After a full week of public outrage and protests, the man who choked another subway rider to death on the F train in New York City has finally been charged with second-degree homicide.
Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old subway entertainer, who happened to be unhoused, was reportedly complaining of hunger and thirst on the subway last week when three other passengers, including former marine Daniel Penny, decided to subdue him. Penny, as seen in the viral video of the incident put Neely in a chokehold for 15 minutes, during which Neely died.
Directly following the incident Penny was brought into NYPD where he was questioned and then immediately released with no charges pressed against him. Witnesses of the incident said that Neely was not directly posing a threat to himself or other passengers when the men subdued him.
Reporting of Neely’s death sparked national coverage and national debate. Some argued that it was simply a case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’ while others noted that no place and no time is particularly safe for unhoused people experiencing a mental health crisis.
“Jordan Neely was killed by public policy. He was killed by the demonizing of the poor by many of our leaders. He was killed by the same reluctance for people to see him as human that leaders are exhibiting right now, even in his death,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says in an interview with The Cut.
This comes one year after the city cut $615 million off the budget for unhoused services. In addition to sweeping budget cuts, NYC Mayor Eric Adams pushed for harsher police enforcement within the city’s subways to stop unhoused individuals from sleeping in train cars. A 2022 survey by the Supportive Housing Network of New York found that they had a 10% vacancy rate in their employees due to hiring freezes and a lack of staff capacity.
“Forcing people off the trains into the freezing cold does not help the homeless,” Peter Malvan, an organizer with the group Safety Net Project said last year. “Policing does not get people safely housed.”
After Neely’s death, the city’s medical examiner ruled it “homicide by chokehold”. A spokesperson for the Civilian Complaint Review Board has confirmed that an investigation into the NYPD for not charging Penny after initial questioning is also underway. Penny now faces second-degree homicide charges, which applies when someone is accused of recklessly causing the death of another person.
Attorneys Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, who represent Penny, said in a statement they believed their client would be “fully absolved of any wrongdoing.”
The outcome of this case could very well set a precedent for other homicides in which the victim is unhoused or displaying signs of a mental health crisis. Whether or not residents of New York are granted a special license to kill fellow subway riders remains to be seen.
