Voices Politicizing NYC Subway Death Opposed Mayor’s Plan for Severe Mentally Ill

Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to deploy EMT and police to hospitalize severely mentally-ill people from public transit faced protests and court challenges from the left.

The system failed Jordan Neely.

The 30-year old suffered unimaginable setbacks early in life with the brutal murder of his mother. He struggled for over a decade on the streets with schizophrenia, PTSD and depression. Despite his repeated interactions with government employees — with case workers, doctors, law enforcement, and subway workers over the years — the state never stepped in with lasting mental health services.

Rather than a focused discourse on the structures that could have rehabilitated Neely earlier, when he desperately needed intervention, many on the left are prioritizing a polarized racial narrative that is distracting from the core issue of reform. Instead of an overhaul of how New York City treats the severely mentally ill and ensures public safety on the subway, many politicians are stoking public anger with incendiary rhetoric.

The loudest voices politicizing this tragedy are those who attempted to derail vital public services for the severely mentally ill.

New York City Council Member Chi Ossé denounced Neely’s death as “the murder of a mentally ill Black man who was killed by a blood thirsty vigilante.” Tiffany Cabán, another member of the council, tweeted approvingly of a thread that mused that one of the men who restrained Neely was motivated by “racialized bias and nationalistic bigotry.”

VOCAL-NY, a left-wing criminal justice reform group, claimed in a statement that Neely had been "lynched," and that the incident showed that a "white man can kill a Black man and be released without charge.” The New York Civil Liberties Union similarly claimed Neely’s death was the result of the stigmatization of “people of color.”

Yet just months ago, the NYCLU, VOCAL-NY, Ossé and Cabán were leading the charge against a proposed expansion of government services designed to prevent the type of incident that occurred this week. They protested New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to deploy emergency responders and police to, if necessary, involuntarily commit severely mentally ill people who pose a threat to themselves or to the public. 

Under Adams’ plan, the teams of mental health case workers, health care professionals, EMTs and cops would first try to persuade these individuals to voluntarily admit themselves to medical facilities. As a last resort though, these teams would have the power to coerce mental treatment for people -- on the streets or in the subways -- exhibiting extremely erratic or psychotic behavior. When Adams unveiled the plan last November, he immediately faced legal challenges and protests from left-wing politicians and organizations.

Ossé scorned the measure as simply a ploy for police to “just arrest homeless people and throw them into hospitals and jails,” while Cabán, who supports abolishing and defunding all policing, called the Adams plan “deeply problematic.” The NYCLU derided the plan as a “failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care.” VOCAL-NY, which also supports abolishing police, similarly denounced the proposal, and claimed that "the lives of people dealing with mental health crises won’t be improved by forcing them into treatment.”

Questions linger about what exactly happened on the F train in Manhattan last Monday. Witnesses and law enforcement said Neely burst into a train car, threatening passengers while screaming that he was desperate for food and willing to go to prison for life.

In response, a group of passengers began restraining Neely. A young man, who appeared white and was later identified as Daniel Penny, a veteran of the U.S. Marines, responded to Neely’s conduct by putting him in a head and leg lock while two other men -- whose racial identities are unclear -- assisted in physically restraining him, according to a cell phone video from another passenger, which captured only part of the struggle.

Penny and the other passengers involved in restraining Neely have not been charged.

Before his death, Neely had a warrant for his arrest for allegedly punching a 67-year old woman as she exited at a subway station in the East Village in 2021. The victim of his assault was reportedly knocked to the ground and suffered a broken nose and orbital bone, according to the New York Daily News. Neely had been arrested over 40 other times, including for punching Filemon Castillo Baltazar, a 64-year old man in the face at a Greenwich Village subway station and for kidnapping a 7-year old girl.

Baltazar, who was attacked by Neely at the Greenwich Village subway station, told reporters this week that the man clearly needed mental health services. “He should have been in some rehab center," said Baltazar.

