“Black Lives Matter” revisited: The tragic death of Jordan Neely under the lens of a mobile phone in New York’s subway

UNITED STATES – He died under the lens of a mobile phone. Jordan Neely, a homeless African-American, died on May 1 in the New York subway, strangled by a youth Marine who was in the same train as him.

Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old white soldier, surrendered to the police on Friday May 12 and should be charged by the courts with manslaughter. The police dispatched to the metro briefly questioned him after the tragedy but ended up releasing him. The Manhattan prosecutor’s office finally took ten days to prosecute him.

Since this tragedy, which shocked the United States, the slogan « Black lives matter » (“Black Lives Matter”) reappeared in the demonstrations organized to demand « justice pour Jordan Neely ». For some, the event tragically resonates with the third anniversary of the murder – also filmed – of George Floyd by a white police officer on May 25.

” I’m mad “

“The former Marine tackled Neely to the ground and gave him a choke hold that lasted about 6 minutes longer than the one Derek Chauvin imposed on George Floyd’s neck before he killed him, in Minneapolis in 2020writes the American author Moustafa Bayoumi in a column at the Guardian. Two other men helped him, while people quietly circled around and filmed the end of Neely’s life. »

The video of the drama, broadcast by all the press, shows the victim on the ground in a subway train, Daniel Penny lying behind the victim to hobble him and squeeze his upper body. Passengers, standing above the two men, seem disconcerted, others vaguely try to block the arms of Jordan Neely who is struggling.

A witness told AFP that the latter had burst into the car, shouting at passengers and asking them for something to eat or drink. “I don’t care if I go to prison and end my life there. I’m ready to die”he would have said, according to Juan Alberto Vazquez, the independent journalist who filmed the scene, cited by the New York Times. According to the authorities, Jordan Neely and Daniel Penny would have argued before the second, who is no longer active in the military, tackles the first to the ground.

“I am angry, very angry. A white person would not have been treated this wayis moved Delia Mattis, British activist of the Black Lives Matter movement interviewed by the Mirror. This is a Marine, Daniel Penny, who is trained to kill people. Like George Floyd. » And to add: “We are much more aware of racial injustice (today) but there is still some. We will always have to fight against that. »

Same feeling with Rashad Robinson, president of the American civil rights organization Color Of Change. “Black people should no longer just fear being strangled by the police, but also by an ordinary citizen who feels powerful and supported by elected officials”he regrets.

The left is stepping up

But this drama has not only brought the United States back to the debate on the racial question. The victim, a homeless person renowned for his resemblance and his performances imitating those of Michael Jackson, had been arrested dozens of times, in particular for noise on the public highway. He suffered, like many homeless people, from psychiatric disorders, in a megalopolis of 8.5 million inhabitants with abysmal socio-economic inequalities.

The event questions how people react to “to the poor, homeless and especially those perceived to be mentally ill”esteemed by the New York Times Christopher Fee, an English teacher who gives lessons on the issue of poor housing. “We have a deep problem in our country which is that we believe that violence can be used in the face of mental illness”estime Rashad Robinson, de Color Of Change.

The left has stepped up to the plate on this affair, the Democratic parliamentarian Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denouncing a “murder”. “Jordan Neely was killed by public policies. He was killed by the demonization of the poor by many of our leaders, she said in an interview with The Cut. Each of us is on the edge of the abyss right now: rents have jumped to absolutely exorbitant prices. When rental prices increase, the number of homeless people increases. It’s no mystery. »

A succession of dramas around self-defense

The drama is also part of a recent tragic succession of banal interactions that have degenerated in the United States. In April, a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in New York State after she mistakenly pulled into the driveway of a private home.

That same month, in Texas, a man opened fire on cheerleaders after one of them tried to open the door of a car she had mistaken for her own vehicle. And a black teenager, Ralph Yarl, was shot and seriously injured after getting the wrong house in Missouri.

For many New Yorkers, this event also recalls the tragedy of 1984, when a white man, Bernhard Goetz, opened fire on four black teenagers in the city’s subway, accusing them of having tried to rob him. The four youngsters had all survived. The shooter, nicknamed “the subway vigilante”, had been acquitted on twelve of the thirteen counts held against him and was ultimately convicted only of carrying a prohibited weapon. The case had crystallized “the frustration and anger of many New Yorkers on the issue of crime”remember USA Today.

“Thirty years ago, I fought in the case Bernhard Goetz. We cannot go back to a situation where self-defense would be tolerable. It was unacceptable then, and it cannot be acceptable today,” reacted the Reverend Al Sharpton, a figure in the fight for civil rights. Jordan Neely’s family has asked him to deliver the eulogy at the young man’s funeral on May 19.

See also on Le HuffPost :