 good morning everyone happy Valentine's Day good morning everyone well I appreciate that good morning Mike good morning happy Valentine's Day we'll try that again mr. Mayor good morning everyone good morning miss DA thank you very much I appreciate that and I want to welcome Mayor Adams my understanding mr. Mayor is that you may be the first time this office has been graced with the presence of a mayor is my understanding so we thank you for being here today we thank Police Commissioner Sewell who is always here for us and we thank her for that Deputy Chief Savino who is the commanding officer of the gun violence suppression unit and Chief Detective Chief of detectives James Essig I do want to thank our executive over investigations Jerry brave and of course John Senate in charge of violent criminal enterprise and all of the ADA's that are standing here with us today thank you for your outstanding work in the NYPD and particularly of the NYPD I'd like to thank the gun violence suppression unit this takedown today had to be especially gratifying for the department coming as you mourn the death and we all mourn the death of Officer Fayaz a victim of gun violence and I just want to note him today and make sure that he keep him in our prayers my condolences and thank you for your outstanding work commitment and courage it is enormously appreciated I want to thank my violent criminal enterprise Bureau for their outstanding work collaborating with the NYPD partners over the course of this two year investigation like I said I'm joined here by the leadership of those bureaus we want to thank them for the work they've done in combination with the NYPD the reckless criminality we saw during this investigation is the kind of lawlessness that has killed law-abiding citizens of New York that have been in the courts in the crossfire of gang violence in New York we saw that in the heartbreaking loss of Ms. Valinas she was crossing the street in Woodside to go buy milk for her two young children when she was gunned down by a gang member shooting at a rival her killing led to the launch of this investigation into the violence between the rival subsets of the Crips in the community even though her murder was charged in a separate indictment we knew that we could not rest there we knew that we had to address the ongoing violence in that area and her murder was a symptom of the gang violence and the warring factors permeating between these two gangs in these two housing complexes as we will demonstrate in court with video evidence no one on either side thought twice about shooting at a rival on a busy street it did not matter that it was the middle of the day or that small children were present they fired their guns by standards be damned on June 15 2020 for example Astoria gang members walked into the Woodside housing development and fired at a group of Woodside gang members who were in the courtyard along with other residents including several small children a Woodside gang member and an innocent bystander were hit similarly on August 22nd 2020 Astoria gang members entered the Woodside houses and shot at gang members who were among the residents and their small children were at the playgrounds and they were on the benches as residents scattered including small children on bicycles the Woodside gang members returned fire fortunately in that one incident no one was injured it's a miracle that the feud between those two violent gangs has not claimed more lives their absolute disregard for the lives of their neighbors and the fellow New Yorkers only strengthens our resolve every single day the single most important thing we in law enforcement can do to keep New Yorkers safe is to work together to hold criminals accountable for the bloodshed heartbreak and misery that they face we will fight this plague of gun violence with everything we have on the streets and in the courts we simply will not relent as you know from your press release after a three month grand jury which by the way was a long-term grand jury at my request which sat solely on this case we returned an 84 indictment count indictment against 23 of the gang members and we thank everyone involved in that for their work especially the detectives that were involved in the investigation every step of the way and the NYPD who goes in finds these individuals and make sure that they are held accountable for the crimes that they commit I would like to now welcome and introduce the mayor of the great city of New York Mayor Adams. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Dear dear cats we serve together as ball presidents and we knew the impact of gun violence then and now having you as a district attorney and your common sense approach to public safety is a real partnership and we cannot say enough about the teamwork between the Queens District Attorney's Office and detectives and the members of the New York City Police Department as we pursue those who are the most dangerous among us Police Commissioner Asou has made it clear that this is a paramount importance for not only the men and women of the NYPD and the District Attorney's Office across the city but for the people in the city of New York you know just look at the numbers you heard me over and over talk about recidivism those who are part of a system that allows them to continue to perpetuate violence on our city we need to have that collaboration to crack down and take down these groups when you're doing analysis District Attorney cats took down a similar dangerous group of people in Queensbridge housing you saw immediately after that a substantial decrease in shootings and in homicides I believe for a period of time you had no homicides in that area partnering with the crisis management teams that were involved in that area we saw how the progress works and keep people safe 23 people eight of them had multiple shootings that believe our criminal justice system is something that we can they're not taken seriously and this is why we must pursue those who are dangerously involved in these crimes they're the total