News/Commentary

Frustrations mount as NYC protesters block subway tracks in call for ‘justice’ over violent vagrant’s death

May 7, 2023 | | Print Article

Protesters angry over the death of violent homeless man Jordan Neely reportedly caused a hell of a lot of problems for New York City’s subway system on Saturday.

It started with the protesters congregating in Union Square and then entering the 63rd Street-Lexington Avenue subway station, according to local station WABC.

“Many were escorted out of the station as the situation got tense and heated. Police were called to the platform as some of the demonstrators jumped onto the subway tracks, blocking F and Q trains,” the station reported Sunday.

A NYC subway worker said the protesters could have electrocuted themselves when they’d jumped onto the subway tracks.

According to photojournalist Rebecca Brannon, who recorded all this content, some of the protesters also ran down the tunnels, disrupting subway traffic for hours.

As of 8:50 pm Saturday evening, the subways were “still disrupted and backed up all over.”

The protesters’ behavior reportedly angered subway passengers, some of whom were black like Neely.

Multiple arrests were made during the brouhaha.

The crowd reportedly eventually dispersed from the platform but reconvened somewhere above ground, where they proceeded to cause more problems, thus resulting in more arrests.

As previously reported, Neely, a homeless man previously known for being a freestyle Michael Jackson impersonator, died Monday after Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old active Marine, put him in a chokehold.

According to various reports, the chokehold was prompted by Neely yelling at passengers, making threats, and acting erratically. Indeed, according to the New York Post, a bevy of 911 calls were made right before Penny put Neely in a chokehold.

Penny’s critics — i.e., the protesters demanding his arrest and prosecution — say he should have either minded his own business or done something else other than put Neely in a chokehold.

But his defenders say he had no other choice and was, in fact, a hero for taking action and protecting the other passengers. As proof of why he was in the right, Penny’s defenders point to Neely’s very sordid past.

“Neely was arrested 42 times across the last decade, with his most recent bust in November 2021 for slugging a 67-year-old female stranger in the face as she exited a subway station in the East Village,” according to the New York Daily News.

“The senior citizen suffered a broken nose and fractured orbital bone when she was knocked to the sidewalk, along with swelling and ‘substantial’ head pain after hitting the ground,” the Daily News notes.

Neely reportedly pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to 15 months in a program that, if completed, would have permitted him to essentially downgrade the charge to a misdemeanor assault and also discharge the original charge.

“But a warrant was issued for his arrest on Feb. 23, when he skipped a court compliance court date where a judge was to be updated on whether he was meeting all the requirements of the program,” according to the Daily Mail.

But it gets worse. He was also arrested in June 2019 for punching a 64-year-old man in the face during a fight in a subway station, and he was arrested in August 2025 for attempting to kidnap a 7-year-old girl.

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Vivek Saxena
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