Video, Photo, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces State Has Provided $30 Million in Grants to Fight Gun Violence Over Last Three Months

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $6.2 million in grants to expand community and hospital-based gun violence intervention programs in communities New York City and eight other cities across the state that have experienced significant increases in shootings and firearm-related murders over the past year. Governor Hochul also announced $100,000 in new grants to Family Services of Westchester and Peace is a Lifestyle to expand their youth engagement and anti-violence programming in Westchester and the Bronx. Governor Hochul announced the funding at the Mount Vernon Boys and Girls Club this morning, joining Representative Jamaal Bowman and a host of violence prevention experts and community leaders.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning and thank you. First of all, Melvin Campos, for hosting us here at this site, this site where lives are literally turned around every single day and has been since 1912, I believe you've been in existence? 1912. It's a long time to be helping young people have more productive, more lives of engagement, lives of success. So, I thank you for all you've done there.

Also, Congressman Bowman, this is the result of many late-night conversations. I don't know how he got my cell phone, but all he does is call me and talk about what his district needs. And we have been talking about gun violence and the sensitivity, Congressman, that you bring to this as someone who works so closely with these children and created a new opportunity with the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action that you created as a principal. You saw what was going on in their lives and in their families. And then what was happening on the streets. So, I want to thank you for your leadership and what you've been doing for us in Washington, D.C., which is a place I used to represent and to spend time there, and I know it can be a little rough and tumble sometimes. So, let's give a round of applause to Congressman Bowman here today.

Delighted to see my friends, the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate, Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Also, someone who deeply believes in giving young people the opportunity to have a different outcome in their lives. And I look forward to entering a new session together. One filled with cooperation and collaboration and making sure that we put the needs of our constituents first. Starting with the young children we're trying to save from a possible life of devastation as a result of gun violence. That's what today is all about.

Assemblymember Gary Pretlow I thank you also for your leadership. Gary, thank you for your leadership. Assemblyman Nader Sayegh, thank you for coming here as well. We had a great conversation just recently about the needs of your district as well. We're doing so much together. I know our Mayor, Shawyn Patterson-Howard is here. I want to give her a round of applause. We've worked very closely together on so many issues. I know that the mayor of Yonkers may or may not be here. Mayor of Yonkers, Mike Spano, who hosted us when we did an event like this in July. We all gathered around a table and said, I don't just want to give this talk. I want to give this action. And as a result of that, we have found more ways to get more money into communities and into the organizations that are really making a difference. So, I want to thank you for that.

Also, Ken Jenkins is here, our deputy county executive is here. Let me see if I'm missing anybody. Don't want to do that. And our pastors who are here, I know we're also joined by Pastor Jay Gooding, and you'll be hearing from him and Henry Terry. I also see Troy DeCohen is here as well. Someone who I see at every event I go to, it seems. Thank you for all the work that you've done in your religious life and also in your home life. I'm very fond of your wife who's now the head of Veterans' Services for the State of New York. Viviana has now ascended to a tremendous position to use her experience in the military and helping veterans to help lift lies all over the state of New York.

So why are we here? We're here because the specter of gun violence, just simply will not go away. This is an issue I worked on when I was literally in my 20s as a staffer for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Washington, D.C. And I was responsible for all the issues that dealt with the Judiciary Committee, gun violence, and others. And we were trying to simply do something such as banning what were called cop killer bullets, armor piercing bullets. And it seemed like, of course you would ban them. They have no purpose other than to harm someone who's there to protect our society. How could this be controversial? Well, it was a real wake up call for me to see that there was even opposition to this back at a time when it was the most common-sense reform we could think of.

So since that time, I have been steeled in the knowledge that this is something that society has to tackle. And even when I lived in Washington, it was the murder capital of our nation at the time. Right around the corner from where I lived near the University of the District of Columbia, a triple homicide, not far from where I was out, walking my babies around the block. I understand that there are still people living today in the great State of New York who have that fear, who have that anxiety, that their little kids going off to school could be collateral damage to a gunfight that's going on and a bullet could take down and snuff out their young life. That is going on in New York today and it is not acceptable.

We have to stand up and fight back, and say, our young people are worth saving. And how do we do that? How do we do that? We have to give them hope, to think about what's going on in their lives. It's the experience of a childhood. What are they exposed to? What's going on with their parents? Are they getting people who care about them to invest time in their lives? Are they getting mentors and teachers and programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCAs and the YWCAs? Are these programs available for these kids to show them that there is another path forward? So we can stop the generational cycle of violence, which has consumed so many lives.

And it's not just the lives of the victims. Think about the ripple effect of gun violence in society today. I was thinking about this as I was coming over. It reminded me of an oil spill. Do you ever see the pictures? There is some leak and there's a little bit of oil in the water and yes, it kills the fish around it, but then it doesn't go away. It continues to spread out and it affects the parents and the siblings of either the victims or the perpetrators. And then it starts going out. And the clergy members, who have to pick up the pieces and sometimes bury the young people that they had seen grow up in their congregation and the pain it causes them. And that pain it causes the healthcare workers who cannot believe it's one more Saturday night and they're dealing with another gunshot victim.