disregard for the safety of the people who are there we're going to stop and communicate with the residents on the ground there they have asked for this of the residents of Queensbridge residents of Astoria 40 of housing all of the housing they're not calling for defunding police they're calling for protecting police and allow police to protect the people gangs plus guns equal graves and our goal is to be proactive and not just one good at a time but to take down these dangerous individuals who are carrying these guns these are illegal guns even when you color them a purple pink and lavender they still discharge death they are endangering the lives of innocent people in our city and they have no regard for the safety of the people who live in our city and we're saying and the most clear and loudest voice possible that we're going to use every tool that is available to pursue them and take down the criminal enterprises that are creating the violence and death in our community and before depart and turn it over back to the District Attorney we know the incident that took place yesterday in Bay Ridge of the police commissioner will be doing a an announcement later on today our hearts go go out to the families I visited the families in the hospital yesterday to the victims and I visited and communicated with family members of the one deceased he leaves behind children he was a single father raising those children on his own just a terrible tragedy and I just want to thank the New York City Police Department for taking appropriate actions to apprehend the driver but again da thank you so much for being a great partner next we'd like to hear from our great police commissioner of the city of New York and the city of the NYPD a very welcome site in Queens County always here and we thank her for her involvement in almost every case that we do here in Queens County thank you I too echo the mayor sentiment our hearts are with the families and victims of yesterday's horrific incident and thank you madam da for your kind words about our member who we lost today we are highlighting the work of our gun violence oppression unit and the skilled exceptional professionals of the Queens da's violent criminal enterprises Bureau but this critical work is done every day citywide by the hundreds of patrol and investigative units across the NYPD the indictments announced today are the direct result of the exceptional collaboration between the Queens da and the NYPD these investigations are crucial the dismantling of these gangs is essential and as we have seen over the last year apprehending these criminals is imperative together we are continuing our fight against illegal firearms in our city and against anyone who terrorizes our neighborhoods we're here in Queens talking about dismantling these crews and gangs but we have been at podiums like this over the last several weeks and months announcing with our partners several takedowns and indictments of other gangs and crews who believe that they too could create a culture of fear in our city those who believe that are wrong we will be back with more cases and more arrests wherever violent criminals threaten our communities these are dangerous people and bringing them to justice is a dangerous job but nobody does that job better than the women and men of the NYPD in the face of unprecedented challenges your officers continue to address unsafe conditions and apprehend offenders in our communities and your detectives steadfastly work these cases that leads to the success we are reporting today so thank you to our district attorney cats and your entire team for our partnership and the work you do in our collective effort to keep New York City safe I will now turn it over to the commanding officer of our gun violence suppression unit deputy chief Jason Savino and thank you and I'll share the DA sentiment happy violent times to everybody out there you know it's a real special day not only for a story in Woodside but for everybody so with that I have to start with we all collectively share a vision what is that to keep everybody safe we share a passion a drive a desire to keep our neighborhoods secure and you'll see me reference to saying our because we're all equal partners what do we want in our neighborhood we want to be able to walk freely amongst our peers that neighborhood feel that just makes everybody feel safe to live without the fear of gunfire and enjoy a quality of life we all deserve and today once again we have brought this goal even closer and I'm just so genuinely proud to announce that today our beautiful Queens is just a bit safer with some of the most dangerous individuals in all of Queens now in custody but before I go into the investigation I just want to extend just extreme gratitude to our case detectives case detective Greg Papa and detective Darren McFadson whose expertise and dedication towards this mission of reducing gun violence brought us to this day and I also just have to mention the supervisors of the case the team leaders Sergeant Sandy Rodriguez and Captain Ryan Gillis who along with all our many partners which I'll ultimately circle back to just provided such focus guidance throughout this entire investigation and just quickly note we're just so blessed with an entire team at gun violence suppression division we love our community let me repeat that we love our community our team cares for our community like we would our own family we take our mission obligation and purpose of protecting our members we take it to heart we make it personal so today's announcement is noted and more to come it shows that our team will remain absolutely relentless in addressing the senseless gun violence let's get right into the case so actively moving is an investigation addressing several gangs that have committed violence in the northwest and portion of Queens namely true cash getters and a trade Cripset stationed in Woodside houses as well as King of Queens G squad and hip hop boys all opposing Cripsets which frequent Astoria houses this investigation addressed shooters as