Mayor Eric Adams faced Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany on Tuesday to ask for action on a number of high-profile issues, including expanding the city’s power to remove mentally ill New Yorkers from public places. , the Post reported.
Sources said the pullers gathered for an hour in an office on the second floor of the National Assembly building in Hochul, where Adams’ to-do list also includes amending the controversial evidence law and implementing tax cuts for low-income households. It is said that it was
Adams also met with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to further lobby state legislators for New York City benefits.
“What I was pleased about was that both the governor and the speaker took the position that I have been advocating that we need to put money back into the pockets of working-class people,” Adams said in an interview with the Post editorial. spoke. I will be boarding from Tuesday onwards.
“I asked them to look at our… taxes on working class people. We don’t need money from Albany, but we need their recognition and our mental health crisis,” he said. said, with particular reference to involuntary dismissal and coercion.
The mayor asked Hochul to support a measure that would expand the authority to execute severely mentally ill vagrants beyond doctors in psychiatric wards, officials said.
Adams’ controversial involuntary commitment movement, which began in 2022, received a new boost last month after mentally ill homeless Ramon Rivera, 51, allegedly stabbed three New Yorkers to death. It took on a level of urgency.
Last week’s acquittal of Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who strangled Jordan Neely to death after causing trouble with his Michael Jackson impersonation on a crowded subway, also left New Yorkers confused. This has spurred concerns over the issue.
Adams defended Penny’s actions but said Neely should not have died.
“When you look at this young man who was repeatedly taking advantage of our system, he needed help,” he said of Neely on GMGT Live’s “Reset Talk Show” last week.
“He needed help, and we didn’t give him any.”
Mr Heastie told the Post that any changes to the involuntary pledge would need to be taken up in the next parliament.
“I still don’t think prison is a place to help people with serious mental health issues and we need to address this issue,” Ms Heastie said.
The mayor also pushed for changes to “discovery” rules that require prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense attorneys in a short period of time, a rule that many officials say has led to a spike in failed cases. are.
Heastie said the state’s Chief Justice Rowan Wilson and Chief Executive Judge Joseph Zayas have told him they are working on a plan to bring more “uniformity” to the discovery process.
But Mr Heastie said: “I have not heard of any requests for changes at the time of discovery.”
Mr. Adams’ powwow with the governor, and the opportunity to argue New York City’s case, came during a trip to Albany to participate in the procedural Electoral College vote led by Mr. Hochul.
