Eric Adams says we need laws for involuntary removal of homeless people
New York City Mayor Eric Adams re-upped his calls for the involuntary removal of mentally ill homeless people after a recent deadly stabbing of three people.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams stood by his calls for the involuntary commitment of mentally ill homeless people on CNN Thursday.
"The Situation Room" host Wolf Blitzer asked Adams about a recent deadly stabbing in his city that killed three people. Adams said the news "shattered [his] heart" and was even more frustrated after learning the suspect was Ramon Rivera, a homeless man with a history of mental health issues and prior arrests.
In response, Adams told Blitzer that he had called for efforts to perform the "involuntary removal" of homeless people with severe mental health illnesses.
Ramon Rivera, 51, having been charged with three stabbing murders, is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD's 10th Precinct stationhouse on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"The success of our city has been overshadowed by random acts of violence, and many of them are associated with those with severe mental health illness. We need to have stronger laws that allow what‘s called involuntary removal. People who are a danger to themselves and a danger to others, we need to be able to take the action to involuntarily move them off the streets," Adams said.
He continued, "We‘re getting a lot of pushback and a lot of fight against that on every level of government. It‘s time for us to be serious about those with severe mental health illnesses, and don‘t wait until they take the life of three innocent New Yorkers. And that‘s what we‘re seeing often when you see someone shoved onto the subway track, random acts of violence, it is associated with a large number of people that are dealing with severe mental health issues."
Adams made similar comments at a press conference on Tuesday where he called on state leaders to begin helping him involuntarily relocate homeless citizens.
Mayor Eric Adams has called for removing mentally ill homeless people off the streets since 2022. (Getty Images)
"Everybody said I was inhumane, that we just want to institutionalize people," Adams said. "Well, this is the result. This is the result of not taking actions and ignoring people who need help."
"We have three New Yorkers who were murdered in our city by a person who was betrayed by the health care system," he added.
Adams has faced intense backlash from his fellow liberals since introducing a directive to NYPD, FDNY and housing personnel to start forcibly hospitalizing the unsheltered mentally ill in 2022.
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Mayor Adams spoke to CNN host Wolf Blitzer about plans to respond to the homeless crisis in his city. (CNN screenshot)
"The very nature of their illnesses keeps them from realizing they need intervention and support," the mayor said at the time. "Without that intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society, tormented by delusions and disordered thinking. They cycle in and out of hospitals and jails. But New Yorkers rightly expect our city to help them."
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