with all of our cases we're talking next level precision policing where our base investigation remain laser focus on trigger pullers on those that fire bullets without remorse and without fear of consequence 23 total subjects of those 23 subjects 18 have been arrested for shooting in related incident or are being charged with the shooting related incident on at least one occasion and as the mayor noted earlier eight of the 23 have allegedly fired a gun more than once simply put these subjects are the alphas of the gangs the gangs most threatening members that small group of individuals that have no problem shamelessly firing guns and endangering our great public every member in the community knows exactly who these individuals are why because they do everything they can to avoid them well aware that they can create threatening conditions and potentially place all in danger and what as noted that includes children let's speak once again to the incident that initiated this case so in March of 2021 the murder of Ms. Guadelia Valinas it demands repeating 37 years young she ventured to the store to buy milk for her two children 11 and 9 years old just prior to leaving miss Valinas sent the picture to her husband of the food she had just prepared now take a moment to think about that miss Valinas is our American dream whose life was suddenly halted due to gang members recklessly firing bullets with total disregard of anybody around them absolutely horrific I know I've said it many times but it also bears repeating fired bullets have no names fired bullets have no names a theme we've so tragically seems too many times now our beautiful members of Queens deserve to be able to enjoy the beautiful parks walk along Broadway a Steinway Street without any fear of gunfire these gangs did all they could to intimidate our streets and we're all here to say quite proudly no more criminality does have consequence and this is exactly what it looks like so in all right now 16 subjects are now in custody as a result of our investigation I also want to mention this is one of numerous numerous takedowns our gun violence suppression team has initiated and we will never let up we will keep our promise and our obligation with the ultimate goal of eliminating gang and gun violence a lot of kudos around just to make this happen first a special thanks to the community that we put so proudly surf our community traditionally these cases have a tremendous impact upon depleting violence if history repeats itself and we're quite certain it will you will experience a better quality of life you will have that neighborhood field that you deserve and you will feel safer we are gracious to be a partner thanks to us queen squads that 114 squad and that homicide squad along with the 114 precinct and PSA 9 FIOs field intelligence officers our teams have held hands throughout this investigation and it certainly enabled great results our DA miss cats we have stood be here before and we will stand here again you've always dedicated and committed your entire team's partnership John Senate in particular as a God said along with Joanna Matusa and Andrea Sanchez our chief of detectives Jimmy Essek you created gun violence suppression division and you're mentoring and support has saved lives what an awesome accomplishment our police commissioner you hold our torch just so proudly and your genuine passion towards keeping this great city safe is so heartfelt thank you for being our leader and finally Mr. Mayor we are absolutely privileged to represent you under your guidance our communities have so much to be thankful for you have taken policing to the next level this is why we became cops to be the gatekeepers of our beautiful city and you enable our teams to do just that we are honored to serve you now I know that's quite a bit of kugo kudos but it's also a reminder if we all work as one cohesive team and this is especially true during challenging times if we realize and embrace that we are all pieces to this complex puzzle and we will need every single one of us NYPD our partners and our community we will continue to curtail this senseless violence we tackled this mission collectively and as a result once again our community is safer thank you so the message is clear today the guns will not dictate what happens on our streets the guns will not be the drivers of what happens on our streets look at this team standing up here you have the mayor the city of New York the commissioner of the NYPD district attorney of Queens County the men and women of the NYPD the men and women who serve my office pick up a gun use it in our county use it in our city we will find you we are investigating you and you will be held accountable for those crimes we've had enough thank you very much I'm happy to open up for questions on topic I want to just acknowledge my chief assistant Jen Nyberg who's here with us today as well huge part of all these investigations questions on the topic Frank I'll let anybody else take that I can only say this we are the city of New York we are busy that is what we do we are economically driven we are residential driven we have people who rely on this city every single day for their safety and for their well-being the NYPD is out there every day policing the streets they will continue to do so they can speak for themselves and we will continue to prosecute and hold those accountable that do not let life live on a daily basis in our busy communities I'll answer that actually in terms of the density we're talking about a concentrated area where this case was affected and to your point about yesterday and I won't go into details about that until later on we are everywhere the NYPD there's no place we will not go to apprehend those that bring harm to our communities I don't add to a deputy chief Savino said as well just to put this in perspective for everyone a story on woodside it's for our 6,000 people 6,000 people these 23 individuals were able to wreak havoc every day in the community very small amount of people you use guns use gangs that's what happens