"I don't have food! I don't have drink! I'm fed up!" lamented 30-year-old Jordan Neely who appeared to be experiencing a severe mental attack while travelling on the subway.
And what was the reaction of some passengers? Instead of offering him food, drink or attempting to comfort him, a 24-year-old ex-Marine approached him and choked him to death. Some other passengers even helped to restrain Jordan Neely. Other strange passengers, instead of trying to prevent this murder, casually filmed it with their mobile phones as if this were a normal everyday event.
But worse news was to follow. The ex-soldier—instead of being charged with murder--was not even detained but let go from the police station without any charges.
In practically any normal city in the world with a normal law enforcement agency this ex-soldier would be detained on charges of committing a serious offence. After all, just because someone is either screaming or complaining and you don't like to hear what they are saying that is not a rational pretext for going up to him and choking him to death.
By the way, such incidents are witnessed in the Moscow underground (subway) and the passengers either ignore or if they feel threatened just leave the train carriage. And if the person poses a threat or danger and assaulted it is possible to restrain a person without hurting them…one way being the use of martial arts such as Judo. Any judo person can inform you about this!
I personally have witnessed such people experiencing such mental breakdowns on the streets, in pubs and in hospitals and they were restrained, thank God, without getting murdered.
It not surprising that so many people in New York took to the streets…
and angrily protested at the callous indifference of the police and authorities to the death of a homeless person. May those protests continue!
In Britain and other countries, we have a saying when someone has recently died. We say, "Don't speak ill of the dead." Unfortunately, people don't follow this advice everywhere. Some insensitive people have been writing a lot of nonsense about Jordon Neely being a bad or terrible person who was aggressive etc....
Jordan Neely is even denied the right to rest in peace!
None of the friends and people who knew Jordan Neely recognize such statements. Total strangers seem to be attacking a straw man! When you find out some of the facts about the life of Jordan Neely, you witness a terrible tragedy unfolds.
Jordan Neely was homeless. His aunt stated that he had not been the same after his mother had been strangled to death by her partner.
This traumatic event had clearly unhinged him. Nevertheless, people who know him said he was a very kind, helpful and friendly person.
He was a very talented Michael Jackson impersonator—and people enjoyed watching his performances. He gave away some of his money to other homeless so they could either get something to eat or get haircuts.
It is absurd that there are some people who will attempt to condone the murder of a person who was homeless and afflicted with mental health problems. They can even try to justify killing someone by quoting New York Penal Law 35. This law stipulates that a person can use deadly force if the perpetrator reasonably believes that deadly force is being used or about to be used against him or her.
But you can see what problems can emerge from this! How can you be 100% certain that this person is actually about to attack you or not? How do you interpret “reasonably believes?”
For over the past few weeks we have heard how a 20-year-old girl was murdered for parking her car in the wrong place, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the head when he rang the wrong doorbell by mistake, and some children were shot for trying to retrieve their ball from a neighbor's garden.
Why do some people hysterically overreact to what are clearly not dangerous threats? Is it based on ignorance or malice? Is it due to the inherent institutional racism…
and deep prejudice which runs against people who are not white, the homeless, the mentally ill or anyone just different?
An investigation by the English newspaper the “Guardian” and the University of Washington found that the killing of homeless people had risen by 77% in 20 U.S. urban areas over 5 years up to 2020. Other research indicates that as many as 1 out of 4 victims of police shootings have had mental health problems.
One of the problems is that false and negative stereotypes about the mentally ill being dangerous, violent, and aggressive still exist. Too many people actually believe such people are dangerous and pose a threat. Such a misconception is perpetuated by crass films made in Hollywood as well as irresponsible parts of the media.
The fear of mentally distressed people can reach terrible heights. For Instance, Ruth Rubin who suffers from mental distress told me how when she was a teaching assistant working in a Scottish school she was not allowed to sit in the teacher staff room. The rest of the teachers were scared of her! And this is the reaction you can get from so called 'educated people.'
If anyone took the trouble to do just a little research they would find that the vast majority of people who suffer from mental health problems are not dangerous. They don't pose a threat to others. Even when most of them have a mental breakdown they don't attack other people. They might shout some abuse or swear but they won't usually attack.
The same goes for homeless people. In fact, it is people who have mental health problems and the homeless who are far more likely to be victims of crime rather than vice versa.
Unfortunately, the case of poor Jordan Neely confirms this sad truth. According to Jeffrey St Clair in his excellent article in Counterpunch “How White Men Fight,” May 2023.
You can't whitewash this homicide as an act of vigilante justice. Jordan Neely didn't attack or threaten to assault anyone. At worse, he was having a bad day, an episode of despair; where he…
was trying to tell anyone who might listen that he was tired, hungry and thirsty. Apparently, this expression of his personal unhoused reality was all it took to ignite the murderous resentment of the white ex-Marine. He didn't want to hear it. Apparently, this is the way white men fight after all! Indeed, will anyone listen to our plea for justice ?
There is a danger that with time, this horrendous incident can be forgotten. But if we forget this or fail to escalate the campaign against injustice then more and more of those incidents will happen again and again. It might become 'normalized ' and 'accepted' as part of the fabric of American society.
Practically every week we are met with more disgusting news of a mass shooting or the killing of a person by a vigilante or police officer.
We should never get used to those incidents or claim cynically "There is nothing to be done about it."
We can do something about it!