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Most people in the United States have most likely never been on a subway train. Only ten transit authorities in the United States have underground systems. Does it count if you rode the subway systems in New York City during the Rudy Giuliani years? They were so normal. This came to mind because the Left is still having paroxysms of outrage over the death of rapid transit menace Jordan Neely last week. If you need a background primer on Neely, our Kim has all the details and you can read them here. You know when AOC is involved, it’s going to be a goat rodeo.
The Left is in such a blitz to begin a race war that it will leave out all of the inconvenient facts about what happened between the inactive Marine Daniel Penny and the schizophrenic Jordan Neely. The Free Beacon has a nice summary:
New York City councilwoman Tiffany Cabán announced that “people experiencing homelessness, mental illness, hunger, and frustration need and deserve compassion and trauma-informed care” rather than “force.”
Set aside the fact that these avatars of progressivism have had precious little to say about the 27 others killed in New York City’s subways over the past three years, as the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas points out.
More importantly, Neely’s death is a direct result of the Left’s approach to mental illness and criminal justice. The Left’s embrace, over the past five decades, of deinstitutionalization, and its opposition to compulsory treatment for mental illness, have led to the creation of a permanent mentally ill homeless population.
And, since Floyd’s death in May of 2020, progressives in state legislatures, working hand in hand with left-wing district attorneys like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, have done away with cash bail for all but the most violent crimes, ordered prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for loads of criminals, and made a litany of offenses, such as armed robbery and drug dealing, ineligible for prison sentences.
In a functioning city with a functioning subway system, Neely, who had had dozens of brushes with law enforcement and a warrant out for his arrest for the assault of a 67-year-old woman, would not have been on that train striking fear into his fellow citizens.
In the last two years alone, Neely had punched two people outside of subway stations. Until the Left restores order to our cities, citizens like Penny will feel compelled to step into the breach. Surely the caterwauling from AOC is intended to deter decent citizens from intervening where the police no longer can and the government no longer will. The thin blue line once stood between civilization and anarchy. Now it’s Daniel Penny and men like him.
Two years ago, when he was running for Mayor, Eric Adams vowed to increase police for the subway by another 250 officers. That didn’t happen and now Adams is under attack for both policing and mental illness issues:
Adams, a former police officer and former state lawmaker who ran on a tough-on-crime platform during his successful 2021 mayoral bid, came into office seeking to overhaul the city’s approach to homelessness and public safety. Last year, he laid out a plan to remove homeless individuals from the subway and directed law enforcement and emergency medical workers to involuntarily hospitalize individuals deemed to be in “psychiatric crisis.”
Such measures were applauded by many who felt that the status quo in approaching quality-of-life issues in New York City wasn’t working, but some felt the steps — which included sweeps of homeless encampments — went too far and infringed on the rights of homeless individuals who were distrustful of staying in the city’s shelters and had no other recourse for housing.
Neely’s death has now placed an even brighter spotlight on Adams’ policies regarding homelessness, which the mayor defended during a press conference last Thursday.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an even more moronic statement than her usual derpitude:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called for justice in the case of a Marine veteran accused of putting a homeless man in a chokehold on a New York City subway train just before he died.
Hochul commented on the death of Jordan Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator with a long criminal history, this week, saying his family deserved justice in the subway killing.
“I do want to acknowledge how horrific it was to view a video of Jordan Neely being killed for being a passenger on our subway trains,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “I’m really pleased that the district attorney is looking into this matter. As I said, there had to be consequences, and so we’ll see how this unfolds.”
What’s really horrific was the people that were physically harmed by Jordan Neely. AND, the people whose mental health was harmed by watching Neely take a public dump. Warning, people with sensitive stomachs should not watch this this tweet:
Here is your new lord and savior Jordan Neely taking a shit and walking around with his cock out.
Mental health services failed him and he died as a result.
