Bravery and Bluster on the F Train

By Abe Greenwald

Thursday, May 04, 2023

 

We’ve all seen the clips. Someone on the subway harasses other riders. He threatens violence or gropes a female passenger or screams racist slurs. Perhaps he attacks, physically assaulting a straphanger who’s just trying to get from Point A to Point B. Maybe the guy is high or sick or just depraved. Whatever his issue, he’s turned the train into a crime scene. And no one does a thing to stop him.

 

Except whip out their phones and hit record.

 

And when the clip hits social media, everyone declares outrage over the do-nothing bystanders: How could they just sit there? No one thinks about anyone but themselves. Are there no real men left?

 

Well, there is at least one. On Monday, a 24-year-old Marine riding the F train in Manhattan put a chokehold on 30-year-old Jordan Neely. Tragically, Neely died. He was a homeless Michael Jackson impersonator with reported drug and mental-health problems who had allegedly turned the train into a nightmare.

 

A witness described Neely’s behavior to the New York Post: “He started screaming in an aggressive manner” and “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.” The New York Times weighs in daintily: “That kind of language might have led other passengers to believe that Mr. Neely was going to do something violent, said Todd Spodek, a criminal defense lawyer. ‘I imagine that the collective feeling on that train was that something was happening,’ he said.” According to the Daily News, the two men were in a physical fight when the Marine put Neely in a headlock.

 

I’ve been on a few trains where “something was happening,” and if a Marine had suddenly appeared and taken matters into his own hands, I’d have bought him a steak dinner. Most of us don’t realize how rare physical bravery is because, thankfully, we don’t find ourselves in dangerous situations very often. It’s fun to call out people’s self-preservation instinct on Twitter, but the overwhelming majority of us are do-nothing straphangers.

 

Not so Marines. Their courage is their defining trait. But there’s a reason that the words “the few” are included in the Marine slogan “the few, the proud.” There aren’t many like them. Thank God, this one was on the F train on Monday.

 

But not everyone sees it that way. “This was a lynching,” tweeted socialist New York State Senator Julia Salazar. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, social-justice activist and part-time representative for New York’s 14th district, tweeted, “Jordan Neely was murdered.” Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, offered, “NYC is not Gotham. We must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequence. Or where the killer is justified & cheered.”

 

These are New York politicians who support weak-on-crime policies such as shrinking the police force, eliminating jailtime for various offenses, and bail reform. It’s because of them and others like them that New Yorkers need Marines to keep them safe on the train. Jordan Neely had been arrested 42 times between 2013 and 2021, four times for assault. Newsweek reports: “At the time of his death, Neely had one active warrant for assault, in connection with a 2021 incident.” No, we shouldn’t cheer his death. The city failed him as it has failed so many mentally ill in recent years. But it’s failed the rest of us by leaving dangerous and deranged criminals free to molest and attack at will.

 

On Wednesday, a group gathered at an F-station platform downtown to protest Neely’s death. “You see someone being choked to death on the subway, you f–king punch them!” shouted one protestor. In other words, How could they just sit there? No one thinks about anyone but themselves. Are there no real men left?

 

Lucky for them, they weren’t on that train. Lucky for those in Neely’s car, a Marine was.