On May 24, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and his retinue traveled to downtown Manhattan to rally alongside Long Island veterans on behalf of 24-year-old Suffolk resident Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran.
On May 1, Penny approached distraught 30-year-old homeless New York City resident and longtime street performer Jordan Neely from behind on a subway car, taking Neely down to the ground in a stranglehold for between seven and 15 minutes, causing Neely’s death, according to a coroner’s autopsy. The last few minutes of the incident were captured on video by an independent journalist who was present, showing Neely falling limp while the train sat with its doors open in Broadway-Lafayette station.
Following Neely’s death, and before a New York District Attorney charged Penny with second-degree manslaughter over the incident, protesters took to the streets in NYC in May, and in one case even briefly stood on subway tracks (reminiscent of a 1987 anti-racism protest in the city); many have since been charged with multiple crimes for their participation in the protests. A few others were arrested for being present, including one passer-by and one photographer.
Meanwhile, reactions to Neely’s death and to Penny’s actions exploded online; for example, a fundraiser for Jordan Neely’s funeral, which was held May 19 in Harlem with a eulogy by Reverend Al Sharpton, raised about $152,000 to date. A fundraiser for Daniel Penny’s legal defense by a former candidate for Manhattan District Attorney, has raised more than $2,800,000 to date, and was promoted on Twitter by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others.
It was this atmosphere that Blakeman and his staff, and the veterans he’d brought along, stepped into on May 24 at Collect Pond Park, adjacent to the Manhattan Criminal Court building and where, incidentally, Georgia Representative Majorie Taylor Greene held a press conference in support of former president Donald Trump on the day that Trump was processed on criminal charges earlier this spring.
Around a dozen protesters were also there to advocate on behalf of Jordan Neely and to disrupt Blakeman’s press conference for Daniel Penny, which had approximately two dozen people. One woman with a megaphone said that the Nassau County politician was only there for political and/or personal reasons, and called on the U.S. Veterans Administration to provide more accessible and comprehensive mental health services for veterans.
After a few demonstrators walked into the open space between two separate corrals for those present, and then later pulled on the metal barricade of their group’s corral, various New York Police Department and New York Courts officers arrested three people.
One of them was Johnny Grima, a recently housed disabled homeless activist, who happened to be present in the train station for Neely’s death, and can be heard on video advising Penny to at least turn Neely, who had expelled bloody mucus moments earlier, onto his side, so that he wouldn’t choke. According to video, Penny did so, picked up his baseball cap that had fallen off, stood up, and replaced the hat. Unfortunately for all present, it was too late.