You can’t blame someone for restraining a psycho who just threatened to murder an entire subway car full of people. pic.twitter.com/Le1YfKc9DI
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) May 6, 2023
This is a quality of life issue that is at the heart of our beautiful Constitution. From the Justice Department:
Police departments do not write laws; they are tasked with the responsibility of enforcing laws that are
enacted by elected officials in the legislature and that are interpreted by the courts. Enforcing laws is
just one of many different roles of the police. Other important roles include working with communities to
prevent crimes and solve various “quality of life” problems, maintaining order, and conducting
investigations.
Constitutional Policing
Police officials are responsible for performing their various roles and responsibilities in a way that
protects everyone’s constitutional rights. At its most basic level, constitutional policing can be described
as “legal policing.” This means that policing must be conducted in accordance with the parameters set
by the U.S. Constitution, state constitutions, and the many court decisions that have defined in greater
detail what the text of the Constitution means in terms of the everyday practices of policing.
Remember the line from the Free Beacon above about the thin blue line and men like Daniel Penny? He choked Jordan Neely out and with the help of other passengers put Neely in the recovery position and got him aid.
In a reasonable world, Daniel Penny would get a thank you and the key to the city. Instead he may be charged and the Marine Corps outed him to the press:
Oh, did the United States Marine Corps dox Daniel Penny to the media? Semper fi! pic.twitter.com/TVSAfhWber
— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) May 6, 2023
Semper what?
Featured Image: ChrisGoldNY/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons
Scott says: Good post Toni, but seems there’s a glitch and the info was posted multiple times.
Toni Williams says: Scott- TY trying to fix. TW
John C. says: As Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit has pointed out numerous times, one of the primary functions of Law Enforcement is to protect CRIMINALS from their VICTIMS. The Police will not treat a mugging as a capital crime, but an intended victim very likely will, and administer it on the spot.
Cameron says: The Left’s embrace, over the past five decades, of deinstitutionalization, and its opposition to compulsory treatment for mental illness
Which is why transgenderism is on the rise.
But as for Neely, he was a threat to others. That threat had to be stopped. And since New York wasn’t going to do it, other people stepped in.
GWB says: Correction: “since the state and city of New York wasn’t going to do it…”
New York itself did step up and do it, in terms of how the Founders thought and wrote.
Cameron says: I was referring to the local and state government of New York, not the people.
GWB says: Yes. Just making the distinction as I think the Founders would have had it. To make your point with more contrast.
Micha Elyi says: I disagree. If deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill caused “transgenderism on the rise” then the big spike upward of the number of people claiming to be transgender would have happened five decades ago, not in this century. Also Cameron, your deinstitutionalization guess fails to explain why transgenderism has recently become a fad among females.
As for Neely, if the City of New York and the State of New York choose to send that threat to others back out onto the street then what is the use of them? What is the basis of their claim on the population’s respect?
GWB says: The thin blue line once stood between civilization and anarchy.
And here is one of my (screed warning) pet peeves. If the “thin blue line” is standing between you and chaos in a free Republic you’ve already lost. It is the everyday citizen who is supposed to hold the power to govern society. We merely delegate that authority to a group of individuals to do full-time what is each and every citizen’s responsibility. When that turns from a delegation of the people’s authority into an abdication of the citizen’s responsibility and authority, the people have become sheep, no longer suitable for freedom or a republic. The police should be disposable as far as society is concerned – replaceable at a moment’s notice with other citizens doing full-time what is required of the citizenry to maintain public order and defend the defenseless. One of the elements of a militia was keeping the peace – a “posse” in the western parlance is nothing more than an exercise of the militia. And it’s a good and proper exercise of it – so long as the boundaries are observed: that a suspected criminal receive due process as appropriate to the crimes committed.
And, particularly in places where the gov’t has abdicated its responsibilities as representatives of the people in governance, then a recapture of that authority is necessary to the functioning of society.
A return to those concepts is absolutely necessary if we are to have a Free Republic once again.
Cameron says: And, particularly in places where the gov’t has abdicated its responsibilities as representatives of the people in governance
That’s the key phrase. If the government is not going to do its job then they as a whole have no right to complain when other people step in.
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