The Daniel Penny Trial
...and three million dollars
A year and a half ago on May 1st, 2023, Jordan Neely was choked to death by Daniel Penny on a NYC subway. There doesn’t seem to be any real disagreement as to the raw, visible facts. For several minutes, Neely, a 30 year-old street performer impersonating Michael Jackson, had been acting erratically and in what nearby people felt was a threatening manner. “I don't have food, I don't have a drink, I'm fed up. I don't mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I'm ready to die.” Jordan was known to city services. He’d been mentally ill since his Mom was murdered in 2007 and her body ‘customized’ to fit into a suitcase.
I can imagine that Neely, although of slight build, seemed threatening to those closest to him in the subway car. We live in a violent time and as a friend of mine who specializes in various forms of martial arts says, “Once that door of violence or potential violence is opened, you have no idea what is going to come through it.” So yeah, scary. Best to nip it in the bud before it escalates.
So I understand and even respect Danial Penny taking him down before things escalated to who-knows-where? But then it gets complicated. Neely died. He was Black. Penny’s White. So of course the incident quickly moved into the Great American Boxing Ring of Race. Penny was eventually arrested on charges of manslaughter. His trial started last week.
Penny, 24, was taught this chokehold in the Marine Corps. The media presents it as taught by the Marine Corps as being non-fatal. Except Neely died. I was also taught this chokehold in the Marines Corps. Wrap your arm around your target’s neck from behind and make a fist; grab that fist with your free hand and pull to exert more pressure. Take your target to the ground and then lean into the back of their head to exert even more pressure. Do this until your target passes out – or in boot camp – taps out. Or in Jordan Neely’s case, dies. We were never told that this hold was non-fatal. It sure seemed to me meant to kill my opponent.
Penny held this hold for 15 minutes. That’s a very long time. He continued to apply pressure even after Jordan began to flail. After he went limp. Even after bystanders warned him that he was killing Jordan.
A friend of mine in federal law enforcement posited that Jordan kinda killed himself by a method known as excited delirium that I wrote about a year ago when Jordan Neely was in the news. Except that excited delirium isn’t even a thing and in my home state of Colorado it can no longer be claimed as the cause of death. As it happens, people die from excited delirium almost exclusively while they are being chocked by police. The short version of death by excited delirium is that the victim freaks out so badly by being choked rendering them unable to breathe that they up needlessly dying.
Daryl Gates, LAPD Chief of Police during the Rodney King beating would have said Jordan died because, well, that’s just what Black people do when you choke them. “We may be finding that in some blacks when the chock hold is applied, the veins and arteries do not open up as fast as they do in normal people.” ‘Normal’ people would be ‘white’ folks.
Celebrated Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall alarmed about Black men being choked to death also wrote about it in 1983: “Although the city (of Los Angelos) instructs its officers that use of a chokehold does not constitute deadly force, since 1975 no less than 16 persons have died following the use of a chokehold by an LAPD police officer. Twelve have been Negro males…It is undisputed that chokeholds pose a high and unpredictable risk of serious injury or death. Chokeholds are intended to bring a subject under control by causing pain and rendering him unconscious. Depending on the position of the officer's arm and the force applied, the victim's voluntary or involuntary reaction, and his state of health, an officer may inadvertently crush the victim's larynx, trachea, or hyoid. The result may be death caused by either cardiac arrest or asphyxiation. An LAPD officer described the reaction of a person to being choked as "do[ing] the chicken," in reference apparently to the reactions of a chicken when its neck is wrung. The victim experiences extreme pain. His face turns blue as he is deprived of oxygen, he goes into spasmodic convulsions, his eyes roll back, his body wriggles, his feet kick up and down, and his arms move about wildly.” All things that Penny didn’t notice.
Maybe Mr. Penny actually didn’t notice Jordan doing the funky chicken as he died. But really, this newsletter is less about the manner of Jordan’s violent death, as it is about the over three million dollars that has been donated to Penny’s defense fund that Penny didn’t even need to ask for, the supportive comments he has received, and what all that says about our country.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis called Penny a “Good Samaritan” for killing Jordan. “We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine... America’s got his back.”
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz referred to Penny as a hero for killing Jordan Neely. “‘Subway Superman Daniel Penny is a HERO. Today, I will personally be donating to his legal defense fund on GiveSendGo.”
I could ramble on, but you know where I’m going here. Try to imagine the roles racially reversed. Imagine Matt Gaetz or Ron DeSantis referring to a Black man who had killed a White man on a Subway who was acting weird and aggressive but who had not actually threatened anyone nor focused his ire on any person, as a hero...or superman…or pledged money and support.
Try to imagine that Black man receiving $3,000,000 in support.
Try to imagine an America without it’s thing with race.
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Sources;
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/14/nyregion/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-conservative.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jordan_Neely
https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/03/26/what-is-excited-delirium/