Geoff: We return now to the
death of Jordan Neely on the new
York City subway last week.
Daniel penny, the former marine
accused of putting Neely in a
chokehold for several minutes
before he died, surrendered to
police today and was released on
bond.
Witnesses say on may 1, Neely
got on the train acting
erratically.
They say he was shouting at
passengers, but there are no
reports that he physically
attacked anyone.
Then, video shows penny wrapping
his arms around Neely's neck,
forcing him to the ground.
Witnesses say he held him there
until Neely stopped breathing.
Daniel penny's attorney spoke to
reporters today outside the
police station.
Mr. Kenniff: This morning,
Daniel penny surrendered at the
5th precinct at the request of
the district attorney's office.
He did so voluntarily and with
the sort of dignity and
integrity that is characteristic
of his history of service to
this grateful nation.
Geoff: At a separate news
conference, the family of Jordan
Neely said he had a history of
mental illness and posed no
threat.
They demanded the charges be
raised from manslaughter to
murder.
Mr. Edwards: Daniel penny chose,
intentionally chose, a technique
to use that is designed to cut
off air.
That's what he chose.
And he chose to continue to hold
that chokehold minute after
minute, second after second,
until there was no life left in
Jordan Neely.
Geoff: The killing touched off
widespread protests in New York
over policing and a lack of
support from the city for those
who are homeless and mentally
ill.
To unpack all this, I'm joined
by Errol Louis -- he hosts
inside city hall on New York 1
and is a columnist for New York
magazine.
It is good to have you here.
It took two weeks for the
Manhattan D.A. To bring charges
in this case.
Was that because the
investigation took that long, or
was this a response to two weeks
of public pressure?
Errol: It's always hard to say
whether public pressure makes a
difference but I can tell you
for sure the district attorney's
office had a lot of work to do
in this investigation.
That video is compelling, a
compelling piece of evidence,
but not the only piece of
evidence.
They tried to round up every
person they could find on that
subway car and tried to
interview them and get all kinds
of information into evidence and
put it together before making a
decision about whether or not to
move forward.
It wasn't entirely clear that a
crime had been committed or who
had done it or what the
circumstances were.
In some ways they are moving at
a fast clip under the
circumstances.
Geoff: This case brings new
focus to issues of race and
crime and mental illness and
homelessness.
There are people who say Daniel
penny was a good samaritan who
jumped into action when Jordan
Neely was shouting about he was
hungry and tired and did not
want to live anymore and did not
care if you went to jail.
-- Did not care if he went to
jail.
Others say this case represents
the worst form of vigilantism.
How is this dividing the city?
Errol: It's along those lines.
Take the term vigilantism, it's
being thrown around.
Well, that requires the
commission of a crime.
A vigilante is someone who stops
a crime.
Under their own authority rather
than under the law.
But throwing your jacket down on
a train and yelling is not a
crime.
Saying you are hungry and
despairing, thirsty, you don't
care what happens to you, that
is not a crime either.
You could offer them man a
sandwich or a couple of dollars.
You don't necessarily have to
throw him in a chokehold.
That's the kind of conversation
happening in New York right now.
What do we owe to our neighbors,
those among us in distress who
may have an addiction problem or
a mental health or emotional
disability?
Do we owe the more than just
physical force and treating them
like an outcast or criminal or
can we do better?
Geoff: On that point, you wrote
a column for New York magazine
with a headline that stopped me
in my tracks.
The headline was, "Jordan Neely
was already dead."
You meant he was socially dead.
To be black, homeless and
destitute, he was an outcast.
He was an outsider.
Tell me more about that and what
it says about the city's social
safety net.
Errol: A long time ago I took a
course with a man named Orlando
Patterson, who did a masterful
work called "Slavery and social
death."
He surveyed societies across
millennia across the world.
Asia, Europe, Africa,
everywhere.
What he came up with was this
concept of social death.
And it reminded me of how we
treat some people in our own
modern society.
The concept has not gone away.
Which is that certain people are
just considered outside the
circle of care and concern,
they are socially dead.
What happens to them is of
considerably less concern to the
rest of us.
And that is what we do every
time we are walking past
somebody like Jordan Neely, who
is in distress.
There was some graffiti
scribbled near where he died
, saying who killed Jordan
Neely?
To a certain extent, it is all
of us.
Geoff: I spoke to the mayor
about his plan to combat crime
and address homelessness, but is
any of that showing results?
Errol: We have seen some numbers
that have been impressive.
The number of cops was doubled
and I think tripled.
A lot of overtime is being spent
and a lot of cops are in the
subways.
The number of arrests has more
than doubled, the number of
crimes have plummeted.
So yes that response has yielded
, results.
What it has not done is dealt
with people in need, who are
perhaps disorderly, perhaps
homeless.
You cannot arrest somebody, you
cannot arrest your way out of
those problems.
Arresting somebody does not get
them an apartment, it does not
get them addiction treatment or
whatever assistance they might
need.
And that has been the stubborn
remnants of a policing approach
that some people have condemned
as the wrong tool for the
current situation.
You certainly don't want
pickpockets and muggers running
around in the subway plying
their trade but you also don't
necessarily want to apply an
anti-crime policing approach to
people who need help and Jordan
Neely is a perfect example of
that.
He spent six months in rikers
island, he came out and we have
this tragedy that we have been
talking about.
Geoff: What happens next in this
case?
>> Mr. Penny will be back in
court in July.
He is free on bond right now, he
cannot leave the state.
He has surrendered his passport.
He is a suspect in an important
case.
An indictment will likely
follow.
When he comes back in July, he
will have received a lot of
information from the district
attorney about evidence that's
been collected, the
investigation they've conducted,
and he will be in a better
position to assess whether he
wants to change his plea, strike
a deal or go to trial.
Those are pretty much the
choices in front of him.
Geoff: Errol Lewis, thank you
.
Thank you for being with us.
Errol: Thank you.
♪♪