Democrats’ Proposal to Relax Involuntary Commitment Guidelines Is Utterly Reckless

This week, New York’s Legislature openly disregarded Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and struggling city residents by turning down an initiative to remove the obviously, seriously, dangerously mentally ill from the streets and subways of New York.

The budget proposals from the state Senate and Assembly particularly eliminated the governor’s effort to amend budget law to facilitate the involuntary commitment of those who are mentally unwell and often violent, posing risks to themselves or others.

In fact, the Senate seeks to exacerbate the situation by imposing stricter regulations.

Ambiguous wording in existing law leaves healthcare professionals too hesitant to determine if someone is ill enough to warrant admission to a facility without their consent.

The result: Incidents like that of Waldo Mejia, a dangerous individual who exhibited threatening behavior for years, including igniting a fire in the lobby of his ex-girlfriend’s building in 2019, before eventually stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death this January.

Similarly, Jamar Banks was allowed to stab two people on the subway despite having a record of 54 prior arrests and being identified by law enforcement as potentially suicidal and emotionally disturbed multiple times.

Hochul’s aim to broaden the standards for involuntary commitment and provide more clarity to healthcare providers is merely the bare minimum necessary to begin relocating dangerously ill individuals from the streets to treatment facilities.

Speaker Carl Heastie’s rationale for excluding Hochul’s proposal relies on his long-standing assertion that “no policy should be included in the budget” — a cowardly evasion, considering that budgets inherently involve policy decisions.

However, this is less damaging than the Senate’s suggestion to raise the threshold for involuntary commitment to those who pose an “imminent risk of serious physical harm” to themselves or others “as evidenced by homicidal or other violent actions.”

In other words: Take no action until it’s possible to demonstrate that someone is on the verge of harming themselves or others or has already committed an attack.

Mental healthcare is a public necessity, a concept progressives readily embrace when it concerns upwardly mobile millennials seeking therapy.

Yet when discussing serious mental illness—the kind that involves screaming in the streets and pushing people in front of trains—suddenly, progressives view providing needed treatment as cruel and inhumane.

The next time you find yourself navigating around a seemingly dangerous individual, whether above or below ground, remember: The Democrats in the Legislature believe we require more of such individuals roaming freely—ensuring an increase in maimings, killings, and preventable tragedies ahead.