It spreads. It's sinister, it's evil. It affects so many people's lives. And that's why as a state and as a society, we have to stop this. And how do we do that?

First of all, I will spend the resources it takes. That's why I'm having conversations with our community leaders and people that are parts of programs like SNUG and other very successful programs that I've seen work in other places. Sometimes you just need that person, that adult who reaches out to a child in middle school and say, don't end up like me, don't follow the path I did because there's a better way.

And the violence disrupters, interveners, are truly, the ones that we have that, that genuine message of I was there, I lived your life and you do not have to end up like I did. Perhaps spending time in jail or worse, ending up with an injury or death. That does not have to be a logical path of life for children, just because they're born in a certain zip code where gun violence is prevalent.

We have to reach in and pull them out. And it's the community organizations that know how to do this. And it's the clergy. And it's the people that they see in their everyday lives. They're the ones we have to get resources out to. And that is why during my first three months on the job, as your Governor, we have allocated over $30 million to help create jobs and alternatives and to give people a different outcome in their lives.

And today I'm very proud to announce an additional $6.2 million is being spent in the State of New York to get it in the organizations that are making a difference. And two of those organizations, Family Services of Westchester and Peace is a Lifestyle. These are two organizations that have not received this funding before and we are trying to be creative, get it out to other individuals who know exactly what needs to be done. Well, we've already spent [inaudible] youth engagement program, workforce training and development. No child is too young to have them start thinking about what they want to do in life and let them know that they can have a job that can take care of themselves.

And someday a family, every child has that available to them. They just don't see it all the time.

And sometimes if things are so bad at home and they're not feeling part of a loving environment, they go out to the streets and sometimes that gang ends up being their family substitutes. And they're getting that sense that they matter that they have value by being part of this gang.

We have to show them that no, that is not the path for you. You can lead a productive life. You can have a job, you can buy something, a house, a car. You can live an entirely different life and get a good education. Education is the key. Children need to have a better education starting out in life, whether it's preschool early childhood education, all the way on up to high school. And let them say, if you want to go to college, it's available. If you don't want to go to college, there are fantastic job training programs and jobs that are waiting for you today. This message has to come from every one of us as adults. We have a moral responsibility to every child that's born to help let them see it doesn't have to be that bad. You can get out of this. You can escape. You can show your younger siblings, they look up to you and say, you got it done. You left this environment and you became a better, stronger person. That's what I'm focused on. That's what I believe in. That's why I'm here today to lift up others and let them know there are other alternatives for them.

So we're going to continue these investments. We're going to continue making sure that we give other options to young people. Also, everything I can do to pick up a pen and sign a piece of legislation that will fight back, you can guarantee I'll do it. We just literally banned ghost guns two weeks ago, banned them and said the legislature, the Senate led by our Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly led by Carl Heastie.

They and their members came up with legislation. That's smart. And I don't have to play politics with everybody's legislation and extract a pound of flesh to get it done. I'll just do what's right. And signing that bill was the right thing to do as well as creating an institute, a firearm violence research institute, never before did anyone want to study the root causes or where it's happening? What are we afraid of? To solve a problem, you have to understand it, get the data, target your approach. Be smart about it. It's like fighting a pandemic. We have a pandemic of violence in our streets and we will treat it like we're fighting this COVID pandemic, with science and data and smartness. That's how we're going to tackle this.

As you can tell, this really upsets me. This is a tough topic to talk about because we can sit in this room secure, but what's going to happen tonight. What's going to happen when the sun goes down, what's going to happen when someone gets mad at somebody and they pull out a gun.

And we just all went through the specter of the Rittenhouse trial. What was he doing with a gun in the first place? That gun never should have been in his possession. Never should have been. From now on, I want every one of us to commit, that we will do everything in our power, all the influences we have, all the spheres of influence, all the people we touch, and every conversation you have, talk about what are we going to do to help save these kids.

How will we keep them from the specter of gun violence? How can we lift them up? And I will be your partner. You help me see the way. I'll never pretend that I have all the answers. That is not how I operate. I know you have the answers and you have the answers and you have the answers and you have the answers and you have the answers.

I want those answers. I'll put money behind it. I'll put the resources to behind it, I'll put the people behind it because one of the legacies I want to have of my administration is that there are more lives saved because we stood up and fought back and saved the lives of our young people. We can get this done. We can get this done. I know we can. Thank you very much.

And with that, I want to bring up a true champion. Someone who again, has been tireless in his pursuit of finding answers, finding solutions to help this crisis. And that is our congressman Jamaal Bowman. Thank you.