Mayor Eric Adams attempted to quell fears about subway crime after a fatal subway attack at an East Harlem train station on Monday, citing recidivism and severe mental illness as contributors to violent crimes in the city.
Carlton McPherson, a 24-year-old man from the Bronx, was charged with murder after pushing a man in front of a northbound 4 train at 125th St. and Lexington Ave. on Monday night. The mayor said that mental illness was a factor in the fatal attack.
Adams said in a news conference on Tuesday that the city is confronting three challenges: recidivism, severe mental illness and random acts of violence. “All of them played out last night,” Adams said, noting that many of the acts of violence on the subway are conducted by repeat offenders.
The attack comes more than a year into Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to address severe mental illness, which emphasized a directive to involuntarily hospitalize people with behavioral health concerns that pose a threat to themselves or others. The plan ordered police officers and emergency medical providers to make these transports, drawing criticism from elected officials and advocates who said relying on law enforcement to solve a public health crisis was inherently flawed and could harm people with mental illnesses.
As a part of its approach to addressing severe mental illness, the city keeps tabs on two “Top 50 lists,” which include people with mental illnesses who have gone untreated.
Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for City Hall, said that the city does not share the names of people on its Top 50 lists for privacy reasons. She did not answer questions about whether or not city agencies had McPherson on their radar, nor whether he previously received city mental health or social services.
The subway attack occurred at the same time as a shooting that killed Police Officer Jonathan Diller on Monday night while he was making a traffic stop in Far Rockaway, pointing to further concerns around gun violence and safety.
Adams said that high-profile attacks like the alleged murder in East Harlem lead to misleading narratives about the state of New York City, pointing to upticks in jobs and declines in crimes since the start of his term.
Since the city unveiled its mental health plan, officials say they’ve made progress on placing people experiencing mental illnesses and homelessness into care. In November, Adams said that the city removed an average of 137 people a week from the streets into care or stable housing. Mental health officials say they’ve relied on involuntary hospitalizations to reach individuals on the city’s Top 50 lists.
Despite these statistics, high-profile attacks on public transit raise questions about the city’s efforts to address the mental health crisis. Gov. Kathy Hochul attempted to quash public fears about subway safety earlier this month by ordering members of the National Guard and State Police to stand in subway stations, and the mayor ordered more police officers to patrol the tracks.
Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor of health and human services, said in Tuesday’s news conference that the city is continuing to push to pass the Supportive Interventions Act, which would make changes to its ability to deploy involuntary removals. The changes would include expanding the types of clinicians who could make determinations about involuntary hospitalization, as well as allowing providers to look further back into a patient’s history.
“There’s some real common sense parts of this legislation that we think is very important,” Williams-Isom said.
Amanda D'Ambrosio , 2024-03-26 21:05:40
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