New York City Mayor Eric Adams makes shock intervention in Daniel Penny case

New York Mayor Eric Adams defended the actions of Daniel Penny, whose trial over the use of a fatal chokehold on homeless man Jordan Neely is now in the hands of a jury.

Adams, 64, joined the Rob Astorino show on Saturday, where the pair briefly discussed the trial that has gripped the city since the former Marine was accused of killing Neely on the F train in Manhattan in May 2023.

‘Those passengers were scared. I’ve been on the subway system. “I know what it’s like as a police officer to wrestle or fight with someone,” he told the host.

“It is imperative that we look at the totality of this problem.”

Adams praised Penny, 26, for her action-oriented approach in response to Neely’s threats to passengers that day.

“We’re sitting on the subway and we hear someone talking about hurting people, killing people,” the mayor said.

“You have someone on that subway who responded and did what we should have done as a city in a state of mental health crisis.”

Adams added that photos circulating showing Penny as a subway performer posing as Michael Jackson distorted public perception.

“It looked like it was a young, innocent child being brutally murdered, and it gave that impression,” the mayor said.

“If you look at the photo that was used, it wanted to get into people’s minds that we were dealing with a young, innocent child, just a Michael Jackson impersonator who had just been brutally attacked.”

Neely, 30, had a lengthy criminal record and a history of mental illness. When the Michael Jackson impersonator boarded the F train that day, he began threatening passengers and saying he wasn’t afraid of going back to jail.

Penny grabbed him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground, where he suppressed him for several minutes on the train.

Video footage shows Neely struggling to get out of the hold before eventually going limp, despite passengers telling the former soldier to let go.

Penny now faces manslaughter and negligent homicide charges as prosecutors accuse him of unjustifiably using deadly force.

He has denied being guilty of the charges. Penny faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted.

His lawyers argue that Penny was only trying to protect others on the subway.

For Adams, who was recently charged by federal authorities, the case was about more than whether Penny would spend time behind bars, but about the failed system in New York City, which he has led since January 2022.

“You’re looking at the complete failure of our mental health system, a complete failure,” he said on the show. “From the time when psychiatric wards were closed and those who needed help simply took to the streets without providing any safety net to accept them.

‘What are we doing? A system where you took people to hospitals, gave them medicine for one day and then sent them back.’

He called the Big Apple’s mental health system a “revolving door” that Neely — like many others — kept spinning through.

“We need to recognize that we have a mental health crisis and we are not doing enough to solve it,” the mayor said.

Penny’s case is currently being deliberated as a jury of seven women and five men decide his fate.

Adams — who became the first New York mayor ever to be indicted while in office — also criticized the city’s migrant problem, pleading for state funds to help support the massive influx.

At the beginning of the year, Adams begged Governor Kathy Hochul for $4.6 billion to cover the costs of migrants pouring into the sanctuary city.

Busloads of migrants from Florida and Texas were shipped to New York, further damaging the City That Never Sleep system.

The heavy influx eventually prompted Adams to make a trip to Latin America – where many migrants come from – to warn them that they won’t get a “five-star hotel experience” in the city, hoping to convince others to make alternative plans . .

On Saturday, Adams revealed that it has cost the city $6.4 billion to cover the migrant crisis.

He recently shocked reporters and residents when he said he would “love” to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar candidate Tom Homan to deport criminal migrants.

The Democratic politician, who has indicated he will run for a second term in 2025, said he is not afraid of being “canceled” by being “honest about the truth” when it comes to immigration.

“Those who commit crimes here — robberies, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people — have been a detriment to our country,” former NYPD Captain Adams, 64, said at a news conference Tuesday.

“Those are the people I’m talking about and I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we’re going to tackle those who harm our citizens.”