Dr. Phil witnesses tense homeless altercation while touring subway with Mayor Adams

Dr. Phil toured the New York City subway with Mayor Eric Adams and saw firsthand how quickly encounters with homeless people can get chaotic.

After the acquittal of Marine veteran Daniel Penny, Dr. Phil visited New York’s subway with Adams to learn more about how New Yorkers can feel safe on public transportation.

"This is the lifeblood of our economy because it's the great equalizer," Adams said. "You know you could have the Wall Streeter with the waiter riding side-by-side, and so we knew it was important that not only should people be safe, they must feel safe and, the omnipresence of a police uniform just sends a signal."

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The two approached a "perfect example" as they encountered what appeared to be a homeless man sleeping in a hallway of a subway station. A sergeant explained the process at work to check in with him. Adams said that while the process begins with a Department of Homeless Services (DHS) worker, there's a need for a police officer "because this person could wake up, if he schizophrenic or bipolar, he could wake up with a weapon."

The homeless man immediately began shouting profanity at the DHS worker and then stood up and began aggressively confronting officers, while Dr. Phil and Adams watched.

"See how fast it can turn?" Adams asked, noting "now you have just civilians here, they can be hurt."

Adams argued that many people who talk about the homeless crisis are unaware of how quickly they can turn violent.

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"I believe, that’s what the people who are pushing back on what we’re doing-they don’t know how quick this could change," Adams said, comparing the incident to his own experiences in law enforcement.

When the agitated homeless man yelled that he was an American citizen who was not being taken care of, Adams agreed he had a point.

"Think about this for a moment. Doing what we're doing is costly. If we had $6.5 billion we could do more, but instead of that we had to deal with a national problem," he told Dr. Phil referencing the migrant crisis that has resulted in New York City managing 220,000 migrants.

Adams also clarified that much of the migrant crisis goes beyond Sanctuary City laws, but the state constitution whose rules people mistakenly conflate with them.

"The city states that anyone, if they’re documented or undocumented, that if you need a place to stay, housing, we have to give you housing, by our state constitution," he said, specifying the "right to shelter" rule.

"The right to shelter was never conceived with the migrant crisis in mind," deputy mayor for health and human services Brian Stettin added.