John,
Like many of you, I’m horrified by the death of Jordan Neely.
We cannot become a city where it’s ok to choke someone to death for experiencing a mental health crisis.
And we cannot become a city where killing another human being is justified and cheered. NYC is not Gotham.
I hope that this can be a wake up call for more compassion and common sense – for building out the continuum of mental health care and affordable housing that Jordan needed, but that our systems failed to provide.
We’ll be talking to our neighbors and community members about bystander intervention, transforming public safety, and investing in the services that could have saved Jordan Neely.
Some of the press coverage has highlighted Jordan’s arrest record as if it justifies killing him. It should not need to be said that Jordan did not deserve to be choked to death. But I guess it is.
Let’s be clear: Jordan deserved to live. He deserved care. And his struggle with hunger, homelessness, and mental health is evidence that the arrests that cycled him in and out of Rikers did nothing to make him, or anyone around him, safer.
We’ve all been in subway cars with folks who are struggling, who appear homeless or mentally-ill, and whose actions can sometimes make us anxious. It can be uncomfortable – and it should prompt action to improve our systems of care, health, and safety. But it really should go without saying that it’s not a license to kill.
So what do we do next? Do we go down the spiral of vigilantism? Or do we rise to the responsibility to to build a city where all New Yorkers are safe and healthy?
We failed Jordan Neely. Let’s not keep failing each other.
Brad
