After almost two weeks of protests, ex-Marine Daniel Penny was arraigned in New York City on a single charge of second-degree manslaughter for killing Jordan Neely. Neely, a Black man, was unarmed, homeless, and suffering severe emotional distress when Penny killed him on May 1 on the NYC subway (see coverage at revcom.us and The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show). After the killing, police interviewed Penny but released him without any charges. After appearing for his arraignment on Friday, May 12, Penny was released on bail.
Protests, and Slanders
Ongoing and defiant protests in New York City denouncing the killing of Jordan Neely have included marches, rallies and blocking a subway train. Photo: Screengrab
Ongoing and defiant protests in New York City denouncing the killing of Jordan Neely have included marches, rallies and blocking a subway train. Police have made dozens of arrests and brutalized protesters and at least one journalist.
Along with coverage of protests demanding Penny’s arrest, ruling class media—from the liberal New York Times to the fascist New York Post—have been playing up Neely’s arrest record, which was made public by the NYPD quickly after his death. Overwhelmingly Neely’s arrests were for the so-called “crimes” associated with being homeless, desperate, and suffering from emotional and mental health issues. Beyond that, the NYPD announced that Neely had been arrested in four assaults against people, and had an active warrant in one of those cases. Even if you assume that he was guilty in one or more of those cases, the fact that this system mentally broke a man and had no way to care for him or to work to prevent him from lashing out at others would itself be an indictment of this system. These news stories have been accompanied by claims Neely was suffering from substance abuse.
More to the point, Neely’s past arrests, and issues with substance abuse were not known by his killer and could not be relevant to a criminal case. As we wrote last week, “To be mentally ill, to be in anguish, to be hungry with no place to live are NOT crimes; but to run a system in which such abject suffering is totally unnecessary but allowed to continue most definitely IS criminal.”
From SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING… by Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader, author of the new communism:
As the revolution grows … There is plenty that needs to be done, and urgently, which requires real boldness and heart, to stand up against the fascists, and any other oppressive force, in their moves to threaten and intimidate, brutalize and even murder people. Let me make clear that I am not calling for launching unprovoked and unjustified attacks on anybody; but there is a right, and a need—and there is the responsibility—to defend the people who are oppressed and brutalized under this system, and those who represent and stand for what is right, and are being attacked because of that.
After Neely’s death, NYC Mayor Eric “The Black Giuliani” Adams would only say that “Any loss of life is tragic. There’s a lot we don't know about what happened here, so I’m going to refrain from commenting further.” Even after ten days of outrage and protest, Adams would only say Neely’s “death is a tragedy that never should have happened." And, "No family should have to suffer a loss like this.” But note: Adams is still, at this point, not saying that Neely should not have been strangled.
And Adams continues to promote and institute policies of involuntarily detaining and locking up homeless people “out of sight” in barbaric “shelters” and institutions. In response to protests, Adams has channeled white supremacist politicians in the Jim Crow South who ordered police brutality and incited KKK violence against civil rights protesters. Adams blamed protests on “agitators who come from outside our city” and claimed—without any credible evidence—that a bottle with unidentified liquid that police said they seized at one march was a “Molotov cocktail.”
CUNY Law Students Turn their Backs On, Boo Adams
On May 12, Eric Adams spoke at the commencement ceremony at the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School. Coming less than two weeks after the killing of Jordan Neely, Adam’s appearance outraged the graduates.
When Adams got up on the stage and began to speak, dozens of law school graduates stood up and turned their backs to him in righteous protest, with some “saluting” him with raised middle fingers. Adams lashed back, lecturing the students that “I know how to hold this city together,” provoking shouts of “No you don’t!”
In addition to anger at Adams’s stand on the subway lynching of Jordan Neely, students in the audience condemned huge increases in NYC police spending and cuts in education. Debate over the students’ actions on social media included attacks from fascists, along with supportive comments like “They did the right thing,” “THIS is a thing of BEAUTY!” “A+ for the students,” and “Never been prouder to be a CUNY law student.”