Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, has ordered the city police and fire departments to do something long needed but even longer resisted. Fox News reports as follows:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the NYPD, FDNY, and other city agencies will start forcing homeless people who are determined to be suffering a "mental health crisis" off the streets and out of the subway system. They will be taken to a hospital for evaluation even if they refuse to go on their own.
"It is appropriate to use this process when a person refuses voluntary assistance and it appears that they are suffering from mental illness and are a danger to themselves due to an inability to meet their basic needs," Adams said.
I presume this policy will be tested in the courts for legality, and I hope it will be found to be constitutionally acceptable. It could be a first step in the long overdue reinstitutionalization of the addicted and mentally ill.
Ken Kesey be damned.
