NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) — Friends, family members and civil rights leaders gathered at a Harlem church on Friday to mourn Jordan Neely, whose chokehold death in the subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety.
Mourners, including members of Neely's family, streamed into the church Friday morning for the 11 a.m. funeral service, which came a week after a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran was charged in Neely's death.
Neely's eulogy was delivered by the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network is headquartered in Harlem.
During his eulogy, Sharpton called for justice in the case and said society needs to change the way it treats people who are dealing with homelessness and mental illness. He said an arrest would have likely come sooner if the victim were white and the suspect Black.
"Yes, we're angry, because we're at another funeral we shouldn't have had to be at," Sharpton said from the lectern. "Yes, we're angry, because you see our children as objects rather than human. Yes, we're angry, because you keep choking us to death rather than leaving us living and breathing and building us up. And we won't stop until we change this nation. We won't stop until we change this city."
"We can't live in a city where you can choke me to death with no provocation, no weapon, no threat, and you go home and sleep in your bed while my family gotta put me in a cemetery," the reverend said. "There must be equal justice under the law."
At one point, audience members chanted, "No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!"
Sharpton noted that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, called Penny a “good Samaritan” last week and shared a fundraising link for Penny's legal defense.
Sharpton said the Biblical parable of the good Samaritan is about coming to the aid of someone in need.
“A good Samaritan helps those in trouble,” Sharpton said. “They don’t choke him out.”
Sharpton added, “What happened to Jordan was a crime and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves.”
The service was presided over by the Rev. Dr. Johnnie Green, a senior pastor who has a long link with Neely's family. He delivered the eulogy for Neely's mother after she was murdered by her boyfriend in 2007.
"We shouldn’t be here today," Green told 1010 WINS before the funeral. "I believe this was an overzealous act on the part of the Marine who caused the death. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide."
A former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and homelessness in recent years, Neely died May 1 when a fellow subway rider pinned him to the floor of an F train in a chokehold that lasted several minutes.
The fatal struggle at the Broadway–Lafayette Street station in SoHo was recorded on video by an onlooker who said Neely had been yelling at other passengers as he begged for money, but hadn’t attacked anyone.
Last Friday the man who pinned and choked Neely, Daniel Penny, was charged with manslaughter by the Manhattan district attorney. Penny's lawyers say he was acting to protect himself and other passengers after Neely made threatening statements. He was released on bail.
The arrest polarized New Yorkers and people beyond, with some saying Penny, who is white, was too quick to use deadly force on a Black man who posed no real threat, and others saying the Marine veteran was trying to protect people on the train and shouldn't be punished.
While Neely had wrestled with disruptive behavior — he had been arrested many times and pleaded guilty this year to assaulting a stranger — friends and relatives have said they don't believe he would have harmed anyone if Penny had just left him alone.
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