Andrew Yang Enrages New Yorkers After Controversial Comments On The 'Mentally Ill'

Andrew Yang's turbulent New York City mayoral campaign has been filled with minor gaffes that have made New Yorker's question his credibility, like mislabeling a grocery store a "bodega" and cracking a joke about how hard it was to raise children in a New York City apartment during the pandemic, but critics have turned a sharper edge on Yang after he made a controversial statement on the mentally ill at the last Democratic Primary mayoral debate before the June 22nd primary election.

Yang was proposing providing psychiatric beds for the city's homeless population at the debate, saying, "Yes, the mentally ill have rights, but you know who else has rights? We do! The people and families of our city. We have the right to walk the street and not fear for our safety because a mentally ill person is going to lash out at us."

The comments were harshly criticized by New Yorkers for their lack of empathy towards the homeless and mentally ill. Many noted that the mentally ill were often the target of police brutality and that the language casting the mentally ill as not "us" was harmful.

Yang attempted to contextualize his statement after the debate, tweeting that mental illness is behind "half" of anti-Asian hate crimes.

This hardly quelled Yang's critics, who felt his argument, taken from a Daily News article, was highly flawed.

The latest poll in the NYC Mayoral Race shows Yang in second place behind Erik Adams, though there are many undecided voters in what has been a volatile race thus far.