(Headline USA) New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other leftists who claimed this week that a mentally ill man who was harassing residents on the subway was “murdered.”
Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a lengthy arrest record, was reportedly yelling at people on the New York City subway this week when he was put in a chokehold by a Marine, the New York Post reported. Neely was transported to the hospital after being detained by police and died later that afternoon.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed in a tweet that Neel was “choked to death by a vigilante without consequence” and demanded that the Marine be charged with murder.
“Jordan Neel was murdered,” she said. “But because Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting.”
Adams, however, said Ocasio-Cortez ought to wait for an investigation into the incident before rushing to judgment.
“I don’t think that’s very responsible at a time when we’re still investigating the situation,” he told CNN. “Let’s let the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials, to really interfere with that is not the right thing to do. And I’m going to be responsible and allow them to do their job and allow them to determine what exactly happened here.”
In a separate statement, Adams pledged his continued support for “providing care to those who need it and getting people off the streets and the subways, and out of dangerous situations.”
“And I need all elected officials and advocacy groups to join us in prioritizing getting people the care they need and not just allowing them to languish,” he added.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to Adams’s statement, calling it “a new low.”
“This honestly feels like a new low: not being able to clearly condemn a public murder because the victim was of a social status some would deem ‘too low’ to care about,” she said. “The last sentence is especially rich from an admin trying to cut the very services that could have helped him.”