we won't we will not allow it sir we have seen an increase in ghost guns but whether these are on this particular in this particular case we did not recover ghost guns and there were no printed guns in this case in other matters of course unfortunately in this county we have already seen 3D printing as far as firearms are concerned and make no mistake just because they weren't in this takedown ghost guns are are everywhere and we are trying to get them off the streets as fast as we possibly can and we're being very successful at it as well you buy a ghost gun we're probably going to find you we look at like cooperative was the community and getting to these arrests were they cooperative and if so could you kind of describe like what community involvement was in getting to this point I'm going to ask deputy chief Savino to take that that's a great question so you know as mentioned these are the individuals that are putting fear really in every residence our heart if you will you know we are engaged with the community in a multitude of ways you know matter of fact that was part of the mayor's task force which offered so many different services to our community engage the community matter of fact we have a meeting tomorrow in brownsville engaging the community you know specific to the one fourteen they asked for this to occur you know you have to remember every community member is our next witness is our next source it are individuals that we are here to protect these are the people we serve and we saw that throughout a story we saw it out throughout woodside and as mentioned earlier through the prior cases with queensbridge as well so the community tremendously receptive they don't want to go home and have to walk around these individuals that place them in danger they don't want to and it's something that it's tremendously well-received and you see it just walking through when you get a subtle nod that means the world to us and we have heard from a lot of the community members after the individuals were arrested and after the indictment came down and they are happy to take a breath miss kramer well like I like that deputy chief said this was actually started with the murder of a woman going to get milk for her two children and I'll let the chief go through the actual numbers in the diet although there are multiple shooting incidents but there are only seven actual victims two of whom were innocent bystanders and the others were actual target targeted rivals as to why the violence occurred between these two sets essentially it was while senseless it is personal between them my name is Jonathan Senate I'm the chief of the violent criminal enterprises bureau s e double n e double t there was a part of it of this investigation that also include what I believe is one of the underlying problems in the social media using those who are using social media to taunt each other and using a version of drill music and is not saying all drill music and I want to be clear on that but using a version of drill music to taunt and turn into violence of what happens in social media impacts our society and social media they have yet to grasp what they're doing to our communities and the message is clear I mean when we saw what the Queens District Attorney's office and the detectives and the her office were able to do in Queensbridge it was astonishing immediately after that takedown how it translated into safety and we want active participation from the residents of this overwhelming amount of violence that surrounds a nature of housing and it is unfair to the tenants who are there because they too want to live in a safe environment they don't want their playgrounds according off they don't want their children to participate in this fear factor and so when we zero in on these areas we're saying to them that they are as important as any resident I think the the detective bureau is has been loud and clear just a passion of the caring for the people in this resident it hurts us anyone who has been in policing would tell you how devastating it is to go to a family member knock on that door and say your child is not coming home I don't know how many times the commission and I have been in hospitals of hearing from family members it takes a lot out of you and these gangs taking them down is the message we want to send to residents over this this entire city we're not going to surrender off streets to violence now there's a disconnect from the residents and those who state they represent the residents I have not been to a community meeting a civic meeting a block association a pta meeting where the residents stated they don't want their police I have not been in one location where residents said disband defund take away from my police I've heard just the opposite where are my cops I want my police officers and there's something that's securing and that's safe when you see that man and woman in that blue uniform it's a very loud clear message and what's what is interesting is that they're those who say they want to defund the police have been reaching out to us for personal security have been reaching out to us to get more police in their communities and I say well you know just as you hold a presence and say defund hold a presser saying that you want personal security and that you want more police in your community you can't have a public posture and then a private conversations no I'm not doing that if you don't want police in your community let me know and I'll tell you the communities that were like yours I'd like to remind everybody that of the 23 defendants 18 of them even though it was conspiracy charge I want everyone to recall that too 18 of them shot a weapon eight of them shot the weapons more than twice according to the indictment I think that's very important to acknowledge out of the seven people who were hit with the gunshots two of them are unintended targets so I think we all need to keep that in perspective this is a conspiracy charge because we need to send a message out that gangs cannot be your family your your substitute