemployment around black and brown people by 20%.
00:27:26.500We took 22,000 illegal guns off our streets.
00:27:30.540This last six months, five months, and we're going to do it in the sixth, we had the lowest number of shootings and homicides in the history of the city.
00:28:17.160Our nightlife, Richie, as you know, our nightlife, restaurant open.
00:28:21.800People say, well, you know what, you hang out all the time.
00:28:24.040No, brother, I got to have a nightlife.
00:28:25.600I got to make sure, because if my restaurants are open, my private clubs are open, my clubs are open, then my waiters, my busboys and girls, my cooks.
00:30:09.540I was on the road with all the inmates, and I got re-baptized with Reverend Sharpton and Reverend Daughtry, you know, who was one of my spiritual leaders.
00:30:18.320And those inmates sitting on that road with those brothers, and they say, you know, the mayor's here getting baptized with us.
00:30:24.520You know, I've been on Rikers Island more than any man in the history of the city, you know, because remember I said I'm dyslexic.
00:30:30.480But 30 to 40 percent of those inmates have a learning disability.
00:30:35.680So the real crime is not only what they did on the street.
00:30:38.620The real crime is that we didn't give them the resources that they needed.
00:30:42.960Because I could have easily kept, you know, selling weed.
00:30:46.940I could have easily continued to run numbers.
00:30:49.740If I didn't stumble and learn I was dyslexic, I don't know where I would be right now.
00:30:54.860And that is what I have to fight to change.
00:30:57.900Is part of your objective getting the New Yorkers who left to come back?
00:31:02.420I was born here, and then after COVID, when things really, the city was shaky for a while.
00:31:06.720I left to Florida for two years, and I recently came back in December.
00:31:10.660And things seem to be on the right track, and I love it again.
00:31:13.960But how much of your goal as mayor is trying to get people who went to Texas, went to Florida?
00:48:47.940I was indicted because I called the fire department and asked them to do a building inspection for a building that we were trying to get open because the president of the country was coming here.
00:49:02.180And when I texted the commissioner, I said, can you have somebody go do an inspection?
00:49:08.140And if you can't, let me know and I'll manage their expectations.
00:49:11.400They said, well, Turkey upgraded you when you flew.
00:49:16.540I don't know who don't try to get an upgrade.
00:49:18.640And they said, we're now saying that you committed bribery because you called the fire department and you pressured them to inspect the building, not to pass the inspection.
00:49:28.720I was facing over 30 years in prison for them.