This wasn't on my 2024 bingo card.
Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams is publicly defending Daniel Penny and his heroic actions.
NEW: NYC mayor Eric Adams defends Daniel Penny for protecting subway passengers, blasts the media for portraying Jordan Neely as an "innocent child."
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 5, 2024
Adams said Penny did what New York City "should have done as a city."
"You have someone on that subway who was responding, doing… pic.twitter.com/CO7r6GdeD4
Penny is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a black homeless man with a lengthy rap sheet who threatened to kill others, including women and children, aboard a busy NYC subway car on May 1, 2023. Penny, a fellow passenger, stepped in to subdue a rampaging Neely, and Neely was later pronounced dead at a hospital hours after the encounter.
Adams appeared on a November 30 episode of "The Rob Astorino Show," where he praised Penny for "doing what we should have done as a city," protecting the people of New York.
"The young man [Neely], in this case, was going within our system, throughout the revolving door of our system. Now, we're on the subway where we're hearing someone talking about hurting people, killing people," Adams told the show's titular host, formerly a GOP candidate for New York governor. "You have someone [Penny] on that subway who was responding — doing what we should have done as a city."
"Those passengers were afraid," Adams added. "I've been on the subway system. I know what it is like as a police officer to wrestle or fight with someone."
Adams went on to criticize the city's mental health support system.
"Then you look at the complete failure of our mental health system, a complete failure 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," an incensed Adams said.
In 2022, Adams faced criticism from the far-left when he announced a plan to hospitalize some severely mentally ill residents involuntarily, stressing the city's "moral obligation to act." At a news conference, Adams had noted that these individuals "cycle in and out" of jail.
Neely was schizophrenic and high on K2, a powerful drug possessing effects similar to cocaine's potency. The toxicology report found that he had the synthetic substance, which can trigger psychosis and violent outbursts, in his system.
Adams also slammed the mainstream media's biased coverage portraying Neely, once a Michael Jackson impersonator, in a sympathetic light to skew the public's perception of the case. He specifically took issue with the published photo of a young Neely dressed as Michael Jackson, which establishment news outlets widely circulated.
"It seemed like it was a young innocent child who was brutally murdered, and it gave that impression," Adams 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 that, you know, just a Michael Jackson imitator that was brutally assaulted."
Neely had a violent history of attacking innocent people riding the subway. In 2021, he punched an elderly woman, breaking the orbital bones in her eyesocket, as she exited a train station in Lower Manhattan.
Between January 2020 and August 2021, he was arrested three times: for public lewdness after pulling his pants down and exposing himself to a female stranger; misdemeanor assault for socking a woman in the face; and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order. However, all three cases were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
At the time of Neely's death, there was an active warrant out for his arrest.
During closing arguments, the defense told jurors: "The government wasn't there. The police weren't there. Danny was."
"And when he needed help, no one was there. The government has the nerve to blame Danny because police weren't there. Blame Danny for holding on when police weren't there," Penny's defense attorney Steven Raiser said.
Penny faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
Jury deliberations began on Tuesday following a month-long trial.
Adams said he hoped jurors would "make the right decision" when rendering Penny's verdict.
"I'm hoping that the jury will hear all the facts, based on all the facts that's laid out, a jury of his peers would make the right decision," he stated.
"That could have easily been a case where you saw three innocent people murdered on our street two weeks ago," Adams said Saturday, referencing a recent mid-November deadly stabbing spree in Manhattan.
"It is imperative that we look at the totality of this problem," Adams urged.
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