In response to the not guilty verdict for Daniel Penny, who was accused of having “recklessly” caused the death of a homeless man, Morning Joe anchor Joe Scarborough publicly criticized “progressives” for enacting laws that permit homelessness in the midst of a national “mental health” crisis.
The 12-member jury informed the judge on Friday that they were deadlocked over the issue of whether Penny caused Jordan Neely’s death by holding him in a chokehold for six minutes in May 2023.
Before the fatal encounter, Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness, was allegedly behaving erratically on a metro train in New York City.
Neely was wrestled to the ground and restrained by Penny, a former Marine, as other passengers observed. The incident was captured on video by a bystander.
Scarborough’s conclusion during the MSNBC panel’s discussion of the verdict on Tuesday’s program was that there is a need for additional funding to assist individuals with mental health issues and that the abandonment of such individuals to homelessness results in “bad things.”
“The mental health system in this country, again, is just grossly insufficient. Whether you’re talking about New York, whether you’re talking about Florida, whether you’re talking about California, you have people walking about on the streets that have mental health issues.” Scarborough said.
“And the fact some Progressives have said let’s pass laws that allow homelessness… You look at San Francisco, you look at Los Angeles. As we’ve said all along, there’s nothing compassionate about that. There’s nothing Progressive about that, leaving people with mental health problems on the street, no!” he added.
“We need to spend more money as a society taking care of those who have mental health challenges and not just say, yeah, you can live on the streets. Bad things happen.” he concluded.
[READ MORE: Donald Trump Jr. Seen With New Woman]
