Black Lives Matter supporters are demanding a decorated marine vet who protected passengers on a subway train be charged with homicide.
Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man with a history of violence, died in hospital in early May, after being restrained by former U.S. Marine Sargeant, Daniel Penny.
Freelance journalist, Juan Alberto Vazquez told the NY Post, 30-year-old Neely had been threatening the Marine, and others, when 24-year-old Daniel Penny ‘stepped in.’
Vazquez, a witness, said, the homeless man was “screaming in an aggressive manner,” saying, “he had had no food, drink, was tired, didn’t care if he went to gaol, and was ready to die.”
Erratic, Neely – allegedly autistic – harassed passengers, took off his jacket and threw it to the ground.
According to Vazquez, this was when Daniel Penny came up from behind Neely and put him in a chokehold – a standard Marine manoeuvre.
Video footage taken by Vazquez shows two other passengers (one black, one white) helping Penny restrain the man.
New York Daily News said passengers had called 911, with Daniel Penny holding Neely until police arrived.
The NYDN report added that Neely had been arrested in 2019 for punching a 67-year-old in the face during a subway station altercation, and was imprisoned for four months in 2015, for attempting to kidnap a seven-year-old girl.
Along with a police record, which included 42 prior arrests, and a current warrant for assault, Neely also had a history of mental health problems.
With ‘Defund the Police’ Democrats running ‘alternative-to-incarceration’ (ATI) programs, Neely was more often than not, handed over to social workers.
The Daily News described the troubled man as a Michael Jackson impersonator, who suffered from schizophrenia.
Neely’s death has been declared a homicide.
Heading up calls for the Marine’s incarceration, blacktivist Rev. Al Sharpton – someone opposed to defunding law enforcement – demanded Penny be thrown into the penitentiary, no questions asked.
“We cannot allow this lawlessness to go unchecked,” Sharpton said, adding, “You’re not going to choke this young man to death, and not let us stand up, and raise our voices.”
Author, Dr. Donald Grant, an “anti-racist” psychologist, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion consultant from California, diagnosed the “attack” on Neely as an expression of “white vigilantism.”
The NAACP concurred.
As did Black Lives Matter Inc.
Inadvertently summing up Socialism, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “OFF with his head…” as she condemned the so-called “murder.”
AOC hopped on the race-baiting hate train, calling Penny a killer.
She ruled, “Jordan Neely’s death to be murder, and accused authorities of “protecting [him] with passive headlines, and no charges.”
The only agreeable consensus from each party was the need for better services for the mentally ill, and how Jordan Neely’s mental health issues appear to have contributed to his death.
Mental health services were the focus of NYC’s Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams’ response.
Approaching the incident with caution, Adams explained, “There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened here, so I’m going to refrain from commenting further.
“However, we do know that there were serious mental health issues in play here…We need to prioritize getting people the care they need, and not just allowing them to languish,” the response read.
Daniel Penny, who has identified himself to police, was questioned, and released, pending an investigation.
In a statement posted online, the former Marine’s legal team offered Neely’s family condolences and cited Neely’s long history of crime, and mental health problems.
Recounting the event, the statement recalled, “Mr. Neely aggressively threatened Daniel Penny and the other passengers. With the help of others, Daniel acted to protect themselves, until help arrived.”
There ‘was no intent to harm Mr. Neely, and Daniel could not have foreseen Mr. Neely’s untimely death.’
‘We hope that out of this awful tragedy will come a new commitment by our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets, and subways,’ the statement concluded.
New York City is finding out just how asinine the ‘soft-on-crime’ Soros hack, Democrat-backed “Defund the police” dogma really is.
“Send in the social workers” is poor policing. The strategy was never going to work.
As Ben Shapiro critiqued, “when you don’t police crime, civilians will.”
Neely wasn’t a victim of white vigilantism. He was a victim of bad, far-left feel-good policies replacing good policing.
