Jordan Neely Death: Outrage Grows Over Subway Choking
Commuters stand on the F train while it stops at the Carroll St. station February 13, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo credit: Preston Rescigno
A white ex-marine choked to death a 30-year-old man named Jordan Neely who was acting in an “erratic manner” while riding a New York City train on Monday (May 1). According to Juan Alberto Vazquez — a freelance journalist who taped the encounter and posted it on his Facebook page, “Luces de Nueva York,” — Neely was screaming on the train, saying: “‘I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up… I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.’”
Vazquez said he was non-violent but started to throw garbage at fellow commuters. This is when the a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran — whose name has not yet been released — got involved and restrained him.
The altercation took place at 2:30 PM local time on an F train heading toward the Broadway-Lafayette station. In Vazquez’s video, you can see Neely being held down for at least two minutes. Even after Neely stopped moving, the man still continued to hold him down for at least another 50 seconds. According to multiple reports, the man had Neely in the chokehold for 15 minutes. Neely was laying motionless and at one point you can hear someone saying, “He’ll be all right.”
The conductor soon called 911 and by the time EMS came, Neely was unconscious. Neely was later taken to Lenox Health hospital in Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead. A medical examiner autopsy is scheduled to reveal Neely’s cause of death within the coming days.
Although the ex-Marine was taken in for questioning, he was released without charges, causing outrage among many progressive users on social media. (An investigation is ongoing and charges could come depending on the results of the autopsy.) Some New Yorkers remembered Neely as once being a Michael Jackson impersonator.
TW: Lynching
The lynching of Jordan Neely is what happens when you blame every violent thing that happens in this country on mental illness because while it excuses violent behavior from white people, it criminalizes mental illness in Black people.
The man who choked him
— @ImaniBarbarin@disabled.social (@Imani_Barbarin) May 3, 2023
Thinking about a man named Jordan Neely, how he should still be here. Do not let them (the cops or their PR papers) trick you into becoming heartless & thinking certain folks don’t have a right to exist. Don’t become numb to the normalization of murder, no matter how it’s spun.
— #SaveNewCollege 💙 🌈 (@4lala) May 3, 2023
A man named Jordan Neely was choked to death in public on the subway this week while people watched and even cheered. This is horrific.
The constant demonization of poor people and people in mental health crisis in our city allows for this barbarism. It is making our city sick.
— Julia Salazar (@JuliaCarmel__) May 3, 2023
Thinking about the man who was strangled in the subway in NYC and my mind keeps circling back to “the lynchings worked” thread. This is the mentality. White people shouldn’t have to be uneasy, so executions are in order. https://t.co/QoJ3vMOEdh
— Plz Preorder Let This Radicalize You 🔥 (@MsKellyMHayes) May 3, 2023
The people who watched that Marine murder Jordan: who did nothing while he was choked to death, who sidestepped his lifeless body to leave the train, who sadistically cheered because our manufactured housing shortage convinced them that unhoused people are the threat. No words.
— Zoé (@ztsamudzi) May 3, 2023
if you’re in new york, you need to be paying attention to what happened to jordan neely. you need to understand how important bystander intervention is. and what you’d do to step in if you witnessed someone being harmed. he was just a person asking for help.
— elly belle 🔮 (they/them) (@literElly) May 3, 2023
There’s absolutely blood on Eric Adams’ hands in the murder of Jordan Neely. When from a position of authority you perpetuate a culture of wrangling unhoused people, especially those in mental distress, like a public nuisance instead of uplifting their humanity.
— Dana White (@ItsDanaWhite) May 3, 2023
The NYPD has shared Neely’s criminal history, which includes 40 arrests, and also revealed that he had documented issues with mental health. Officials were reportedly looking for Neely for an assault he was allegedly involved with in 2021.
About Author
