Mayor Adams attempted on Thursday morning to explain his reticence on Daniel Penny, the man who put Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold last week on a subway train, saying any remarks he makes could come back to haunt a potential prosecution.
Adams, who took questions in City Hall a day after delivering a speech about Neely, said he’s remained silent about Penny out of a concern that whatever he says could potentially be viewed as tainting the case.
“It’s important not to interfere as the mayor of the city in those parts that the police department has yet to take their action. The police respond to me, and I don’t want — if this case goes to trial or anywhere further — I don’t want someone talking about changing venues, that the mayor tainted [the case],” Adams, a former NYPD captain, said Thursday morning.
“I dealt with the things that are within my span of control that I’ve been advocating for from the Day 1 that I got into office, and the DA will make the determination on how to handle this case, and I respect that, I respect DA Bragg’s job and what he has to do.”
Later that day, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that Penny, a former Marine, would be charged with second-degree manslaughter. And on Thursday night, Adams put out a written statement in which he publicly mentioned Penny by name, the first time he’s done so since Neely’s death last week.
“I appreciate DA Bragg conducting a thorough investigation into the death of Jordan Neely,” Adams said. “I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now justice can move forward against Daniel Penny.”
Penny is expected to turn himself in on Friday.
Neely, a Black homeless man who was known for his Michael Jackson impersonations, was accosting passengers on an F train on May 1, and, according to witnesses, said during his tirade that he was “ready to die.”
Penny, a white former Marine, intervened by putting Neely in a chokehold for several minutes until he went limp, and later, died.
The medical examiner’s office has ruled Neely’s death a homicide. Penny’s attorneys have said that he acted in self defense.
Left-leaning elected officials have been attacking Adams for days for not speaking more forcefully about Neely’s death and, until Thursday night, for remaining silent about Penny’s role in it.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams took a different approach from the mayor.
“The fact that Daniel Penny was not charged after killing Jordan stands in stark contrast to the way that other New Yorkers, especially people of color, are treated and certainly would have been treated,” she said. “There must be accountability for Jordan’s killing at the hands of another person.”
Asked what she made of the mayor’s reluctance to condemn Penny’s actions, Speaker Adams told the Daily News, “I have no idea why the mayor does or speaks the way he does.”
Bronx Councilman Kevin Riley, who’s Black, also suggested earlier Thursday, before the announcement from Bragg, that police would have already brought charges if Neely were white.
“When it happens to us, we don’t get the same justification or the same leeway as our counterparts,” Riley said. “When it comes to Black people, we just want the same level of respect.”
Earlier that day, Adams elaborated on why he’s focusing more of his attention on public policy — and relatively little of it on criminal charges.
“I need to prevent. And let’s be clear, let’s be honest — there are more Jordans out there,” he said. “We need to make sure we prevent these things from happening. That is within my span of control.”
Despite that rationale, Adams has previously weighed in publicly on pending cases within the NYPD’s purview.
Last July, after 35-year-old Austin Simon was knifed to death by Harlem bodega clerk Jose Alba, Adams spoke up for the clerk, saying at the time that he acted in self-defense.
Adams also suggested that Bragg was wrong for bringing a case against Alba, who the mayor described at the time as “an innocent, hardworking New Yorker that was doing his job.”
Ultimately, Bragg dropped the case against Alba, a move Adams called “the right decision.”
More recently in March, comments from Adams and police brass on pending cases resulted in a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruling the city violated the law when Adams, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and the department’s Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri cited hundreds of sealed arrests of ten New Yorkers at a press conference.
During the press conference, Lepetri revealed detailed information about their arrest histories and called them “the worst of the worst.” Adams was asked whether the names would be released and responded: “Trust me, I want to.”
“Sometimes I don’t know why we hire lawyers,” the mayor said at the time. “They said we can’t show the name and faces, so I have to abide by the rules.”
In the following days, news articles surfaced that revealed the identities of the people Adams and Lepetri were speaking of, causing a judge to find that the city did not, in fact, abide by the rules.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said he was heartened that the mayor has taken some time to talk about Neely, but said some things have been missing from the mayor’s rhetoric, including how Neely died.
“The mayor and the administration have commented on cases before,” Williams said. “So I’m not understanding why this one is actually different.”
This week and last, though, when it comes to Neely’s case, Adams has suggested his role is more narrow and has stuck largely to talking about policy prescriptions, such as passing a law that clarifies the government’s ability to involuntarily hold mentally ill people for inpatient treatment.
“People who are dealing with a severe mental health illness can’t make the determination [of] what type of care they want,” he said. “When we rolled this out, everyone was attacking us, just about.”
With Chris Sommerfeldt
