On Monday, Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black, unhoused man experiencing mental health issues, was killed after being put in a chokehold for 15 minutes by a fellow New York City subway passenger. On Wednesday, the city medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide, and the killing has spurred widespread outrage as the subway rider who choked Neely, who has yet to be identified, was released without charges.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering whether to bring charges against the subway rider, who is reportedly a white 24-year-old former Marine, but authorities had not taken him into custody as of Wednesday night.
According to one eyewitness, who posted a video of the altercation on his Facebook page, Neely had allegedly yelled that he did not have food or something to drink, that he was ready to die, and that he didn’t care about facing life in prison. But that eyewitness also told the New York Post that Neely did not attack anyone in the car.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the case, but it has already brought to the forefront several of the systemic issues New York and the country are confronting: crime rates, fears about crime, and how politicians are exploiting those fears seem likely to have played a role. For those who have gathered in the subway to protest Neely’s killing this week, he’s become a symbol of New York City’s failure to provide an adequate safety net to vulnerable individuals and protect them from criminalization. Racial justice advocates have also called out the delays in the city’s decision to pursue charges against the 24-year-old subway rider as the latest example of violence toward Black Americans seemingly being condoned by the criminal justice system.
“This is about much more than just this one specific case,” said Bill Neidhardt, a Democratic strategist based in New York. “There’s a clear throughline between the endless demonization of unhoused people and mentally ill…
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