New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the actions of Daniel Penny, whose trial over the use of a fatal chokehold on homeless man Jordan Neely is now in the hands of a jury.
Adams, 64, joined the Rob Astorino Show on Saturday, where the pair briefly discussed the trial, which has gripped the city since the former Marine was accused of killing Neely on the an F train in Manhattan in May 2023.
‘Those passengers were afraid. I’ve been on the subway system. I know what it is as a police officer to wrestle or fight with someone,’ he told the host.
‘It is imperative that we look at the totality of this problem.’
Adams praised Penny, 26, for taking an action-based approach in response to Neely’s threats to passengers that day.
‘We’re on the subway where we’re hearing someone talking about hurting people, killing people,’ the mayor said.
‘You have someone on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city in a state of having a mental health facility.’
Adams added that photographs that circulated showing Penny as a subway performer impersonating Michael Jackson skewed the public’s perception.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, 64, joined the Rob Astorino Show on Saturday, where the pair briefly discussed the Daniel Penny trial, which has gripped the city since the former Marine was accused of killing homeless man Jordan Neely on the an F train in Manhattan in May 2023
‘It seemed like it was a young, innocent child who was brutally murdered, and it gave that impression,’ the mayor said.
‘When you look at the photo that was being used, it wanted to set up in the minds of people that we were dealing with a young, innocent child, just a Michael Jackson imitator that was just brutally assaulted.’
Neely, 30, had a long rap sheet and had a history of mental illness. When the Michael Jackson impersonator stepped on the F train that day, he began making threats at passengers and said he wasn’t afraid to go back to jail.
Penny grabbed him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground, where he subdued him for several minutes on the train.
Video footage shows Neely struggling to get out of the hold before eventually going limp, despite passengers telling the former soldier to let go.
Penny now faces manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges as prosecutors accuse him of using lethal force unjustifiably.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Penny faces up to 19 years behind bars if convicted.
His attorneys argue that Penny was only trying to protect others in the subway car.
For Adams, who was recently federally indicted, the case was about more than if Penny should spend time behind bars, but about the failing system in New York City, which he has run since January 2022.
‘You look at the complete failure of our mental health system, a complete failure,’ he said on the show. ‘From the days of closing psychiatric wards and having those who needed help just turned over into the street without giving any safety net to accept them.
‘What do we do? A system where you brought people into hospitals, gave them medicine for one day, and sent them back.’
Penny grabbed Nelly in a chokehold (pictured) and wrestled him to the ground, where he subdued him for several minutes on the train after Neely threatened passengers
Video footage shows Neely struggling to get out of the hold before eventually going limp, despite passengers telling the former soldier to let go
Neely, 30, had a long rap sheet and had a history of mental illness. Adams called the mental health system in the Big Apple a ‘revolving door’ and one that Neely – like many others – kept rotating through. He slammed the media for using this picture and others like it, that painted Neely as harmless
He called the mental health system in the Big Apple a ‘revolving door’ and one that Neely – like many others – kept rotating through.
‘We have to recognize we have a mental health crisis, and we’re not doing enough to solve it,’ the mayor said.
Penny’s case is currently in deliberations as a jury of seven women and five men decide his fate.
Adams – who became the first NYC mayor to ever be indicted in office – also criticized the migrant problem in the city, which saw him begging for state funds to help support the mass influx.
At the beginning of the year, Adams begged Governor Kathy Hochul for $4.6billion to cover the cost of the migrants flooding into the sanctuary city.
Busloads of migrants from Florida and Texas were shipped to NYC, which only hurt the City That Never Sleep’s system even more.
The heavy influx eventually led Adams to take a trip to Latin America – where many migrants are coming from – to warn them they won’t be getting a ‘five-star hotel’ experience in the city in hopes of convincing others to make alternative plans.
On Saturday, Adams revealed it cost the city $6.4billion to cover the migrant crisis.
He recently shocked journalists and residents when he said he would ‘love’ to work with President-Elect Donald Trump’s border czar nominee Tom Homan to deport criminal migrants.
The Democrat politician, who has signaled he will be running for a second term in 2025, said he is not afraid to be ‘canceled’ by being ‘honest about the truth’ when it comes to immigration.
‘Those who are here committing crimes – robberies, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people – have been a harm to our country,’ former NYPD captain Adams, 64, told a news conference on Tuesday.
‘Those are the people I am talking about and I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we’re going to address those who are harming our citizens.’
