Jordan Neely's Killing Turns Spotlight On New York's Crisis Of Homelessness

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🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

On Wednesday, after a week of demonstrations, New York City mayor Eric Adams made some of his most forceful comments about the death of Jordan Neely – a homeless Black man who died on a subway train last week when another passenger - Daniel Penny, who's white - held him in a chokehold.

While Mayor Adams said that Neely should not have died, he did not call for Penny to be arrested and charged with Neely's death. On Friday, Daniel Penny was arraigned and criminally charged in a Manhattan courtroom.

Jordan Neely's death raises difficult questions – about race, class, justice, and society's responsibility to care for those in need.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Milton Perez, head of the Homelessness Union of VOCAL-New York, on how New York is succeeding and failing at providing services for people who are living on the streets.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My fellow New Yorkers, this has been a week of strong emotions in our city.
0:13.2	On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made some of his most forceful comments so far
0:19.8	about the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless black man who died on a subway train last week when
0:25.6	another passenger, Daniel Penny, whose white, held him in a chokehold until Neely died.
0:32.4	Mayor Adams remarks came after a week of demonstrations throughout the city and throughout the city's
0:37.8	subways, which disrupted transportation. Many of these protests were in reaction to a video
0:53.9	taken by another subway passenger that showed Penny wrestling Neely to the ground in a scene that
1:00.2	was painfully reminiscent of the killing of George Floyd. And in another echo of Floyd's killing,
1:06.9	Penny was not immediately arrested or charged. One thing we can say for sure,
1:13.1	Jordan Neely did not deserve to die. But what Mayor Eric Adams did not say was that Penny should
1:20.2	be charged. In fact, he didn't mention Penny at all, nor any of the circumstances surrounding
1:25.3	Jordan Neely's death. Instead, Adams focused on the need to provide care for people who are
1:31.0	homeless and struggling with mental illness. We were not walked by those in need, step over those
1:37.8	who are suffering or ignore those calls for help. We will respond with care, compassion, and action.
1:48.5	We can and must do everything possible to help and heal our brothers and sisters in crisis.
1:56.5	Through his attorneys, Daniel Penny has said that Neely was behaving in a threatening manner towards him.
2:02.5	But those who knew Neely remember him as a kind man. Emma Whitford, a reporter for City Limits
2:08.8	Online News, interviewed Shannon Hartman for an article on Neely's death.
2:12.9	She described something that I think other folks who knew Jordan during his life have said,
2:17.5	which is that sometimes when he had spare money, he would give some to her. And this this sense of
2:23.4	homeless people looking out for each other. And Piers Brian Mann says Neely was known around the
2:28.5	city for his Michael Jackson impersonations. He was a street performer. He dressed like Michael Jackson,
	...

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