What is publicly known about Neely’s life suggests a dramatic decline in mental health as a result of a series of traumatic life events. In 2007, Neely's mother was brutally murdered by his stepfather, who stuffed her body into a piece of luggage and left it along the Henry Hudson Parkway. Neely was forced to testify at the trial. "The relationship had been crazy ... a fight every day," said Neely, according to a 2012 report on NJ.com.

This week, Neely’s aunt Carolyn said that her sister’s death had permanently scarred her nephew.

“My sister Christie was murdered in ’07 and after that, [Jordan Neely] has never been the same,” Carolyn Neely, told the New York Post. “It had a big impact on him. He developed depression and it grew and became more serious. He was schizophrenic, PTSD. Doctors knew his condition and he needed to be treated for that.”

Neely drifted into homelessness and became a frequent Michael Jackson impersonator on subways and in Times Square. Decade-old videos that resurfaced online after Neely’s death show him dancing joyfully on passenger cars. But even in this period, contemporaneous Reddit threads from nine years ago suggested a streak of violent behavior. One user discussed a Michael Jackson impersonator who fit the description and image of Neely and described him as a “maniac,” who “was angry as fuck, cursing and bad mouthing commuters” when his radio malfunctioned. 

Cities across the country have grappled with how to deal with severely mentally-ill people living, or spending significant time, in public spaces. Many of these same people struggle with drug or alcohol addiction, compounding the challenges associated with both getting them the help they need and ensuring that city residents feel safe on public transit systems. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom of California last year backed a plan similar to the one proposed by Adams, a fellow Democrat. Newsom’s proposal would steer those suffering from psychotic disorders on the streets into specialized mental health care facilities. Unlike the Adams plan, which relies on a reinterpretation of existing statute, the California system signed into law is based on a new court system specially designed for facilitating such cases. 

Both plans have faced opposition from organizations that oppose any involuntary mental health services. Critics often charge that any such direct intervention is simply a form of incarceration.

While it has become fashionable among many on the left to decry involuntary mental care for the severely ill as ineffective, policy research offers support for both sides of the debate.

The evidence on involuntary treatment is evolving and highly dependent on various factors, including the types of treatment provided once an individual is hospitalized. One study published by the journal European Psychiatry showed patients receiving involuntary admission into mental health care with improved symptoms and more positive attitudes towards care. Another study, published in PLOS One, similarly showed "significant but limited symptom improvements after coerced hospital admission."

Still, reasonable questions remain about rights of those committed and due process. The New York mental hygiene law requires multiple levels of review before an individual is committed and allows for those committed to petition the court for removal from hospitalization.

A thoughtful discussion of the appropriate policy response has been lacking. While voices on the left have attempted to incite maximum anger by injecting extreme racial rhetoric into the debate, many prominent media outlets covering the Neely death have also neglected to report on his history of violence and dozens of prior arrests. Perhaps acknowledging that Neely was prone to erratic and even menacing behavior would complicate the left-wing narrative that he was “lynched” in an act of racism.

Since March 2020, at least 27 people have been murdered on the New York subway. Many of these homicides have been committed by mentally-ill people with a history of aggressive behavior at stations. Last year, in an incident that garnered international headlines, a New York resident named Michelle Go was shoved into a train by a man with a history of mental illness.

A poll conducted last year by NY1/Siena College found vast support for deploying more New York Police Department officers on the subway. Among income groups, support was highest for those making less than $50,000 a year, and among racial groups polled, Black New Yorkers responded with support for more police at the highest rate, at 91%. The same poll showed broad support across racial, socioeconomic, and age groups for "making it easier to admit those who are dangerous to the public, or themselves to mental health facilities."

For many residents, the stilted politics around crime and public safety have become intolerable. A recent New York Times article notably mentions Neely’s life as a former Michael Jackson impersonator while neglecting to report on any of his recent arrests or acts of violence towards passengers.

"I was on this train and encountered this man just before this happened," wrote Times reader Martin Goodall in the comment section. "He was violently threatening passengers, including women and children. This happens almost every time I get on the subway now."

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images. Protesters gather for a "Justice for Jordan Neely" rally in Washington Square Park on May 05, 2023 in New York City.