A protester holds a sign that reads “We need more social services, not more cuts” in New York on Wednesday. SPENCER PLATT (Getty Images via AFP)
Former Marine Daniel Penny, who caused the choking death of a Michael Jackson double on the New York subway on May 1, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in a criminal court in Manhattan this Friday, prosecutor Alvin Bragg announced today. Penny, 24, put a collar on Jordan Neely, 30, a mentally disabled homeless African American man who started screaming in the carriage they were both traveling in. The maneuver was banned by several police authorities as dangerous.
“We are unable to release any further information until he is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which is expected to take place tomorrow.” [por este viernes]’ added prosecutor Bragg, the same who charged Donald Trump with 34 felonies related to paying bribes to a porn actress, in a statement.
Penny and Neely were traveling in an F subway car early one May afternoon on May Day when the second car started yelling at the passengers that it was hungry (“I don’t care if I die. I don’t have one Eat,” were his last words) as he threw his jacket on the floor. With the help of two unidentified people who grabbed the victim’s arms, Penny, who is white, put one of her arms around Neely’s neck because she believed the Jackson impersonator’s violent attitude posed a danger to the car’s passengers, one said Statement from the law firm defending him. After a few minutes, Neely’s body went limp until she was helpless, according to video captured by one of the travelers. The coroner determined that death was caused by compression of the neck. “When Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, stepped in to protect those present until help arrived. “Daniel never intended to harm Neely and could never have foreseen her untimely death,” his attorneys’ statement said.
The death of Neely, who was known for impersonating the singer in subway stations and on the city streets and who had a known history of mental disorders, sparked a controversy that only grew as days went by without an arrest and there were street protests and last weekend the occupation of the venue’s tracks by a group of protesters. Activists and elected officials have raised their voices to demand justice for the black victim while highlighting the neglect of people with mental disorders on the streets and on the New York subway by a council announcing budget cuts for social services has.
Neely’s death “could have been prevented”, denounced city councilors belonging to an ethnic minority faction this Thursday, after his name appeared in a special surveillance register of 50 people with high-risk mental health problems, Efe agency reports. A few months ago, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would hospitalize against its will those unable to meet their basic needs and posing a threat to themselves or others. The highly controversial initiative is the latest yet to tackle a phenomenon the pandemic has exponentially multiplied: the impossible life on the streets or subway platforms for thousands of homeless people with a psychiatric history. But Adams’ approach, which poses more of a safety concern than a public health concern, has been widely criticized by clinical experts and social workers.
The former Marine’s defense statement highlights the confirmed history of Neely’s diagnoses, whose behavior, according to his relatives, was marked at age 16 by the murder of his mother, who was strangled by her boyfriend and whose body turned up on the ship in a discarded suitcase Hard shoulder of a freeway in the Bronx. “Mr. Neely had a documented history of violent and erratic behavior, likely the result of untreated mental illness,” the company explains, emphasizing the indifference with which this type of patient is treated. “We hope this terrible tragedy will lead to a renewed commitment from our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”
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Neely’s death, not dissimilar to that of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in the spring of 2020, underscores the urgency of addressing a phenomenon that regularly makes headlines for tragic reasons, such as when a person threw off the tracks at a Woman waiting for the subway on a train station platform in Times Square at rush hour. Despite regular reinforcements of the police operation, incidents often occur in the suburb. Adding to the complicated panorama in Neely’s case is the racial component that encouraged Mayor Adams to resume the rallying cry that shook the United States and the entire world in the wake of the death of George Floyd: “Black lives matter,” the Motto of the Black Lives Matter movement. But aside from the slogans, Adams has also been criticized for being lukewarm about the murder, activists denounce, advising caution until the investigation is complete. Penny was questioned on the day of the trial and has so far been released without charge.
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