Gravestanding

Jordan Neely, the technical details of what happened, a full system failure, and those who profit from it

Writer’s Note: The “Why is Portland so liberal?” series is going to be completed soon. We’ve gotten to the point where I want to nail down the events that transpire from the mid-60s on in a truly authoritative manner. As such I will be much more meticulous in writing the rest of the series.

Unfortunately, this week I have something depressing to pour over. Jordan Neely’s death was completely preventable and tragic. Born out of a complete and total systemic failure. From the USA’s woeful modern approach to mental health, the NYPD's current soft touch approach, continuing all the way to the USMC (United States Marine Corps) MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program). If life is a game of inches, death is a game of decisions.

WHAT HAPPENED?

A technical breakdown CONTENT WARNING: VIOLENCE LEADING TO DEATH

So, how did Jordan Neely end up here and what actually is here?

Insofar as I understand Jordan Neely became very aggressive after being very vocal on the F train. This was from a witness who is a “amateur journalist”

“He starts to make a speech,” freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez said in Spanish during an interview Tuesday, referring to the disturbed man.

“He started screaming in an aggressive manner,” Vazquez told The Post. “He said he had no food, he had no drink, that he was tired and doesn’t care if he goes to jail. He started screaming all these things, took off his jacket, a black jacket that he had, and threw it on the ground.”

This is not good behavior. Things escalate, and our former marine, Daniel Penny, decides to get involved. He is not alone in this, he is assisted in restraining Jordan by 2 other people. Both of whom, insofar as I understand are strangers. Perhaps they frequent the same commute route and have seen each other previously but in a any meaningful sense are strangers. See the below picture

As you can tell Jordan Neely is alive at this point. his arms are flexed muscle groups are engaged. If you see the video his eyes are open he is moving.

Daniel Penny has engaged in what is called a Rear Naked Choke. In Portugese often called the Mata Leão (loosely translates to “Lion Killer”). He has his two feet engaged, on Neely’s lower body allowing Penny to leverage the most power and control over Neely.

And then this goes on, and on, and on

Notice here one of the other members has implemented a hold called a Key lock on Neely’s right arm

And on until…

Accounts say this all took 15 minutes.

A couple of things to highlight here that media has distorted

1. Nobody involved knew about Neely’s prior criminal issues at the time of the event.

2. His mental health issues while apparent, not fully advertise

3. Nobody knew if he was armed or not

4. 3 people, strangers, came to the conclusion that restraint was necessary

5. 15 minutes to respond.

6. The coroner’s exam states he was killed via “Compression of Neck” Aka a chokehold

THE FAILURES

Failure 1

While it is true that Daniel Penny made the decision to implement the chokehold, he may have made some other decisions had MCMAP trained him better. Firstly, the RNC (aforementioned rear naked choke) is extremely powerful. It is probably the fastest way to kill someone without using a weapon. A fact I suspect he never received training on. Secondly, in MCMAP they train to a tap out. Implementing the choke as a non-lethal option where this implementation is to be used continuously as a physical control is not taught. Why? Because its incredibly dangerous to hold a choke for a prolonged period. Even in a healthy adult possible outcomes include strokes, blood clots, multiple cervical traumas. The RNC is banned by most police forces (Erik Garner) precisely for this reason: it is very dangerous as a continuous form of physical restraint. But none of this is taught. As Matt Larsen, who is basically the soldier who has created modern military hand-to-hand combat training has stated multiple times in interviews and in-person with me “The Military treats combatives like a check box. We do the bare minimum everywhere to check the box. This leaves soldiers in the position of knowing something, just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be effective.”

For those craving an example of another option for Daniel Penny to transition to from the RNC: grab the right wrist with your left (choking) hand and form what’s called the Gift Wrap

It’s not taught at MCMAP, but it’s incredibly powerful control without the choking effect. Something he was most certainly not taught.

Failure 2

By all accounts the NYC subway has become a withered, fallen shell of what it once was a few years ago. Long-time NYC residents describe it as having reverted back to the 1970s. Not a seminal decade. Apparently as one descends into the subway system the wafting smells of feces and urine greet the nose, accompanied by the auditory experience of screams and cries.

