NYC protesters demand justice, clash with police while blocking subway tracks

Protests have erupted in New York City after Jordan Neely, a man experiencing homelessness, was choked to death by a Marine veteran. The protesters crammed into a subway station and stood on the tracks in solidarity to demand change.

“No justice, no peace!” protesters are heard repeated yelling in video. “Abolish the police.”

The dozens of protesters gathered in the 63rd Street-Lexington Avenue subway station to protest Neely’s death and can be seen in videos and images jumping into the tracks and demanding justice for Neely, Saturday, May 6.

“What do we do?” a protester is heard yelling into a microphone. “Stand up, fight back!”

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The video depicted the protesters blocking an oncoming Q train attempting to arrive at the subway station. 

“You can’t stop a revolution,” others are heard chanting. “Daniel Penny’s got to go.”

Eventually, police forced protesters off the tracks, allowing the train to roll into the station. However, demonstrators continued to block the train. One video captured an interaction between a frustrated straphanger who was begging police to alow him, and others, to disembark the train as protesters continued to block the door.

“Take another train,” a protester is heard yelling at the passenger. 

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“They’re lynching us out here,” another repeatedly says. 

Chaos continued as police began forcing people out of the subway station. 

Several protestors became aggressive and began fighting officers, requiring the NYPD to tackle several protestors to the ground and execute arrests.

The violent clashes continued on the street level where protestors blocked a roadway intersection.

One protestor is heard yelling while being arrested, “I can’t breathe,” a nod to the violent arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2022.

The protester’s outcry comes after a 24-year-old U.S. Marine veteran and college student, Daniel James Penny, held 30-year-old Neely in a fatal chokehold following what police say was an altercation on Monday, May, 1 on a northbound F train.

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Neely was reportedly having a mental episode on the subway route, yelling and pacing back and forth, when Penny interjected, tackled him to the ground and put him in a chokehold, according to witnesses and police.  

The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by compression of the neck from the chokehold. No arrests have been made following the incident.

Lawyers for Penny said in a statement that their client “never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”

“When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived,” attorneys with Raiser&Kenniff said.

The lawyers relayed Penny’s condolences to those close to Neely. The statement ended with a call for elected officials to address “the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”