family there are other types of activity out there and if you are in a gang if you are using weapons if you are using guns unintended people are going to get injured and even if it's intentional we are going to come out and investigate and find you there are many ongoing investigations and they should actually be aware of that as well so we did the indictment pre-arrest 16 of them are now arrested the rest I have no doubt are going to be found by the Warren squad of the NYPD and being custody soon I believe that it was just indicated that those who were part of the 23 many had of multiple incidents I believe the number was 18 and just think about it some of them were out for shootings or some of them were out for other dangerous crimes and it just fits into the overall conversation that the commissioner and her team they have been stating for some time now we have anywhere from 1700 to 2000 people who are committing repeated crimes they just have a total disregard for the criminal justice system they don't believe that they are held accountable and we zero in on those 1700 to 2000 you're going to see a substantial decrease in some of the violence that you we are witnessing and that is my message to the lawmakers in Albany we have we have been having a great conversations the governor has been a real partner and I've been speaking with the leaders and electives up there so we can zero in on what we agree the extreme recidivist they are our problem most wanted we must target them so I think we're all mindful of the fact that while we talk about our shootings are down and our homicides are down one is too many right and we have other crimes that we have to focus on as well and we're actually doing that we had a challenging weekend we recognize that it's not just about the deployment of our resources and we didn't move resources to be able to address those concerns as well but there's a strategy that we have to put in place here people are concerned about robberies are concerned about shop liftings as well because they affect quality of life so we're tackling those crimes head on as the mayor said we have some challenges on legislative challenges that we're looking at as well but it comes down to being able to put our offices in the right places so we're constantly evaluating those strategies and being able to tackle those other crimes as well and we and the commissioner and I want to be clear the responsibility of people being safe in the city that's our responsibility and no matter how bad the deck or our hand is we are not going to advocate the responsibility we have to keep the city safe that is our job and yes we have challenges yes we have people with mental health issues yes we have some real challenges in our legislative bodies but we are not going to say because of those challenges that we can't keep our city safe whatever hand we are dealt we are going to drive down crime we're going to do what we have committed to do continue to remove guns off the street dangerous people off the street partner with our da's prosecute but we know this is our job the buck stops here and we're going to defeat those who want to keep us unsafe when we do a few fuel up topics okay why not I'm should the DA stay to help me with these guys thank you thank you it's just yeah yep okay all right good job good job good job questions Marcia oh you Marcia good yeah I haven't read over the entire report and we're going to dig into it because it's about learning from past experiences I was out there during the George Floyd protests I walked the streets I interacted with both sides those who were protesting and those who were protecting the city I do know that we were infiltrated by outside agitators who intentionally wanted to disrupt our city and they attempted to hijack those who wanted to rightfully protest and so we're going to do an analysis and we're going to we're going to learn of this is that that happens prior to my administration but I I know what the former mayor and police commissioner had to endure during those difficult days of what was happening on our street there was a there was a combination of those who were peacefully protesting and those who were being disruptive and some of them for criminal opportunities what happened on Fordham Road what happened on Fifth Avenue had nothing to do with George Floyd you had people who were intentionally trying to use the incident for criminal behavior and when you have a combination of that it makes the job extremely difficult but we were doing analysis no we have to learn our lessons and we have to get it right I mean we we we are when I say we I say NYPD we don't get do overs we don't get a rewinds we have to get it right and we learn from whatever the internal investigation of determined was improperly done we have to incorporate into how we move forward the next time every layer you learn how to get it right to get the perfection that you want but again I was in the street I was in this I was on the streets during the protests and I saw a combination of those who wanted to peacefully protest and those who were professional agitators carrying frozen water bottles bricks Molotov Molotov cocktails those are not people who are peacefully protesting and we need to be able to distinguish between the two but I'm going to read through the report and we're going to make our recommendations where do you where do you see yourself in the city making the most improvement as far as staffing and where do you feel like there's the most room for improvement needed like where where what agencies are hurting most right in a couple of things you know we I've heard analysis from both the city council and the controllers office we're at I think we have a 8% vacancy rate of we're around that the control has a 14.5 and they have remote work and all other options the city council has 14 and they too have all these other options and so what we're doing when I learned when I sat down with D cast and all of our agencies we were resting on the historical ways that people were seeking jobs the people were