I suppose many NYC residents ponder if the signage should reflect a little Dante for the modern age: moderate hope for ye who enter here?

The conditions of the system are rife with stryfe. Limited to no deterrence. “Cops are just standing around, holding their dicks.” - one NYC resident.

Conditions like these normalize the nightmare. Adding fuel to it are anxiety bombs such as potentially being thrown onto the tracks. And not the first time that week. Now, while I can appreciate the finer points of a circle jerk, I think we can agree that its results are insufficient .

Failure 3

New York is not alone in its ineptitude when contending with mental health. However, if you’re going to run around letting people use Narcan, then perhaps those of the liberty state of mind may be willing to loosen some of the severe restrictions regarding counselors and their ability to prescribe drugs. This is more of a national failure. Though you’d think that with this much of a problem there would be a corresponding explosion in an offering of solutions.

By all accounts Jordan Neely was an aggressive product of this failure. And it is difficult to ascribe to Neely some great malevolence. He wasn’t arriving at a school with a semi-auto rifle, a delusion, and an urge to kill. He was doing what he’d been doing for years at this point: being an unstable person looking for some food or water.

Failure 4

15 minutes…. A lot can go wrong in 15 minutes. If NYC police officers really are in the subways, 15 minutes to get there is a hard pill to swallow. Nashville police toe tagged a school shooter in 15 minutes with nobody that close at the time of the call.

Had police been on the scene in 5-7 minutes, I would not be writing about any of this.

Recap

So, we have a poorly trained Marine, presumably he’d been around in NYC long enough to identify abnormal levels of insanity as opposed to normal levels in the dystopian hellscape that is the current NYC subway system meeting with one of its denizens in a polarized and anxious environment. What could go wrong?

And NYC compensates for this event with a 15 minute response time.

And the Mob goes wild

I want to be clear: I think this entire thing is one great big mess. I don’t particularly blame Daniel Penny. He was not alone in his thinking that Jordan Neely was acting abnormally aggressive even by abnormal standards. He had every reason to think that things were going to get much worse. And as Portland proved, it can get much worse. He used the incomplete tool set he was given in an attempt to protect others that ended tragically.

But, that certainly won’t stop our arbiters of righteous justice from passing judgment

Indeed the response to this is precisely the kind of amateur, sophomoric thinking that pervades American society. Why take avenues to achieve real and lasting change when one can be applauded for engaging in spectacles astounding only for their ignorance.

An example

Now, you could describe Daniel Penny’s actions as killing a man who hadn’t actually done anything that actually had hurt anyone yet. This sentence would be correct. However, “Daniel Penny lynched Jordan Neely!” Is an absurdity to the point of obscenity. In no realm did Daniel Penny observe Jordan Neely, target Jordan Neely, gather up his friends to kill Jordan Neely.

Indeed, this lot below looks much closer to an actual mob bent on mob justice then Daniel Penny ever did.

But, they frame it as justice. Justice indeed.

It’s not for me to tell you if Daniel Penny is guilty of a crime. We have laws and a process to adjudicate this event under those laws that will arrive at some conclusion. I certainly hope that cooler heads prevail and a better path is born out of this tragedy.

I would caution our current arbiters of justice pictured above about the overall situation they’ve created. However, they have much more serious representatives in Congress to directly address:

What AOC is intimating is that a group of citizens who attempts to protect themselves and others from an aggressive mentally ill man do not have the authority to act and are murderers. This same person advocates for the deprivation of state authority in the defund the police movement. Raising the question: who gets the authority to utilize coercion in an environment?

It’s not an idle question. The choices are binary: individuals using individual judgment or state authorities who have to use some kind of law. There is no third option that will be tolerated. People will move. People, like Daniel Penny, will react in ways that you would prefer they not. Chaos will give way to order.

AOC knows this. She knows all of this. She is gravestanding on Jordan Neely to help propagate her own agenda. AOC makes no mention of mental illness, of dangerous behavior. All AOC wants to highlight is the economic difficulties of living in NYC and income inequality. With no solutions and contrived disgust.

Slowly but surely building up her own mob to ride into a US Senate seat from the state of New York.

What could go wrong from there?