If Americans were hoping that two of the country’s most prominent politicians would make strong, thoughtful, empathetic statements and actions in response to Jordan Neely’s horrific killing in New York City on Wednesday afternoon, they were ultimately left disappointed—and more than a bit furious.
Shortly after Neely was suffocated to death on the subway, cellphone footage of the encounter went viral, publicizing how a white passenger, identified in many news outlets as a Marine, placed the unhoused Black subway performer in a fatal chokehold, with the assistance of riders who restrained Neely’s arms. The cameraman told the New York Times that Neely had boarded the train yelling that he lacked food and was “fed up”: “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.” The cellphone holder further noted that Neely “had not assaulted anyone”; police sources told the New York Daily News that he had thrown bits of garbage at some passengers, which provoked an argument with the Marine.
Whatever one makes of these reports, it shouldn’t be difficult to say that the 30-year-old Neely obviously did not deserve to die, and that a nearly 15-minute-long chokehold involving multiple assailants was an alarming overreaction to his cries of distress. But New York’s most powerful officials couldn’t even clear that bar.
Mayor Eric Adams, who has been touted as the future of the national Democratic Party, simply proclaimed that “any loss of life is tragic” and that, while he’d “refrain from commenting further,” he understood that “there were serious mental health issues at play here” and boasted that his “administration has made record investments in providing care to those who need it.” Later, when CNN Primetime’s Abby D. Phillip asked him whether such acts of “vigilantism” are permissible, Adams further demurred: “We cannot just blanketly say what a passenger should or should not do on a situation like that.” He was more aggressive in responding to city Comptroller Brad Lander’s statement that “we must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequence”—claiming the tweet was an “irresponsible” means of “interfering” with the Manhattan district attorney’s ongoing investigation.
Gov. Kathy Hochul hardly did better in her initial declaration that “there are consequences for behavior.” It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that Hochul clarified she meant that the killer should face consequences, although she hesitated to deem the Marine a “vigilante.” Neither Adams nor Hochul mentioned the fact that the city’s medical examiner determined Neely’s death to be a homicide on Wednesday itself. And they both seemed happy to talk up large investments toward “mental health,” while neglecting to explain just what kinds of services they were funding, or what those would do to prevent another homicide of this nature.
Perhaps that’s because they have both proposed sweeping cuts to New York social services.
Both Hochul and Adams finalized their budget proposals only recently, following lengthy delays and controversies, so actually, the public can see for itself whether they’re serious about mental health investments. When Eric Adams presented his desired budget back in January, local outlet Hell Gate reported at the time that the proposed municipal workforce cuts for his already-understaffed administration would mean that “agencies like the Department of Transportation are far less capable of creating safer streets, and the Human Resources Administration is less able to process food stamps quickly or find more permanent housing to get families out of the City’s shelter system.”
Not that any cuts applied to the amply funded police corps, of course—in fact, by April, Adams had reached a deal with NYC’s biggest police union to grant annual raises locked in for eight years (and retroactive to 2017) that would total over $5 billion, adding even more to the cop coffers. These are the same police forces who’ve proved time and again to be ineffectual at best (and trigger-happy at worst) when it comes to addressing New Yorkers’ mental health. After all, New York’s finest weren’t there to help Neely, but their own history of mishandling mental health emergencies provides no confidence they could’ve de-escalated the situation and saved Neely’s life. (Should you point this out, Adams might be cool with putting you on a police-response blacklist.)
The mayor did back down on his early demands to cut funding to libraries and city-backed cultural services, while also maintaining current levels of public school funding (although he’d already slashed education spending in last year’s budget). Yet, Adams demanded across-the-board agency funding cuts, including for the Homeless Services and Youth and Community Development departments. And while he touted the continued funding of a pilot program that dispatches licensed professionals instead of cops to respond to 911 calls for mental health crises, he offered no solution to the fact that the large majority of these calls are still routed directly to the NYPD. Throughout the past year, Adams proved more than willing to dispatch law enforcement squads against unhoused and mentally ill New Yorkers, whether to forcefully clear out makeshift encampments or involuntarily detain “those who are suffering from mental illness.” That punitive logic underlies his budget: While there are a few million-dollar disbursements delegated for “Deepening Resources for New Yorkers Facing Mental Health Challenges,” including telehealth services and peer-support clubhouses, there’s far more money offered to the places that could lock them up, to the tune of $11 billion.
As for Gov. Kathy Hochul, her $229 billion state budget carries some welcome provisions—boosts to health care and public transit—but falls far short of what New Yorkers need in terms of housing, caregiving services, minimum wage boosts, assistance for migrants, and protections for tenants facing surging rents, housing and shelter shortages, and impatient landlords. There’s an additional emphasis on law enforcement as an all-around solution: increasing police presence on the subways, sending the National Guard to oversee homeless shelters, empowering judges to detain residents accused of crimes without hope for bail. The $1 billion mental-health package does address some urgent issues by increasing psychiatric treatment capacity and supportive housing. What remains to be seen is just how Hochul will implement her proffered solutions. Her past efforts with Eric Adams to tackle subway safety took a harsh approach when it came to monitoring unhoused subway passengers, forcing them into underresourced facilities, expanding outpatient services, and stuffing even more cops onto the trains. All that as they’ve made NYC’s public spaces more hostile to unhoused New Yorkers by taking away seating and adding spikes to ledges. Same as it ever was: The armed public servants get more than what they need, the rest don’t get nearly enough, and it doesn’t end well for anybody, especially those unable to access affordable long-term housing, food supplies, or adequate health care.
Jordan Neely’s hometown failed him—it couldn’t even provide him a stable home and life. The reportedly autistic young entertainer, whose spot-on Michael Jackson impressions often went viral and brought joy to countless New Yorkers for over a decade, was denied a stable life by employers who didn’t understand his condition and cops who arrested him dozens of times instead of pointing him to the help he could have used. When New York’s elected officials continue to embrace aggression against the unhoused, brutal stances on criminal justice, and public-service austerity, other New Yorkers follow by choosing cruelty over compassion. And when they waffle on why a houseless person shouldn’t be killed for complaining about his circumstances, they only pave the way for more deaths to come. Adams and Hochul may say they’re doing what they can for New Yorkers’ mental health. Their actions clearly don’t back that up.