taking civil service exams and they were coming to us there's a post shift that you have to go out now and compete and I'm hearing from all of my corporations they're all saying the same thing every corporation across the country are saying that they don't have the man power they're looking for work and what we must do is now go out and be competitive so we had a hiring hall 800 people showed up a large number signed up online we're going to do hiring halls all over the city we're going to be setting up tables in our colleges and in our high schools we're going to go and recruit our clergy leaders our rabbis our pastors our imams we're going to start letting people know the job that are available and we're rolling out some new things of recruitment that the team is going to be rolling out we have to go out and and recruit people to be part of the joy of civil service HPD is an area that we need to focus on more it's imperative that we staff up at 8 HPD we need to staff up and make sure we get more HRA our outreach workers and so those are two areas that I'm really zeroing in on because it can impact our housing plan if we don't continue to staff up but the crisis is not a New York City crisis we have to be clear not to keep hearing everybody report it's a New York City crisis so national crisis of how do we shift to post pandemic work environment yeah what we are doing is we are sending out a survey to our agencies and we're saying to our agencies come up with creative ways of having flexibility but when you do it how do we operate as a team what do we do for the people who can't work from home what do I do to my school crossing guard my nurse my doctor what do I do for the police officers how do we make sure that we don't create a two-tier system where some can work from home and others cannot so we want as a team to say how do I look out for my fellow civil servant to say you have to come in so how do we compensate you in some way and that is what we need to do you surprised that he's I'm glad you stated that and I had a conversation with Albany and and here's the problem with this smoke shops and you're right we're finding that smoke shops because they had cash business that they are contributing to our robberies and we knew was only a matter of time before you start to see some of them materializing to shootings so a police officer cannot go into a smoke shop and take action alone if he's on his beat and someone is selling cannabis illegally police officer cannot take action the marshals and DCWP have different actions that they can take so if you're selling cannabis you will get a criminal courts criminal court summits you know what the fine is $25 it's like they're laughing at us it's a $25 that is not even a sale you know so they have weighed the cost of doing business with the cost of enforcement and so what we must do is change the enforcement and that's my ask of the lawmakers to give the authority to the police department to go in to do inspections to confiscate now we have confiscated a substantial number of cannabis items illegal cigarettes flavored cigarettes we have been taking action but the ability to enforce is outpacing what we can actually do and then we have to have a lot make landlords accountable if you are knowingly leasing your space to someone who is selling illegal products you need to be held accountable also and we need to look at legislatively how to make that part of the nuisance abatement and those are my conversations I'm having with the state if we're not if we don't do get this right we're going to undermine the entire system and what has happened in Los Angeles and other locations will happen here we got too far ahead of ourselves in the legalization it should have been matched with the enforcement because if the enforcement is a $25 $50 fine and you you're making thousand dollars a day you know the shop across the street from us we rated twice and their attitude was hey you know what you're gonna give me a $50 fine a $25 fine and I'm making that in the first second just doesn't add up the laws don't we don't the laws don't don't allow them to do it right right right a duh and you know we do say duh in New York yes the a couple of things the the goal was to inspect our product and the person who's in charge of it he has a experience in inspections going out and expected product not to be punitive you know think about it we we don't have any quality assurance of our product how do we know that if you are a constituent going in to get a birth certificate that people are treating you in a humane way how do we know that how do we know that when you walked in and you asked for birth certificate that people gave you a correct information and so our goal is of that unit is to go in do visual inspections do inspections on the product that we're delivering to taxpayers and make recommendations on how we improve it and the person who's in charge of that unit has years of doing inspection not only in police to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing but also in how we're making sure the quality of the product that we're receiving I want to make sure the product that taxpayers deserve they're actually getting and you can't do that if someone is not out there seeing what kind of quality of insurance are we getting some of the yes yet the the PC is going to be given a full briefing on that I think she's going around three she'll give you an overview I know that one of the incidents is a real horrific story a father was raising his children young children and he was the one that died in this incident I visited two of the other families at the hospital and it was just a it was a it's a horrific incident and our office is going to try to is going to be there for the family as much as we can but it was just really despicable what happened to them but the police commissioner would be giving an update what is it like when you say that what is that me do I have a boo I'm in love with the city and I would be out making sure that everyone could have a safe Valentine's Day and enjoy it