Friends, family members and civil rights leaders gathered at a Harlem church on Friday to mourn Jordan Neely, who was killed when passengers restrained him on the New York subway rail system, including one who used a chokehold, setting off a fresh debate about vigilantism, homelessness, racism and public safety in the city.
Neely, 30, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and lacking housing in recent years, died on 1 May when a fellow subway rider pinned him to the floor of a subway car in a chokehold that lasted several minutes.
The Rev Al Sharpton, the New York politician and civil rights activist, railed against vigilantism in a speech at Neely’s funeral and called for more support for the man’s family.
“What happened to Jordan was a crime, and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves,” he said.
The fatal struggle was recorded on video by an onlooker who said Neely, who was Black, had been yelling on the subway train as he begged for money but had not attacked anyone.
Last week the man who pinned and choked Neely, Daniel Penny, who is white and a military veteran, was charged with manslaughter by the Manhattan district attorney. Penny’s lawyers say he was acting to protect himself and other passengers after Neely made threatening statements.
Penny, 24, kept Neely in a chokehold long after Neely stopped moving and at least one rider implored him to release the man. Police officials found Neely unconscious, and he was pronounced dead at hospital. The city’s medical examiner deemed Neely’s death a homicide.
On Friday morning in Harlem, the majority Black neighborhood steeped in civil rights history, Sharpton told mourners Neely’s life should be celebrated “but we should not ignore how he died”.
Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Harlem’s Mount Neboh Baptist church, said Neely died “not because of natural causes but because of unnatural policies”.
Neely’s killing and Penny’s subsequent arrest and arraignment in court, which did not take place until almost two weeks after Neely died, polarized New Yorkers and people beyond.
Many said Penny was quick to use unjustified deadly force on a Black man who posed no real threat. There were demonstrations in the subway and on the streets of New York in the days after Neely was killed.
Others argue that Penny was trying to protect people on the train and shouldn’t be punished, with these arguments part of a growing right-leaning trend to loudly defend and even champion Penny.
Sharpton noted that Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, expected to run for the White House, called Penny a “good Samaritan” last week and that he shared a fundraising link for Penny’s legal defense.
Sharpton said the parable of the good Samaritan is about coming to the aid of someone in need.
“A good Samaritan helps those in trouble,” Sharpton said. “They don’t choke him out,” adding: “What happened to Jordan was a crime, and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves.”
While Neely had a history of disruptive behavior, friends said they don’t believe he would have harmed anyone if Penny had let him be.
Sharpton said Neely was “screaming for help”.
“People keep criminalizing people that need help,” he said. “They don’t need abuse, they need help.”
Local elected officials including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York lieutenant governor Antonio Delgado were among the hundreds attending the funeral, which was at the same church where the funeral for Neely’s mother, Christie Neely, was held after she was murdered when Jordan was 14.
