AOC blames Eric Adams for ‘demonizing the poor’ after Jordan Neely death
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a swing at Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, saying that Jordan Neely — the homeless man who was choked to death on the subway last week — was “killed by the demonizing of the poor by many of our leaders.”
Neely, 30, was having a mental episode and threatening straphangers when another subway rider, later identified as 24-year-old former Marine Daniel Penny, placed him in a chokehold, which killed him.
Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday blamed the Big Apple’s leaders.
“Jordan Neely was killed by public policy. He was killed by the demonizing of the poor by many of our leaders,” the far-left congresswoman told the Cut in an interview Tuesday.
“He was killed by the same reluctance for people to see him as human that leaders are exhibiting right now, even in his death,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez also railed about the high cost of living in New York City driving homelessness — and the lack of support homeless and mentally ill New Yorkers receive.
“Every single one of us is at the brink right now. Rents have skyrocketed to these absolutely extortionate prices. When housing prices go up, homelessness goes up. It’s not a grand mystery,” the 33-year-old said.
The Democratic firebrand said she was “dismayed” to see the response to Neely’s death at the highest levels — and blamed Adams for gutting funding for services that she says could have prevented his death, such as homelessness and mental health services.
“You have the victim himself talking about how it would be easier to be incarcerated than to access support in the city. That is the Adams administration’s policy,” Ocasio-Cortez charged.
The Bronx Democrat also remarked that de-escalation is a skill set everyone could benefit from learning and that Neely likely could have benefited from a small gesture of humanity.
When asked about her previously calling Neely’s death a murder, she replied: “I would like everyone to pretend that was their son. I would like anyone to look at that video, see their son, and see if they would say the same thing.”
Hizzoner was quick to hit back at the congresswoman at the time, calling the comments irresponsible “at the time where we are still investigating the situation.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, Adams cautioned that the investigation into Neely’s death “are still being investigated.”
“While we have no control over that process, one thing we can control is how our city responds to this tragedy,” he told reporters.
“One thing we can say for sure: Jordan Neely did not deserve to die,” Adams added. “And all of us must work together to do more for our brothers and sisters struggling with serious mental illness.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments came after Adams made the lightning-rod case about himself by mentioning his own son — who is also named Jordan.
“My heart breaks that we lost young Jordan,” Adams said Tuesday before adding, “Many people missed the fact that Jordan is my son’s name.”
In her latest comments, AOC called out Adams and other leaders for making superficial gestures about mental health and housing resources instead of monetary investments in such services.
“There’s a hypocrisy to the way many officials talk about public safety. All these responses are acting as though Neely was the aggressor here, when he was the one who was murdered,” she said.
“There’s all this talk about making our public spaces safer, and a person literally killed another human being on the subway.”
She noted the entire situation “has to do with race and class” and that “most of us are closer to Neely than we are to a billionaire.”
“When you create a situation where harming a certain class of people may be excused, then we incentivize this kind of behavior. Anybody can point to anybody else and say, ‘Oh, well, I was scared of them.'”
Additional reporting by Steve Janoski and Nolan Hicks
