Uptown Pol Speaks Out Against Mayor's Plan To Commit More Mentally Ill

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — An Upper Manhattan elected official has come out strongly against Mayor Eric Adams recently announced plan to involuntarily commit more severely mentally ill New Yorkers into hospitals.

The directive clarifies that not just people who are violent, suicidal or dangerous can be sent to the hospital against their will, but also those whose mental illness creates an "inability to meet" their own basic needs, Adams said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who represents Washington Heights and Inwood, calls the mayor's new plan — ""unconscionable."

"I agree with Mayor Adams that we must find solutions to this crisis facing unhoused New Yorkers suffering from mental illness," De La Rosa wrote as part of a long tweet thread. "However, it is unconscionable that in the midst of seeking solutions, Mayor Adams and his administration are turning to forced interactions with law enforcement and involuntary hospitalizations as the first steps in aiding these most vulnerable New Yorkers."

Under the new initiative, NYPD, FDNY and other first responders would be making the call on the expedited intakes.

"It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past," Adams said.

De La Rosa does not see it that way, though.

"This plan will only put New Yorkers in the crosshairs of the criminal legal system and an already overburdened public hospital system," De La Rosa added. "We know that increased law enforcement equals increased incarceration. Unfortunately, we also know the outcome of incarcerating New Yorkers with mental illness as evidenced by the current crisis at Riker’s Island."

De La Rosa was not the only person to come out against Adam's new plan in a strong way.

"The decades-old practice of sweeping deep-seated problems out of public view may play well for the politicians, but the problems will persist – for vulnerable people in desperate need of government services and for New Yorkers," said Donna Lieberman, executive director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, in a statement.

You can check out De La Rosa's full statement on the matter on her Twitter.