Jordan Neely: Why Do We Know His Name?
Video footage of the death of Jordan Neely went viral Thursday and it’s hard to watch.
In it, a white man is seen on the floor of a New York City subway car subduing Neely - who is black - in some sort of headlock. Whether he used a submission hold or a chokehold is above my pay grade. Experts disagree. Eventually Neely went limp and the man holding him released the homeless guy who had been menacing passengers.
But it was too late. Neely had lost consciousness. He couldn’t be revived.
Very sad.
In the foreground of the video and rarely mentioned is another man. An African American. Who appears to be aiding the guy who’s subduing Neely.
I can’t help but wonder if it had been THAT man, rather than the former Marine, who wrestled Neely to the floor, would we even know Neely’s name? Or would it have been just another black-on-black crime in a city with alarming violent crime statistics.
Here’s what Douglas Murray had to say in The New York Post:
Before going any further let’s just say what every New Yorker knows. The city’s subway is unsafe. Every New Yorker knows it. Every New Yorker talks about it. Everyone has a story about it.
Those who are able to find other routes around the city do. Most women I know won’t use it after dark. And even in the middle of the day you see sights that just aren’t normal. But they’ve become normal here. We just got used to it.
We got used to the homeless people using the subway to keep warm or dry. We got used to mentally ill people screaming at cars full of people. We got used to people high on legal or illegal drugs staggering around.
And we got used to looking down — staring intently into our phones and hoping it would go away.
Well, we’re the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are people like 40-year old Michelle Go, of Manhattan who was shoved onto the tracks in front of an R train last year at 42nd Street station. She was picked on at random by a homeless man.
In the hours after the video was released a number of politicians and race hustlers weighed in. Their reactions were predictable.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately ruled Neely’s death a “murder.” And called the victim “houseless,” which I suppose is the new, politically correct term to describe folks we used to call homeless, or vagrants.
All of the outrage surrounding this tragic case centers around race. A couple of activists ave gone so far as to describe what happened on the F train as a “lynching.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, for instance. She Tweeted out “Black men deserve to grow old — not be lynched on a Subway.”
Stop that, madam, please. Unless your intent is to trigger a new round of springtime race riots.
Whatever this was, it was not a lynching. It was fed up subway riders, tired of being menaced by the mentally ill and criminally violent elements who ride the subways and assault commuters who are forced to travel underground.
In Murray’s excellent piece, he added this:
This is the situation that the negligent leadership in this city has led it to. New York residents and visitors know that at any moment things on the subway can turn nasty or even deadly. Nobody knows when one of the people who clearly needs help might turn.
And it’s not like the police are down there to help. On the subway one night after Monday’s incident I actually saw some officers at the gates. They were standing idly around, watching as people jumped the gates, among much else. One even muttered “Thanks for traveling free.”
The Post reports that between March 2020 and April 2023 there were 27 subway killings in New York City.
Can you name another victim? Why not? Perhaps the races of those involved don’t fit the narrative.
The Post also reports that Neely, 30, had 42 arrests between 2013 and 2021, including four for assault. He had an active felony warrant for an assault on a 67-year-old woman at the time of his death. He’d reportedly broken bones in her face. Family members say he was severely mentally ill.
On Thursday, The New York City coroner ruled Neely’s death a “homicide.” That is not synonymous with murder or lynching, by the way. It’s not a legal term. A homicide is the killing of one person by another.
To his credit, Mayor Eric Adams begged New Yorkers to let the investigation go ahead and cautioned against rushing to judgment.
Adams called Neely’s death “tragic,” but urged patience as officials complete the investigation, reported The New York Times.
“Let’s let the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials . . . I’m going to be responsible and allow them to do their job and allow them to determine exactly what happened here.
Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t exhibit similar reticence.
According to The Times, she called the video of Mr. Neely’s death “horrific” and said “there have to be consequences.”
Stop it, lady. You’re not helping. Neither are the people screaming for the white man’s scalp.
Calm down and let the prosecutors do their jobs.
In the meantime, demand that the city beef up police presence on subways and do something about the epidemic of mentally ill people roaming the city streets.
And subways.
