A Death on the F Train

Jordan Neely is postmodern progressivism's latest victim

Progressivism’s despicable diva demands justice for the man she helped to kill

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Everything you need to know about contemporary progressivism is encapsulated in the case of Jordan Neely, the deranged homeless man who lost his life in a New York City subway car last week.

His death occurred in the context of an incident that’s become all too typical of the NYC public transportation experience. An unhinged head case with a history of violence goes into a rage, screaming obscenities and threats, terrorizing other passengers, threatening violence. And they have good reason to be frightened, because over the past three years twenty-seven people have been murdered in the subway by lunatics like Neely.

This time, however, there was an intervention by several passengers who attempted to subdue Neely, one of them putting him in a chokehold. And by the time that the police arrived, responding to several 911 calls from other passengers, Jordan Neely was dead.

But that wasn’t the story that interested New York’s progressive politicians and its activist class. With the singular exception of Mayor Eric Adams, they immediately jumped on the least relevant facet of the incident: Neely was black, and the man who inadvertently killed him, a former Marine named Daniel Penny, is white. This was more than enough for the comrades to nominate Neely as this year’s George Floyd.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never one to wait on the facts, immediately denounced Penny as a racist murderer and demanded “justice”—presumably in the form of verdict first, trial later. In her telling, Neely was a poor pathetic homeless man, crying out for food and water. Why he was doing that in a subway car instead of a homeless shelter was a question that AOC did not bother to ask, much less answer. The ludicrous Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, described the dead man as a “subway passenger”—technically correct, perhaps, but omitting a good deal of context. She too decried his death as a racist outrage.

Other politicians, seconded by New York’s nosebleed progressive activist class, piled on as well, claiming that Neely was “lynched.” And naturally there have been street protests, though perhaps tellingly these have so far been small in scale.

The media played its accustomed part in crafting a bogus racism narrative, depicting Neely as a kindly soul with a charming smile, a beloved street performer known for his Michael Jackson impressions. His long record of harassment and outright violence was mentioned only in passing. Neely’s rap sheet included a vicious attack on a 67-year-old woman in November 2021. He punched her in the face, breaking her nose and fracturing the orbital bone in one eye. For that one he did a year behind bars on Riker’s Island. In all, Neely had been arrested forty-one times, and there was an open arrest warrant on him at the time of his death.

The life and death of Jordan Neely is sadly typical of the dystopian underworld of America’s major metropolitan areas. Though mentally ill, he was allowed to roam the city and ride the subway, terrorizing anyone who caught his eye. For good reason, his own family both feared for him and was afraid of him. He was arrested again and again—and released again and again. As a series of Reddit posts unearthed by journalist Andy Ngo attest, regular subway passengers came to fear Neely as they watched him morph from street performer to dangerous lunatic.

AOC, an insufferable twit who never misses an opportunity to grandstand, is now making a big deal out of NYC’s heartless neglect of people like Jordan Neely. But if you’re wondering who put him in that subway car on May 1, AOC and progressives like her are the ones to blame.

The obvious solution to the dangerous and growing plague of mentally ill, dangerous street people is to institutionalize them—involuntarily if necessary. Though I’m no particular fan of Mayor Adams, I give him credit for urging the adoption of some such policy. And in fairness, I must note that Governor Hochul has backed him up.

Ah, but involuntary commitment would violate the civil liberties of street people, say the comrades. They have the right to live as they please. If in the process they make the city’s streets and subway system a frightening and dangerous no man’s land, well, that’s just too bad. The message could not be clearer: Screw all subway passengers—screw the people of New York. How dare they demand law and order in their city?

Progressive activists made their priorities plain during demonstrations on Saturday, clashing with police, blocking subway tracks, and refusing to let passengers exit a subway car. One passenger protested they were making him late for work. The demonstrators shouted, “Find another train!” and “You not getting off this train sir!” When the police intervened, the mob became belligerent: pushing, shoving, screaming.

But those who are trying to make this incident into some racial morality play may live to regret it: They’re courting a populist backlash that could have ugly consequences. Neely’s death is a warning of what happens when law and order breaks down, and people feel compelled to take matters into their own hands. And if NYC district attorney Alvin Bragg decides to charge the former Marine, Daniel Penny, with murder or even manslaughter, that backlash could come sooner rather than later.

For everybody knows that the real culprits are AOC, Kathy Hochul, and other cop-bashing, race-baiting New York progressives who’ve made it their mission to destroy America’s greatest city. They didn’t give a damn about Jordan Neely until he was killed. Then, like files descending on roadkill, they swarmed in to exploit his death. So yes, Jordan Neely was a victim. He was the victim of a system of progressive governance that let him live on the street instead of getting him the help he needed. Now he's dead and that's a shame—a crying shame that stains the "Tax the Rich" gala gown of Comrade Ocasio-Cortez.