BLM is following a business model where victimhood is the product while outrage is the marketing strategy. This was pioneered by veteran race hustler Al Sharpton.
During his heyday, Sharpton made appearances following an incident where there were racial implications to make inflammatory speeches. Once they poured petrol into the fire he just flew out of the place and used it to raise funds for ‘charity’.
Sharpton seems to have mostly used his charity to enrich himself and his family. Sharpton was also a tax dodger; in 2016, he personally owed over $3 million in federal taxes.
A Representative Tragedy
Had he been in treatment, Jordan Neely’s death in a subway car may have been prevented.
This past Monday afternoon, a black man named Jordan Neely died in a subway car following a struggle with other passengers. Press reports present these details: Neely had untreated serious mental illness, he had not assaulted anyone but was displaying a threatening manner, the man who subdued him with a chokehold was white and had a military background, and Neely had a long involvement with the criminal-justice system. Further facts may be forthcoming, particularly if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decides to press charges against Neely’s subduer. But some essential details we may never know. For example, we may never know what kind of involvement Neely had with health and human services systems.
Criminal-justice reformers might point out, correctly, that Neely’s many past arrests did not stabilize him. But nor did whatever contact he may have had with homeless outreach teams, social workers, safe-haven shelters, and outpatient clinics. There are no equivalents of “inmate finder” websites for social programs. Details about Neely’s involvement with health systems and social services could help inform policymakers about how best to design programs to head off the next “preventable tragedy.” Did any past intervention work, at least temporarily? When “service-resistant” seriously mentally ill people spurn initial offers of treatment, how much of an effort is made, on the part of city bureaucrats and nonprofit social-services contractors, to re-engage?
The debate over crisis response concerns how to deal with situations like this one. Many people with a military or law enforcement background are disposed to rush in, to intervene. As illustrated by the contrast between the responses to the March 2023 Nashville school shooting and the May 2022 Uvalde school shooting, a disposition to act quickly can sometimes make all the difference in resolving a crisis effectively. It’s also true, however, that containment can be the sounder approach when dealing with the mentally ill. Some situations (at home) will be more manageable in this way than others (in a public setting). Distinguishing between containable and non-containable crises can require split-second judgements.
Rushing in is not the way of the typical civilian “straphanger.” This detail of the Neely tragedy is unrepresentative. Some New York boosters celebrate the packed subway car—in which financiers, immigrant laborers, college students, Orthodox Jews, and charter school kids all sit cheek by jowl—as testament to the city’s success with diversity. But scenes like that also recall the sentiment of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”: “Good fences make good neighbors.” No one’s attacking anyone, but nor is anyone communicating or even acknowledging another’s existence. In such close quarters, the only way that diversity can work is for everyone to keep his distance from everyone else. As for disorder—someone screaming, say, or wildly gesticulating—you’re generally expected either to endure it or rely on public authorities to handle it.
The Neely tragedy was preventable insofar as it wouldn’t have happened if he had been in treatment, which was not the case, according to his family. This detail also makes his a representative tragedy. His aunt told the New York Post: “The whole system just failed him. He fell through the cracks of the system.” Observations like that can be found in the coverage of practically every mental illness-related death. The Neely case shows that Mayor Eric Adams’s involuntary treatment plan, launched last November, has yet to bring stability to the subways; at the same time, the case demonstrates the need for something like Adams’s plan. Would anything proposed by the mayor’s civil liberties critics have prevented what happened? Again, conveniently for the critics, we will likely never know, due to privacy law and the nonprofit sector’s opacity.
Sadly, this story’s most typical detail may be local progressives’ racially divisive rhetoric about it—describing Neely’s death, for example, as a “lynching.” There’s always a possibility that incidents like these can advance the cause of substantive mental health reform. It’s happened at least once before, and mental-health reform sometimes shows signs of enjoying bipartisan support. Admittedly, it’s a slim possibility. And it’s made even slimmer when racial rhetoric diverts public attention away from the far more constructive focus on untreated serious mental illness.
Marine who put Jordan Neely into chokehold on subway acted in self-defense, lawyers say
The New York City subway rider accused in the chokehold death of a homeless man is a U.S. Marine veteran who was acting to protect himself and other riders and never intended harm, his lawyers said Friday evening.
Daniel J. Penny, 24, has been identified by authorities as the man who allegedly put Jordan Neely in a chokehold following what police said was an altercation Monday on a northbound F train, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
"When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived," lawyers for Penny said in a statement Friday evening. "Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death."
Neely, 30, was unconscious when police arrived at the Broadway and East Houston Street subway station, and pronounced dead at a hospital, New York police said.
He died from "compression of neck (chokehold)" and the manner was homicide, the city chief medical examiner’s office said. Penny was taken into custody Monday, questioned by police and released. No charges have been filed against him.
Lawmakers and others asked why he was not held by law enforcement authorities longer.
On Friday, two sources familiar with the matter said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to present the case to a grand jury for its consideration of possible charges. The timing of when charges might materialize or when the case would otherwise close without prosecution was not clear.
Penny’s lawyers said Neely had a documented history of violent and erratic behavior, the apparent result of ongoing and untreated mental illness.
“For too long, those suffering from mental illness have been treated with indifference,” the Raiser and Kenniff law firm said in its statement on behalf of Penny. “We hope that out of this awful tragedy will come a new commitment by our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”
The incident, partly captured on cellphone video, has sparked a national debate, with people denouncing vigilantism and some politicians demanding officials do more to address homelessness, mental health and violence on subways. Neely, a subway busker who performed dance routines in costume as Michael Jackson, suffered from mental illness, attorneys for his family said.
Race Hustler Al Sharpton Says He Told Alvin Bragg To Prosecute Subway 'Vigilante'
Longtime race hustler Al Sharpton said Thursday that he spoke to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg (D.) about prosecuting the people who restrained a homeless man who was threatening subway passengers, causing the man's death.
"I've talked to the DA's office," Sharpton told MSNBC host Joy Reid. "They must investigate and prosecute to the full extent of the law."
The homeless man, Jordan Neely, on Monday started throwing garbage at subway passengers and making threats, shouting, "I'll hurt anyone on this train." Multiple passengers restrained him, with one putting him in a headlock, which caused Neely's death.
Sharpton and other media personalities falsely claimed that Neely, who has a long criminal history that includes kidnapping and assault, was "impersonating Michael Jackson" before his death.
"To let this go forward in any way is to sanction vigilante-ism [sic] in this city," Sharpton thundered. "This is really giving legitimacy to those that can say, 'I can get up on the subway if somebody's making noise and do what I want to do, including causing their death.'"
Sharpton rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s through racial rabble-rousing, spearheading the Tawana Brawley rape hoax and the anti-Semitic Crown Heights riot. He has since reinvented himself as "one of the most influential figures within the Democratic Party and media establishment," the Washington Free Beacon reported, with Vice President Kamala Harris last month telling him, "I love you."
Other left-wingers have also demanded that New York City officials act against the people who restrained Neely. Far-left congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Wednesday blamed New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) for Neely's death, saying that Adams "cut the very services that could have helped" Neely. New York City comptroller Brad Lander (D.) and Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D.) struck similar notes.
None of the left-wingers mentioned New York City's massive crime spike, which started after progressives in the State Legislature passed far-left bail reform laws.
Bragg, a "criminal justice reform" advocate, may listen to Sharpton's demand to prosecute the passenger who put Neely in a headlock. While police let the passenger go without charges, Bragg's office announced Wednesday that it is investigating the man.
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