Subway choking is a disturbing sign of our times

The homicide death of Jordan Neely, fatally choked by another passenger May 1 inside a New York City subway car, raises profound questions at a difficult time for both this region and the nation. Issues of race, homelessness and disturbing signs of ineffectiveness in our mental health system are all part of this tragedy. New Yorkers would be wise to wait for more answers, based on fact, as law enforcement reviews this case, before coming to any conclusions about the filing of criminal charges. But what we already know about Neely's personal circumstances is disturbing.

Neely was poorly served by a mental health system that seemed unable to help this troubled man known to many in the subways as a seemingly harmless Michael Jackson impersonator. News reports show that Neely was well known to outreach workers dealing with mentally ill and homeless people who often use the subway system for shelter. In 2020, Neely was sent for treatment to Bellevue Hospital, part of what became his lengthy history of erratic behavior and criminal charges.

As part of a guilty plea in February to assaulting a 67-year-old woman, Neely promised to live at a Bronx treatment facility and stay off drugs. After only 13 days, Neely left that center and an arrest warrant was issued. Since then, outreach workers who spotted Neely in the subway system again tried to help him without success. The current system apparently doesn’t require outreach workers to check pending arrest warrants in dealing with individuals like Neely.

His story raises complex questions that have been asked for too long and must be answered — about whether, when and for how long to confine people against their will for the good of society, how to better monitor people receiving treatment, and, possibly, what to do when they stop taking needed medications.

This mix of ineffectiveness and neglect eventually led to the violent midday confrontation between Neely, who is Black, and Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old ex-Marine who grew up in West Islip and who put Neely in a dangerous chokehold. Penny's motivations are still far from clear. His lawyer says Penny, who is white, and others in the subway car acted to protect themselves when Neely threatened them aggressively. But videotape taken by another passenger on the subway shows no clear-cut provocation by Neely that justified his death.

“I don’t care if I go to jail and get locked up,” Neely said before winding up in Penny’s chokehold, according to reports. “I’m ready to die.”

Undoubtedly, no one should wind up dead riding on the city transit system, relied upon daily by so many New Yorkers, including thousands of Long Islanders. But Neely's final words should compel us to examine more closely the way we treat and respond to those most desperately in need of our mental health system.