Everybody seems to be walking around thinking they have impunity

 

Jeffrey St. Clair

A white NYC subway rider strangled to death an unhoused black man named Jordan Neely by gripping his neck in a chokehold for nearly fifteen minutes. Most of the other subway riders watched passively as Neely flailed his arms to get loose and struggled futilely for breath. (One subway rider actually helped hold Neely down, until he was asphyxiated into unconsciousness.) The killer, who walked out of the police station without being charged, was a former US Marine, his victim a mentally-distressed man, who used to entertain people for years as a street dancer, often impersonating Michael Jackson.

 

+ The killing reminded many people of the subway vigilante Bernard Goetz. But you can’t whitewash this homicide as an act of vigilante justice. Jordan Neely didn’t attack or threaten to assault anyone. At worst, he was having a bad day, an episode of despair, where he was trying to tell anyone who would listen that he was tired, hungry and thirsty. Apparently, this expression of existential anguish was all it took to ignite the murderous resentment of the white ex-Marine. He didn’t want to hear it. Apparently, this is the way white men fight, after all, Tucker.

 

Everyone seems to be walking around now feeling they have the impunity of cops or Navy SEALS, convinced that they can kill someone for ringing their doorbell, pulling into their driveway, approaching their car or telling them something they don’t want to hear. But under New York law (Penal Law 35), in theory at least, the use of deadly force is only justifiable if the perpetrator reasonably believes deadly force is being used or is about to be used against him or a third party. We’ll see how closely prosecutors follow that simple and clear statute…

 

+ The ex-Marine was by far the most dangerous and unstable person on that subway car, which may be why no one had the guts to intervene, even to save Neely’s life.