Good to know that I can kill any homeless or transient types that are saying wild things on the street.
Nah it’s not at all this simple. Irrespective of this particular case, it’s an enclosed space underground with no police or even a conductor in the immediate vicinity, with no cell phone coverage as the train is moving between stations. When you’re down there (and especially between stations), in the moment, you’re pretty much on your own — EXCEPT for whoever might step in. And we have the stories of increased slashings and stabbings and people getting pushed onto the tracks (especially since the pandemic) drilled into our consciousness, these incidents often occurring on lines and at stations that we all frequent. And whether it’s actually true, it certainly seems like a lot of people these days are carrying blades, box cutters, kitchen knives… so any incident that starts out as minor or seems to be minor has potential to become very dangerous, or even fatal. And there’s no x-ray vision into a guy’s pockets to see whether a weapon like that is in there.
This whole thing is tragic for all parties, and the real spotlight needs to be on city government for its failures to address these growing issues with mental health among the homeless, and the violence that can result.
But for as much as Jordan Neely seems to have been failed by his family (probably) and “society” for lack of a better term, the fact is that he had dozens of priors and several were for assault (at least one on a woman I’m pretty sure), and had synthetic marijuana in his system contributing to his tirade… so he was no longer the smiling harmless Michael Jackson impersonator in that moment. And he hadn’t been that for quite some time. So the situation on that train was known only to the people who were on that train, and at least some of them (including children) feared for their lives. A teenaged girl testified that she nearly fainted as he approached her because she was so scared. It’s a different situation down there. You can’t easily just walk or run away. It’s sometimes possible to move into another car on the train, but sometimes not possible or feasible. So you’re pretty much stuck with whatever goes on for sometimes several minutes at a time, until the doors open at the next station. I’ve been there, with guys raving and acting aggressively in people’s faces — it’s head down, eyes up, look at the guy’s hands to see if he’s holding anything or has fists balled up, and glance around at others to see who might be ready to help if something goes down. So, try to imagine that situation before casting judgment with such certainty. Because that’s something like what happened here. Not just a crazy guy screaming on a street corner that can be easily avoided.
Would’ve been ideal for Neely to have gotten (and submitted to) the help he needed for his diagnosed schizophrenia before an incident like this would’ve even occurred. Would’ve been ideal for police to have been on the scene sooner to deescalate the situation and pull him off the train and get him help. Would’ve been ideal if Penny hadn’t restrained him so long in such a way that would end up like this.
But this, to me, has never been cut and dried with any villains or heroes. It’s just fucking tragic all around.
www.nytimes.com
