Fatal Subway Chokehold of Jordan Neely Renews Calls for Affordable NYC Rent & Support for Unhoused

We continue our look at calls for justice for Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man who was choked to death on a subway car last week by another passenger. Jordan Neely was crying out that he was hungry, when he was fatally attacked on the train by a 24-year-old former marine named Daniel Penny. Penny was interviewed by police detectives but has not been arrested. Before he fell on hard times, Neely was well known to New Yorkers and tourists as a talented Michael Jackson impersonator. We speak with Jawanza Williams, the director of organizing at VOCAL-New York, about the crisis facing the city’s growing unhoused population, the need for affordable rent, opposition to Mayor Eric Adams’s austerity budget, and calls for Governor Kathy Hochul to stop blocking progressive policy in Albany. We also speak with Lorenzo Laroc, who knew Jordan Neely for 20 years when they were both buskers in the New York City subway system. “What was ironic is that those trains are where he made a living,” said Laroc. “It’s like getting killed at your jobsite.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! Audio and was authored by Democracy Now!.