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May 4, 2023

New Yorkers Demand Justice for Unhoused Subway Performer Who Was Killed by Another Passenger
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Protesters and mourners gathered on a subway platform in lower Manhattan
Wednesday, calling for justice for Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused
subway rider and Black man who was choked to death Monday while he was
suffering an apparent mental health crisis. Neely was a busker well
known for his impersonations of Michael Jackson. He was reportedly
yelling and complaining of hunger and thirst but had not physically
attacked anyone before three other passengers tackled him on the floor
of the train. An unnamed former marine held Neely in a chokehold. His
death has been ruled a homicide and likened to a lynching. This is a
protester speaking yesterday from the Broadway-Lafayette subway station.

Protester: "A lot of us are closer to homelessness than we are to being
millionaires. And so, to see someone be treated like that as a homeless
person is scary for people who are unhoused or scary for people who are
at risk of being homeless, whose rent is overdue, whose rent is being
increased, whose shelter is the next step. So, it's really, really scary
in a city that is going through a housing crisis to see homeless people
being murdered."



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