Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), a Democrat from New York, and Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, clashed on Thursday over the death of a homeless man in the subway.
Ocasio-Cortez expressed her shock and indignation on Wednesday night over “the murder” of Jordan Neely, a man detained by his fellow subway riders after having a mental breakdown while ranting at and threatening other riders.
According to reports, a 24-year-old Marine veteran choked Neely for roughly 15 minutes. Two more passengers held Neeley down, pinning his shoulders and arms.
Adams criticized AOC for leaping to the conclusion that Neely was “murdered.”
The Mayor was also attacked by City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has said that people are praising the fact that the problematic 30-year-old homeless guy was choked to death by a vigilante “without consequence.”
Adams, when asked about both inciting tweets on “CNN Primetime” late Wednesday night, stated he doesn’t think it is very responsible when they are still investigating the situation.
He urged that the District Attorney and the police be allowed to make their own inquiry. He said it would be inappropriate to intervene at this time.
According to Adams, Landers’ haste to judgment was especially problematic, given that he began his tweet by stating, “NYC is not Gotham.” Adams reminded Landers that “the comptroller’s a city-wide leader.”
Adams emphasized that we don’t know exactly what happened regarding the tragic chokehold on the F train in downtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon.
When asked whether or not subway riders should “take matters into their own hands,” Adams aptly responded, “Each situation is different.”
He said as a former transit police officer, he was called to many events involving passengers providing aid to strangers. As a result, we can’t give passengers a hard-and-fast rule about what to do in an emergency.
According to eyewitnesses, another straphanger, later identified as a 24-year-old Marine from Queens, dragged Neely down from behind and put him in a chokehold for about 15 minutes while experiencing a mental episode.
Ocasio-Cortez branded Adam’s muted response to Neely’s death “a new low” for failing to label it a murder.
On Wednesday night, dozens of protesters gathered at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station to hold a vigil for Neely. Protesters yelled things like “Black Lives Matter” and “F— Eric Adams” from the stage.
